ARE THESE REALLY SURPRISES?

Well, the ‘new’ Council has started its reign of terror already, normally after the election and until after the swearing in of the new Council on January 1^st not much happens in City politics.  Yes, they may finish up some small items but there aren’t many meetings left in the year so with 3 big Holidays coming up and the chance that many people won’t be paying much attention or have enough time to keep track of what is going on it is usually… ease along into the new year. 

However with this Council everything is different.  This Council likes to make major decisions when citizens are at their busiest.  The major decision this Council had to make was, will they or won’t they allow Saratoga Hospital to destroy area housing developments and several neighborhoods in giving them a green light to build an unnecessary expansion.  Well, true to their cowardly actions of the past, Monday night, calling a ‘special meeting’ they voted 4-1 approving the hospital to plow ahead to the next step, Commissioner Franck was the lone dissenter.  This Council has already made up their minds to let the hospital have its way and most know the reason why.

What is it not surprising about the ‘special meeting’ that these cowards, 2 days before Christmas is summed up by the Saratogian reporter that wrote the article “ The brief special meeting of the Saratoga Springs City Council held during the Jewish holidays and two days before Christmas drew few residents impacted by the City Council’s 4 to 1 vote last night in favor of the zoning map amendments”, then this gem spewed by our renowned City Attorney DeLeonardis.

   “City Attorney Vince DeLeonardis reading the long litany of “no negative impact” found declarations in reference to the zoning changes up for a vote before the Saratoga Spriings City Council at Monday night’s special meeting of the Saratoga Springs City Council.”  I gather DeLeonardis forgot about all the residents in the area in his decision of ‘no negative impact’.

This was truly a Christmas gift to the hospital and a payback for gifts given to those politicians running in November.

Another major (big surprise) announcement was that Robin Dalton has appointed fellow Democrat Eileen Finneran as her Deputy.  It seems Finneran needed the money and Dalton obliged.  Finneran has experience and will help the blank Dalton run the department.  There are many who believe that those running for Commissioner should announce who their Deputy will be so voters know who will be running the departments.  However that would be too good information for voters to know so why do it?

Well, it is not even New Year’s Day yet and already the Council has divided the City with major announcements made in secret, so begins 2020 and with this Council we are screwed already.

The attorney for the area residents being ‘negatively affected’ are filing a section 78 against the Council’s decision, as with any litigation it takes money to go to court and the City and the Hospital have unlimited money at their disposal.  We would like to ask you if you are so inclined to donate to the Save Morgan Street group to help with the costs involved.

  https://savemorganstreet.com/  

COMMISSIONERS SCIROCCO AND MADIGAN AT IT AGAIN

Well you can tell it is an election year in Saratoga Springs.  We’ll start with Scirocco, has your lawn debris been picked up weekly since summer?  Have you seen articles in the paper about all the projects large and small that Scirocco takes credit for? If you answer yes to these 2 questions then you have to know election time is this November.

Scirocco can’t really take credit for much as he contracts out quite a lot of what DPW does.  He hires more outside contractors and engineers as much as the City hires outside attorneys.

The rest of the 1 1/2 years the City looks like crap, ripped up roads all over the City and City property looking terrible, overgrown grass is common place, Congress Park is a mess and Broadway doesn’t look any better until 6 months before an election and it has been this way since he has been in office, he bit off more than he could chew when he took office.

The lawsuits that he has had against himself and the City have been numerous.  Among the ones out there involves the City Engineer he suspended earlier this year because he supports Dillon Moran and the water hookup fee which I don’t think is wrapped up yet.

Remember that his son who works for him in DPW was arrested on 4 counts of DWI and allowed to stay on the job.  Skip had another fellow who worked for the water Dept. drive him to the job sites.  He also cries he doesn’t have enough help but I am told by someone in the Finance Dept. that he turns money back every year to his darling Michelle to make her look good.

Skip was also involved in voting to give Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend a contract to do business with the City through their business.  Yes, Skip hired the Hot Dog to work for him in Public Works (he gets the Independence endorsements that way and a nice campaign donation).

This November you must vote for Saratoga native Dillon Moran.

ONTO COMM.MADIGAN

Well you can tell it is an election year in Saratoga Springs.  Commissioner Madigan who has lost the Democrat line on the ballot due to losing the Democrat primary has broken off on being a Democrat.  She is running on the Independence line and that Party is run by none other than DPW employee Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend.  This Party has never ran a candidate but once that I can remember but just endorses friends of theirs.  Commissioner Madigan is as thick as a heavy burgundy with Hot Dog’s girlfriend and also voted to give Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend Joanne Foresta a contract to do business with the City through their business, both Scirocco and Madigan received the endorsement and a nice campaign donation from the Independence Party run by an employee of Scirocco and Commissioner Madigan’s best friend.  This information was taken to the Ethics Board but since that board is run by biased men and a woman they decided that nothing wrong happened, WOW.

Commissioner Madigan has had a few of her own problems I am sure you know about.  The 30 year deal with the fiber optics company that will cost Saratoga Springs a fortune and believe it or not this Company is the only entity that can run cables through our sewer lines.

This week she announced a 0.05% tax cut for City taxpayers even though expenses have risen. Madigan’s plan, an increase of $1.1 million over the adopted 2019 budget. Contractual wage increases, additional funding for information technology, increased commodity costs, and health insurance accounts for much of the year-over-year change. Personnel and benefits are up 1.9% and 2.5% in 2020, respectively.”  By the way there is a story going around the City of a very unknown and non transparent present the Commissioner will receive if elected this Fall and that will be an all expense paid (by taxpayers) top of the line health care policy all complete for life, yes life.  Should elected officials get lifetime benefits for life?  What happened to serve the people? Now, back to the tax decrease.  The Commissioner plans on paying the rising expenses with the budget surplus which she has been draining every year since she has been in office to pay for these increases which has given her the magic of not raising taxes over the last 8 years.  This is not a sound practice to run a City.  Well there will be more as election time draws near.

We must vote Morrison for Commissioner of Finance to not only save the large expense of for life health insurance benefits but also not leaving the City with much of a surplus.

This November you must vote for Patty Morrison.

THE PREDICTIONS:

Mayor – Tim Holmes

Commissioner of Finance – Patty Morrison

Commissioner of DPW – Dillon Moran

Commissioner of PS – Robin Dalton

Supervisors : 2

Matt Vietch

Steve Mittler

DEMOCRAT PARTY IS IMPLODING

The Democrat Party in Saratoga Springs as everyone knows by now is imploding.  The culprit who is behind  the ‘rats jumping ship’ is none other than the big RAT, Commissioner Madigan and those lemmings that worship at her feet and have resigned from the Executive Committee and today the other resigning Party traitors have done the Democrats a huge disservice.  The Democrats who cast their ballots in the June primary spoke with their votes to replace Madigan, now Madigan cried foul because voter turnout was low and she only lost by a handful of votes shows what a sore loser she is and what kind of character she possess.  A primary decides which person will be the Party’s standard bearer will be in the Fall election.  The former Executive Committee after being told what to do by Madigan wouldn’t make the call to back the winner and instead took the childish way out and resigned, and then Madigan worked her magic and had her friends resign today.  This shows Party loyalty? These people should be ashamed of themselves and registered Democrat voters should be embarrassed by those that represent them.  The person they should be embarrassed by most of all is Michele Madigan who planned this show from the beginning.

Madigan as the renegades said is the only one that can run the Finance department.  This statement is a slap in the face to any qualified person, (which Morrison is)  to run for office.  Is this the way Saratogians want elections to run?  We are once again moving to the back room deal making days which ignore the voters’ wishes when those wishes don’t agree with the Party leaders.

Those who resigned most likely shouldn’t have been on the Committee in the first place, most are political hacks who cry foul if they don’t get their own way, so their jumping ship was probably coming for a long time.

This is a great time for Morrison who can use this debacle to her advantage.

PRIMARY WINNER PATTY MORRISON CAUGHT IN A DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE FRACTURE.

Well, the Primary and the incumbent Commissioner Madigan lost.  Madigan will not be on the Democratic line on the ballot but instead will be down near the bottom because she received the nod from 2 endorsement Party’s.  She should step down and let the Democrats run their choice if she is really a Democrat.  The Democratic Committee should now pull their endorsement of Madigan and give it to Morrison along with a $1,000.00 donation as they did for Madigan, anything short of this is political gamesmanship and further shows that along with Committee Chairman Courtney DeLeonardis as the lead instigator is further dividing the Dems.  Also having your husband  as the City Attorney (Vincent J. DeLeonardis)

 who just received his second large raise in salary she may owe Madigan for her vote. I guess in Saratoga a Democrat is not really a Democrat unless you have a friend as leader of the Party in the City to protect a loser.  Maybe, with all the large Republican donations Madigan received there appears what was talked about months ago that Madigan, Mayor Kelly and candidate for Public Safety Robin Dalton (which will be a discussion in the future)  met with the County Republican Chairman to run as a team with promises to benefit the 3 candidates.  This could be the collusion the Democrats have been talking about.  Also watching Tuesday’s Council meeting Madigan looked like a deer in front of headlights along with Super Skippy , that is dazed and confused most likely from her stinging loss but Skip did what he does best and tried to complete a few sentences.  He stated after 23 uh’s and uhm’s that he has been in politics for a long time and has never, never seen a board get along so well together (um, it looks like he truly is in bed with Madigan).

The Democratic Party should do the right thing and support the winner of the Primary so she can carry the Democratic line to victory.

Now, moving on to another topic.  The City Hall renovations are spiraling out of control with the City’s insurance company paying much less than expected.  Madigan, in her zeal of not raising taxes over her time in office which is not a good thing and spending down the reserve fund to keep homeowners from not having a tax increase may see in the bad results of this in a large tax increase in this year’s budget or certainly next year’s no matter who win the election for that position.  Madigan has duped taxpayer’s in Saratoga for years and that should be a good reason to vote for Morrison.

IT’S PRIMARY TIME

This year in Saratoga Springs there will be one primary and it is June which was moved up from September.  This does not allow enough time to make the rounds if you are challenging an incumbent who has a pocketbook full of money.

The challenger against Michelle Madigan is Patty Morrison.  Patty is more than suited for the position and Madigan is putting us in financial trouble (no matter what she says) in the near future.

What was the Republican Party put a candidate up to run against Madigan or Morrison but he was only a patsy and when his petition signatures were found to be bogus he had to drop out of the race.  The Republicans only put him up to fail and some say that the Republican Party will endorse Democrat Madigan.

Madigan is neither a friendly or respectful to her constituents and sometimes downright vile.  

Her work over her long tenure has been mostly good but her decisions in the last few years have put Saratogians in a position to pay big time in the future.  She hasn’t done much that anyone familiar with budgets including big budgets not just library budgets such as she was used to put together before being elected and truth be told she was blessed with terrific Deputy Commissioners.   The problem with that position in Saratoga is if you need to raise taxes instead of spending down some rainy day fund you do not get re-elected and she has been a master at spending at a future cost to future Saratoga Citizens, some of who might be your children or grandchildren.

Along with her joke of a fiber optic deal she made and her stance on the hospital takeover of residential space (remember we get no taxes from the Hospital) when the Hospital has other options is disconcerting.  She is holding off a vote until after the Primary.

Madigan will also have to recuse herself on every vote that Attorney Matt Jones comes before the Council with.  He has held Madigan fundraisers at his personal residence and that jeopardizes every vote that she casts for any of his projects including the Hospital, it is unethical to buy votes.  

I see in today’s paper that Jane Weihe, a very sour old time Saratogian who was defeated in every political race she ever entered and who some say is a retired teacher who was lucky to have tenure is backing Madigan and bad mouthing Madigan’s opponent when in these times it is refreshing to have a primary especially when the opposing party never runs a candidate or sometimes runs candidates who have literally no idea of the department they will be running as is the case in the DPS race this year with real estate salesperson- wannabe socialite Robin Dalton who may know a little bit of Public Safety from the other side but has no idea of what it takes to run Police, Fire and other departments.  Her current position on allowing guns in schools may even be a problem for her.

Stay tuned.

THE SAME THIS TIME AROUND!

Running for political office in Saratoga Springs is anything but predictable.  If you get elected to office as one of the Commissioners you could have the position for life.  This is the only City in America that has a very hard time having challengers to run for entrenched politicians.  Saratoga Springs has 3 Commissioners that have won at least 5 two year terms and I think only 1 time each candidate had an opponent. 

Again, this form of government shows why it needs changing if not only to have different people with various backgrounds run for office but also have transparency in government.

The two most non transparent offices holders are Madigan & Scirocco.  The citizens should just ask Madigan just how much this new (free) fiber optic network will cost citizens and if she says nothing then burn her to the stake.  Scirocco doesn’t tell us about any harmful water problems and just brushes them away with more chlorine to the point that our once great drinking water could only beat a fish infested swimming pool water, great going Scirocco.

The Democratic Party will be showing how pitiful they are if people come forward to primary the 3 dems running in 2019.  They are a step above the Republican Party however who has a disbarred attorney running the show and can’t get a Republican elected (Scirocco is a RINO and sides with whatever the 4 Democrats want). 

We’ll see how this is played out but don’t expect too much.

NYRA SAY'S BYE-YA to CEO CHRIS KAY

Good morning and good riddance to the CEO of NYRA Chris Kay. In addition to being a 1st class jerk he was apparently using NYRA employees to work off the clock at his home in Saratoga Springs. This is completely illegal, according to NYRA’s rules.  However this incident alone couldn’t be the only one that forced him to accept a firing or forced resignation.  This way he can collect his ‘golden parachute’ which is probably substantial.

Although he made some positive changes at the Saratoga Racecourse, he most certainly did not have that affect on his subordinates. According to those who worked there he demanded that his employees smile and say hello to everyone (treat them as you would a house guest) but would refuse to say hello to any NYRA employee himself.  This never wins respect with anyone.

While mentioning some positives he did at the track he created an amusement park atmosphere forgetting that people come to the track to bet and it is not an ideal environment for tots to crawl around in the dirt or inside the building.  He spent tens of millions of dollars ‘improving’ this environment for 6 weeks of racing while the track sits idle for 46 weeks a year.  This he did while destroying the historic atmosphere the track had for over 150 years which is one reason people came from all over the world to enjoy and soak up the beauty of the course itself.

Good riddance. What NYRA needs is actual leadership and someone with integrity and most of all someone who knows horse racing.

SCIROCCO NEVER HAD A PLAN FOR SNOW PLOWING

It began snowing at 3:40pm this past Saturday. We had known about this storm for at least a week. So you would think that as soon as the snow began to accumulate, the DPW workers would be all over the city making sure the roads would be plowed so that drivers could navigate their way around town.

You would think....but...NO.

No, that would be too logical. According to one witness, he didn't see a plow until 4:30am on SUNDAY.

You can't make it up. As of today, Monday, the main roads in downtown Saratoga Springs are in horrible condition.

Unacceptable. The whole crew should have been out an hour after it began snowing.

So...it begs the question, what was DPW doing just hours after it began snowing?

I am sick of the utter ineptitude of the Department of Public Works. There is NO EXCUSE.