THEY ARE RUINING OUR CITY!

This past Tuesday nights (June 2^nd) Council meeting shows what is wrong with the Councils majority namely the S&M’s.  S&M”s stands for Scirocco, Madigan & Matheisen.  So, what happened you ask?  If no one saw the meeting Madigan had a complete meltdown and embarrassed not only the City but herself big time.  I hope this is not the way she teaches her kids to behave when they don’t get their own way or someone calls her decision for what it is, pure bunk.  Now she is writing Letters to the Editor for Skip & Matheisen, signing their names to her letters.  Can't the boys write their own letters?

Here is the link and just click on Finance Department, sit back and watch in astonishment as Madigan melts down. 

http://saratogaspringsny.swagit.com/city-council/

Now whether you like or dislike Madigan you have to agree she acted in a bizarre and childlike way.  I don’t care who is running against her, she should lose and go away quietly (never quiet).  After her part of the meeting was over it was told to me she allegedly leaned over to Franck and whispered ‘you’re a dick’, maybe she forgot in her brain explosion his name is John.

The solar power law she wants changed is nothing more than an illusion to get the City Center parking lot built the way Baker would like it built, a Saratoga Monster.  She is going against the majority of citizen’s wishes and has behind her 2 favorite children, Skip Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW and Chris Matheisen, Commissioner of DPS.  We will now call Commissioner Madigan the Pied Piperess as she leads these two around very well and boy do they follow her.  In other words we would like her out of office.

During John Franck’s discussion he came up with a good idea.  The aforementioned property is worth at least $30 million dollars.  The City will make $20.00 (twenty dollars) over 20 years if Baker gets his votes from the S&M’s.  Franck argued why not start with a 2 story garage then have businesses on the Lake Ave. side that can generate income for the City in sales taxes etc., not to mention that it will create jobs.  But no, this wasn’t appealing to the 3 amigos.  They want big, big buildings in our inner core and want to give that piece of property away.  This will be a paid parking garage and Matheisen said that this would be the start of downtown paid parking.

Now we come to Commissioner Scirocco – He leads a protest within his own Party not to endorse any Republican to run against Democrat Madigan’s position.  This is so screwy that only a dog catcher could understand this.

Scirocco is the person that gave over 1 million dollars back to developers, yes he said they made 1 million dollars of upgrades but the upgrades were required to get the projects into development.  Then he holds a public hearing at a Council meeting on changing the law to drop water hookup fees costing the City about $250,000.00 - $400,000.00 per year, he holds a vote the same night which is very unusual and the law change is passed 3-2.  The best part of this is that because of this loss of income Skip had to raise the water fee for the citizens of Saratoga.  So, he thinks more of the builders than he does the citizens.

The next brain fart he has is the 4^th of July .  The group of citizens especially Kate Jarosh who has been heading the 4^th of July celebrations and has brought the celebration up as a showcase around the nation has been squashed by this Commissioner (Scirocco) as has our celebrated First Night.  

The 4^th of July celebration will still go on but using Congress Park was the best of the best.  Saratoga’s First Night has also gained a very great reputation but this year celebrations will not be able to use the Casino.  Scirocco, in his infinite decision making has booked 2 weddings for both the 4^th of July and New Year’s Eve.  I wonder if he was looking at a Chinese calendar when he booked these events.  These celebrations belong to the citizens of Saratoga and the multitude that come into town for each of these and blocked off every calendar the City uses.  He justifies his Karnack the Great thinking by saying ‘the City is making $3,000.00 each night’.  Well folks, he just told the citizens to f*@k off.

Flowers – N. Fox Jewelers wanted to plant their own flowers in front of their store on Broadway and received permission to do so by Comm. Scirocco but BARBERRY BUSHES?  BARBERRY BUSHES are an invasive species.  The bushes also have thorns, what will happen if a little tot falls into a bush?  The City should check this out and have the bushes removed. 

The State Attorney’s office and the Comptroller’s office are still in City Hall gathering information on these water deals. In other words we would like him out of office for a much better City and hope he follows the Pied Piperess out the door.

The Commissioner of Public Safety, Chris Matheisen is another one of the three that the clock has struck its final blow and he should also go.  He has already lost 1 lawsuit by not turning reports in regarding inspections of public buildings (17 in fact).  He also wants to close businesses down in Saratoga and may be responsible for one business owner to lose a buyer because for his penchant of limiting bar hours. 

Now owners of these establishments pay a hefty price for a license and a high price for insurance.  They also complied with his wishes to install computers and use trained security guards (bouncers).  Still he wants to cut back hours of operation and makes no bones about it, even making the looniest decision of creating a “Night Club District”. 

I now heard that in his campaign literature he is for the bar industry.  He also voted against the Police contract because of a 2 1/2 % raise instead of a 2% raise and he was joined in tossing the contract with none other than Madigan & Scirocco (who by the way has health benefits for life for being the City’s dog catcher).

What you have to understand is that most restaurants and bars or ‘Night Clubs’? close before 2 am but that is their choice.  I ask the Commissioner, why try and destroy someone’s livelihood?  Commissioner you have way too much police presence on Caroline Street, get some of them around the City, they are only a microphone call away.

All three need to go before we ask ourselves in the near future, what happened to Saratoga, it was such a nice place to live.

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF INVESTIGATION AND MORE

Where to start?  Well let’s start with the first Comptroller’s report.  Commissioner Matheisen got spanked.  He not only got spanked but did not report to the State like he was mandated to, and according to the report, the lack of his compliance put our children’s lives in potential danger.  I’ll let you read the article so you can get the particulars as it is a 15 page report.  The whole report can be found by going to this link posted by Dennis Yusko: http://blog.timesunion.com/saratogaseen/comptroller-audits-saratoga-springs-fire-safety/24114/

If this is a precursor of the many current investigations by the Comptrollers & Attorney General’s office the Commissioners being investigated, (yes still being investigated as both State offices are still in City Hall almost daily), those Commissioners could be in big trouble (most likely, Madigan, Scirocco & Matheisen, according to sources).  There is also a legal battle over the Collimer lot that is being waged.

The day that Bill McTygue announced that he was challenging Skip Scirocco for DPW Commissioner, Scirocco was endorsed by Eddie ‘hot dog’ Miller and Gordon Boyd’s club the Independence party (small p on purpose).  The Independence party line position on the ballot drops every election year due to the fact that voters are continually not voting on that line.  Yes, they may have a party enrollment number but that number is way over inflated.  Why, you ask?  Well Independence sounds a lot like Independent and the concept too many people is that they are the same.  Independent means that you are registered as a no Party affiliation while the Independence party is an organized political Party (except in Saratoga Springs, where it is a power tool of a few people like the two named above rather than organized.  I don’t think they even announce when their interview process is, if they have any.  So beware of any of Miller or Boyd’s endorsements and how they came to be.

Mayor Yepsen finally announced her endorsement.  I’ll get into some thoughts after this comment.  Commissioner Michele Madigan was seen sitting at the bar texting for the whole hour, most likely back to her cohorts at City Hall and to Eddie ‘hot dog’ Miller’s girlfriend who is her best friend and wine tasting buddy.

Yepsen listed her accomplishments which are pretty long given the fact that Madigan, Scirocco and Matheisen fought her at every turn and tried their best to keep her from accomplishing anything.  Listed accomplishments were a 1.6 million dollar in federal funding for the Geyser Road pedestrian trail (heck, Scirocco gave this much money away to contractors alone), completion of the long delayed waterfront park on Saratoga Lake (6 years delayed), the City’s success in finding housing for 18 homeless veterans, the launch of the Code Blue program which the City desperately needed as most other Cities have such a program.  While you may or may not like her, she gets things done and with one member of the Council to work with (John Franck) it is amazing she got all this done.

The same day as Yepsen announced, the hot dog & Boyd announced that their club was endorsing Yepsen’s opponent John Safford.  Safford who is quoted in the gazette as saying “.. voters will have a clear choice between the status quo politicians, or a new beginning under a longtime businessman and U.S. Army veteran”.  I guess helping homeowner associations and being in the Army qualifies one to automatically take away a sitting Mayor’s accomplishments and last time I checked the status quo in Saratoga is the Republican Party, however you have to give him credit for stepping up to the plate to run as it looked like the Republicans did not have a candidate for the post.  

I am a member of the Republican Party and I am quite frankly embarrassed by what has been going on within the inner sanctum.  The Party had a good young, qualified professional financial person ready to run against Commissioner Madigan.  The Committee held their meeting and the gentleman gave a great speech and handled himself well, then the crap started flying starting with (in her dreams, Deputy) Donna Buckley, then Scirocco states that he works well with the Democrat Madigan and why run a Republican against her who may not see eye to eye with him, huh?  It is also said that Scirocco’s wife had something to say but that’s not important.  Scirocco, was also said to comment that if the new candidate was endorsed he would not help any Republican candidate.  This last line can’t be confirmed but why the Republican Party kick Scirocco out and let him become a Democrat is beyond me.  Remember it was Scirocco who with Madigan eliminated the water hookup fee because we had many sources to get that lost income and then Skip raises our water bills, in the end he gives the deals to the builders and sticks it to us, the tax payers.

Do you want to run for office in the near future?  If you are a young professional, forget it, you would be better off running as a Democrat, Independent or the Party of Mickey Mouse.