THE CHARTER CHANGE REFERENDUM IS NON PARTISAN. THE ISSUE IS FOR THE CITIZENS OF SARATOGA SPRINGS NOT ANY ONE POLITICAL PARTY
Power starts corrupting good people once they get elected
to public office (not all but most). You
can see the difference when men & women run for office versus the conduct when in office and then how
they go back to normal when they leave office.
I met a married couple downtown one day over the summer
and got talking about local politics and of course charter change came up. The couple are relatively new to Saratoga
having lived here for about 12 years (carpet baggers to quite a few ‘native’
Saratogians) and they had helped out on Commissioner Madigan’s campaign, how
much they didn’t say, but they said that as a person she is like night and day
from when she was a candidate. They said
she seems bitter about most things today and when they watch a Council meeting
they cannot believe how she treats citizens and fellow Commissioner’s from the
Council table.
This couple have an insight most Saratogians don’t, many
Saratogian’s didn’t know Madigan before she got elected and like so many
elections you get elected either because (a) your opponent did something
citizens didn’t like, (b) no one is running against you or (c) your Party is
swept in as a group. B has become the
norm in Saratoga politics in recent years and not because everyone is doing a
great job.
Take this Council for instance and a single issue CHARTER
CHANGE.
Many former Mayors, Commissioners and longtime City Hall
employees are heavily behind the movement to change our form of government to a
more representative, cost effective and a well managed government where you
need not worry about getting kicked out of one Commissioner’s dept. for trying to
suggest in getting something done in another Commissioners dept. What a concept.
The prevailing voting block was most always Madigan,
Mathiesen & Scirocco against Franck & Yepsen. This shifted once Commissioner Matheisen
spoke out that it would be in the best interest of all Saratogians and the City
itself to approve a change in the form of government. You can visit the Charter
Commissions website to view letters to the editor written by past Commissioners
and Deputy’s.
He (Matheisen) has
said “The commission form of government has no separate legislative body and no
structure for central management. Instead, five different members of the city
council are responsible for executive oversight of their respective departments
while at the same time serving as at-large legislators, a recipe for serious
conflicts of interest. Due to political and personality differences, the five
city departments work well together on occasion while at other times not so
well. There is much redundancy in operations as the five departments are
separate but equal. It is difficult to find candidates for city government due
to the increasingly complex nature of each of the five council seats.
The Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission has given
our voters the opportunity think long and hard on what form of local government
will best meet the needs of our City today and in the future.”
Well, now the new voting block are Commissioners Franck,
Madigan & Scirocco versus Mayor Yepsen & Commissioner Matheisen. See what happens when you are afraid that the
power you have and will continue to get might seep from you and into the
citizens hands?
Here is another example:
The Commission early on wanted a separate election for the Charter which
was May 30th. The wailing
from the new voting block was heard all the way to the east coast.
Commissioner Franck is quoted in a Feb. 21, 2017 Times
Union article from a City Council meeting
"If there is a special election, even if it's to tweak the charter,
I'm against it," said Franck. "If it's November, I won't take a side
on the charter vote."
Now, here is a quote by Commissioner Franck from a 9/19/17
Council meeting putting his spin on the Proposed Charter.
“Am I missing something? Does anybody outside the planet
Mars really believe that one person is going to be able to do all this work?”
Franck took issue with the elimination of the deputy
commissioners and asked: if the deputies are eliminated, who is going to do the
work to run city government? He threatened to block the funding to send
information about the charter change to the public.
“If they cannot do this in a rational and fair manner,
and not have material misrepresentations in it, then I’m not going to OK it,”
said Franck.
Does this sound like his quote from February? This trio can see that the power may have a
chance to slip away from them and well out with their past promises. Skip doesn’t sense anytime so when he tries
to explain something heads almost always fall asleep as soon as his lips
part. What is coming from Franck and
Madigan however is mind boggling.
This trio cannot understand the concept or are just plain
acting dumb. I have heard that other
than the Mayor no Commissioner spends 30 hours a week in City Hall running
their departments.
Franck , Madigan & Skippy can’t understand that by
getting rid of the Deputy’s no one person can do all that work. Well as many citizens, as I do, understand we
already pay a Police Chief to run the Police Dept., we already pay a Fire Chief
to run the Fire Dept. and they can report or go over their budget with their
boss (City Manager), Why do we need a Deputy of Public Safety? We already pay a City Assessor to do his
departments work and he will answer to the (City Manager) his boss, we already
have a paid City Clerk who will guess what?
Answer to his or her boss. We have
a paid Finance Department, we already have 2 paid City Engineers and already
pay too much for outside engineers so why not have 1 engineer run DPW and fund the
Direct of Public Works whose line is in the budget? Mr. Vietch’s position was created by Skippy
(he says it wasn’t a political move) but you could defund that position and add
an office staff person for ½ the salary he is paid.
So you see we already have the paid employees in place
and we will eliminate a layer of middle paid bosses we won’t need. It will not be 1 person (City Manager) that
will have to make up all the work the Deputies do, he will be the City’s CEO
overseeing the operation of the City by the already knowledge and capable
workers employed by the City already.
Rocket Science, no just common sense that three members of the Council
seem to lack. Does POWER CORRUPT?
Another question to ask yourself as a anon did in the
previous post, will you take the word about the costs of savings from a Finance
Commissioner whose leadership resulted in a 1.125 million budget shortfall for
the fiscal year ending 6/30/17 and who has said she will have to have cutbacks
in this year’s budget or a former Senior Vice President of Finance for a
Company that does 19 BILLION in sales a year and happens to also be a CPA? Again, not rocket science.
A times Union article written by Wendy Liberatore on
September 28, 2017 quotes some former City officials:
“A.C. Riley,
Saratoga Springs supervisor from 1980 to 1987, and Mayor from 1990 to 1995,
agreed.”
“Managing the city
isn’t a job for amateurs,” Riley said.
“Everything in our world is getting more complex, including local
government. In the old days, most people could fix their own cars, or the
kitchen sink. How many people can do that today? We call a professional,
someone with training and expertise, so we get good results. Under the new charter, that professional will be our city manager,
who will be the leader of all city departments. Our elected city council will
make all the important decisions, and direct the manager to carry them out. The
charter will require the manager to be educated and experienced in how to read
and carry out laws and regulations, how to develop and manage a budget, and how
to negotiate with unions. The council will rely on the manager to direct
several projects at once and get things done on time.”
Former Mayor Raymond Watkin previously opposed charter
change, but now sees things differently.
“I look forward to supporting the campaign to adopt a new
city charter,” Watkin said. “Our city
government is unable to keep up with the demand for services from our growing
community. In-fighting and a ‘me-first’ attitude among the commissioners has
prevented progress on meeting infrastructure, public safety and community
needs.”
Another Times Union piece also said this:
“The commission's mailing to city residents won't
determine the outcome of the vote, but it's an important part of educating the
public.”
“Ms. Madigan and Mr. Franck have all that at their
disposal, too, as well as the bully pulpits of their positions. They're free to
use them, but not to abuse those positions to unilaterally block the commission
from doing its job to inform city residents — an abuse that they might find
could be its own case for reform.”
POWER CORRUPTS
For some light entertainment go to http://saratogaspringsny.swagit.com/play/09192017-1334 and listen to the following times
Public Safety
14:55 until you stop laughing at Skippy
Public Safety especially 27:25
Public Safety especially 31:20 – to the end.
Unfortunately not anymore, Michele Madigan offends everyone all the time and it is not funny!
