CAN SKIP FLIP A SWITCH FOR WATER?

4 months ago at a Council meeting Commissioner Scirocco said that if anyone wanted to go with him he could flip a switch and start the pumps at Bog Meadow and pump all the water we need into Loughberry Lake.  Well why haven’t you flipped that switch Skip?  The lake level is down 27” as of Friday the 10^th and I haven’t seen it this low in 50 years.  We need water and we need it now.  You can see where the minimum level should be which is the black strip above the top of the cement block.

Skip, say it isn’t true, you are failing the taxpayers at every turn.  What gives?

The biggest bane of Skip’s tenure is the Bonacio and 2 other developers “give back of almost a million dollars, $1,000,000.00, 1 million smackers.  Skip said he really didn’t know that Sonny got that much in waivers but then said that Sonny does work and/or upgrades for the City at no cost.  However, we have found out by City Hall employees that a meeting was held about giving these waivers to Bonacio, and sitting around that table was none other than Skip DPW Commissioner, Stanley Boardman, Donna Buckley (Skips right hand girl), Barbara, Sonny Bonacio and Bill Benton (Sonny is the developer and also a partner with Benton in B&B Plumbing).  Well, some insiders say that most of the work completed was in the application and needed to be done for the large projects to be given the green light.  Sonny first needed to install 12” water mains which he did not do and that is a requirement of step 1 in getting a waiver.  Bonacio has never fixed (resurfaced the Division section) of road after he tore it up for various lines as called for in the applications.  In this case the City can do the job and get paid by Bonacio so the DPW workers have jobs to do but we saw what they do with their time.

The next item from the inside is that Skip has been planning for about a year to put in a new sewer line down Pinewood Ave. (your street).  I hope this doesn’t tie in with any Bonacio deals.

Skip is now a legend with his own cartoon on the editorial page of Sunday’s Daily Gazette.  The cartoon shows a man sitting at home in his chair and saying “Scirocco says the ordinance needs updating to reduce the requirements then he says, Seems to me it needs updating to increase the FEES.  How true.  The Commissioner shouldn’t go deeper into a developers wish for large waiver fees, the City should be getting more money from them in hookup fees.

In the past Skip had 3 people who rode from parking garage to parking garage in a City truck to clean them.  Skip has reduced the staff to one female (Connie) who with no truck has to walk from parking  garage to parking garage and clean them by herself.  She starts out the day at the Spring St. garage, then walks to the Woodlawn Ave. Garage, then onto the garage behind the new Adirondack Building, the a quick walk to clean the Algonquin lot.  Now get this, she cleans all the garages and the lot with the tools Skip gives her and I’m not joking people, a BROOM & DUST PAN.

News flash - Skip and Donna Buckley (Acting Deputy Commissioner and Chauffeur), slavery was eliminated by Abraham Lincoln or haven’t you heard yet?

Marilyn Rivers has her own problems which she is letting go by the board which in effect puts all citizens in a potential large problem which I will mention later.  First of all, every City vehicle has to have markings that that vehicle is the property of the City.  DPW vehicles except 2 have the orange decal with lettering noting the words Saratoga Springs among others.  Some of the vehicles have the same logo but in blue.  Police cars are marked Saratoga Springs as are Fire Trucks.  The only two other than unmarked Police cars are the vehicles that belong to Skip and Tim Cogan.  The question Marilyn is why, oh why? 

The next item has been brought to Marilyn’s attention for months now with no action taken.  The pictures below will tell the story.  This of course is at the Marion Ave. Mobile station.  The station’s vehicles, among them quite a few U-Haul trucks & vans sit on City property and create a liability problem.  They sit along the building which is the future home of the DPW’s paint shop and if the City isn’t charging the owner for parking and hasn’t  got a certificate of insurance then you aren’t doing your job Marilyn and it may be time for you to step down.  Is this another case of a favorite son getting a break from the City?

The gas line is one of many and sits on the roadsides with no protection around them.  What if a car goes off the road and smashes into one?  If this isn't a City problem then contact the company whose has the responsibility to do so.

There is also liability problems you are failing to take action on.  There are a few large steel plates sitting on Broadway, one by Soave Faire and one down past Uncommon Grounds, plus many corner curbs where the concrete has shattered and the metal is sticking up just waiting for someone to trip, fall and get hurt real bad.

Now I said earlier that the citizens are at risk or have a problem is because every time there is a claim to be paid by the City’s Insurance company, out deductibles for the next year rises and we pay more through our taxes or the City’s surplus balance further reducing that amount.  We need Marilyn to do her job or find someone that will.

ELIMINATE WATER HOOKUP FEES FOR EVERYONE?

All builders by law have to pay a $3,000.00 for water hookup fee per each new single residential unit then $2,000.00 for every additional unit.

I reported many months ago that developer Sonny Bonacio had gotten away without paying hookup fees of at least $854,000.00 that Commissioner of Public Works Skip Scirocco waived.  The Commissioner also waived fees in the amount of $35,000.00 to Gordon Companies of Albany at Seward & Morgan Streets in 2012 and Saratoga attorney James Doyle had fees of $9,000.00 waived at homes on Adams & Jackson streets.  The amount so far is $898,000.00, that’s right $2,000.00 short of $1 million dollars taken away from citizens on just these 3 projects.  While this was reported in the Times Union today, this may only be the tip of the iceberg.  Records also show that Bonacio, B&B Plumbing (owned by Bonacio and Billy Benton) and Doyle contributed money to Sirocco’s campaigns.

The reasoning Scirocco gave of waiving the fees was that DPW can subtract costs for water hookups if developers install 12” water pipes in right of ways but it is noted that none of the waivers approved by Sirocco for these projects included installation of said 12” water pipes.  Scirocco also said that he alone can grant a waiver but the city ordinance states that the Council has to approve waivers of this type.  Scirocco also stated that the developers were granted waivers because they spent money to update the water infrastructure, which William McTygue a city resident, former Director of Public Works and a candidate who ran against Sirocco in the last election makes a valid point as far as I am concerned, stating that developers shouldn’t be rewarded with waivers for improvements because in some cases they would have to make them anyways for their projects to be approved.

After the waivers were granted by Scirocco, Tim Wales the City Engineer (who reports to Scirocco) sent Bonacio a letter which informed the developer that the free connections for the Weibel Avenue and Railroad were awarded mistakenly As there is no provision in the law that the Commissioner alone can make this decision and that he (Wales) asked Bonacio to pay the fees, which he has refused to do.

Now Scirocco wants to change the law in the Charter giving him sole discretion to waive fees without Council approval.  McTygue has asked for an audit to be conducted by Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan and also an outside audit of the waiver reductions.  Madigan said she did a limited review but now she is thinking of doing a more defined audit if necessary.  She also said “that would mean a larger scope and I would go much further back in time as well”

This story smelled funny when I reported it many months ago and it smells worse now.  It seems we have a Commissioner who doesn’t know how or doesn’t care what is in the best interest of the taxpayers.

I would suggest any developer to start your engines now and ask for a waiver before something changes.