IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR - PART "CINQ"

Commissioner of Accounts – John Franck – (B-)

John Franck probably deserves a B+ but just as Mayor Johnson deserves an F, there is something a politician does have and that is the desire to help their City, in Franck’s case he does, in Johnson’s case he tries. 

If you are looking for the strongest person on the Council for their knowledge, standing up for what he thinks is right (most of the time he has the facts in front of him), efficiency in running their Department, look no further than Franck.  Some say he is actually the Mayor of the Council as he seems to have the brains that the real one lacks.

Frank’s Deputy is most qualified to hold her position also.

Franck explains in detail every item he presents, whether he agrees or disagrees, so citizens absolutely know where he stands on the issues.  The years 2005 – 2007, when the Council was all Democrats he did not always follow the Party line on all the issues.  Today with Johnson as Mayor he has held him somewhat in check for the good of the City.

This past year he faced a crisis with class and dignity.  Mary Zlotnick, who it was said by an employee of City Hall, was a plant sent to Franck by super-spy Shauna Sutton and started to undermine and accuse, take pictures, remove files (temporarily) in order to set Franck up for a fall from office in her first days of working.  It was rumored that the Mayor wanted to hold the story up for later this year to come smack in the middle of this year’s election season and with the dirty trick Johnson & Sutton pulled at the last minute of the 2011 election regarding Brent Wilkes nothing would surprise me at what these 2 are capable of.

Zlotnick went to the Police, who found he did nothing wrong, she then called in the Atty. Gen. who after all this time has found no causes of impropriety.  Zlotnick called in every newspaper, television stations and a local blogger whose only purpose is to destroy a person even if he makes up disgusting information to aid her in her directive to bury Franck.  If anyone knows the story, Franck, who gives classes on how to grieve your taxes and will opens his books to anyone, seems to have nothing to hide.  The end result is that the Department of Accounts is as clean as a whistle, Zlotnick, after a public labor hearing (her choice) lost because it was determined she had no knowledge of the job she was doing. 

This year we will decide our new Council.  If the Republicans want to add seats on that Council, they should put up credible candidates rather than the one sitting there now.  We can always hope.

Yours truly

Captain America195

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR - PART "TROIS"

Commissioner Chris Mathiesen – (B-)

Hi again.  Some of you might ask, why give Mathiesen a B-?  The reason is that Mathiesen ran on a platform that he is sticking to and he is taking a beating for it.  I feel  it is his opponents that are crying the loudest.  There is talk around town that former Commissioner Dick Wirth whom Mathiesen beat will be running against him this fall.  That would be a mistake.  In the past I referred to Wirth as a bobble head as he always nodded whenever the Mayor spoke.  He rarely spoke more that 20 words at a Council meeting if that.

Getting back to Mathiesen, some of his ideas were (a) to turn back closing time of bars by 2 hours).  While he did propose this, the push was to have last call at 2 and close at 4, however everyone could not remove the blinders and kept the bar owners and some of the citizens up in arms that God forbid the consumption of alcohol had to be shortened or at least those who stayed out past 2am had to pound down the amount of alcohol they normally would have if the bars stayed open until 4 and the loss of income would ruin the City as a tourist destination.

Something good did come out of all the furor though, bars in the City now have to hire licensed security guards and they have installed a system whereby one establishment can contact the others and warn them of a potentially inebriated person(s).  Remember also, that all bars must serve food until they close even if it is just sandwiches; this helps someone to get something in their system to help them, hopefully.

I personally believe the Commissioner when he speaks of the girl that was raped in the early morning hours in the latter part of last year.  It is a tough balancing act when trying to protect a victim, still conducting the investigation and trying to appease the public on what information to make public without jeopardizing that investigation.  Today, it seems that we should know all the facts even if it could prove harmful to the victim or the investigation; this is the world we live in.

One problem with the way the situation was handled though was the Commissioner’s constant talking and explanations of the incident.  This is one of the Commissioner’s faults.  He should make his statements and then not carry on with being so verbose about the topic, example: when the lady who presented the petition requesting more information addressed the Commissioner (which under the Charter, you are not supposed to do), instead of going into the whole explanation again, he should have just offered those concerned to make an appointment and that he would be glad to talk it over with them.  Commissioner, make a statement, then stop talking. 

All in all I think he is doing a fine job. Again, he ran on a platform, won and is carrying it out, what more can you ask of an elected official.


This is his Deputy’s second go around with a different Commissioner. I think she is very knowledgeable working with the departments, remember, Public Safety is the only department with 2 professionals running them the Police and Fire Departments.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH JOHNSON & SUTTON?

What is going on with Johnson & Sutton, the dynamic Smirnoff Duo at City Hall?  The Mayor negotiates a 15 minute break for City employees to go cash their paychecks every Friday, and to top it off it is on City time, not on the employees lunch break or one of the 2 fifteen minute breaks they get M-F.  Figure the average salary, times that amount by lets say 300 employees then divide by 4 and that is a large sum of money in a year.

The Mayor and Shauna fail to do their due diligence and failed to renegotiate the National Grid contract for 5 years, the City (taxpayers) are short at least $5,000.00 per month for 5 years.  After the Mayor is embarrassed and had pressure put on him by some citizens he then sits and negotiates a contract.  The Mayor, at a Council meeting then insults the citizens of Saratoga by saying the fault lies with National Grid and he negotiated a super great deal for the City.  However, he made a deal based on current market prices and locked us in for a high number of years so we will be behind again in a few years. 

The Mayor and Shauna for years spent over $100,000.00 plus City Hall employee time fighting a citizens group to change the Charter.  He said publicly 4 years ago that he would appoint a Mayoral Commission to study the issue and 4 years later, 1 week before the election, he announces that he will appoint a 15 member Commission by the end of the year.  He also has issued some directives that this Commission will discuss (he told us already), one demand they will change for him is to put the Mayor in charge of the budget, with his large donations to his outside attorney friends imagine how much more he will give them? The Mayor’s Commission will have at least a budget with a minimum of $50,000.00.  It would have been much simpler and less costly if he just appointed a Commission 4 years ago, but Herr Mayor likes to play the attorney game.  His Napoleon complex is so bad he has been making himself look foolish and smaller.  I wonder if the breakdown of his Commission will at least like former Mayor Kehen’s in who sits in the chairs?  Keehn appointed 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 3 Independents.  Her Commission was started a little late but at least she worked accross Party lines to come up with a document.

The Mayor and Shauna failed to renegotiate a contract for 5 years with Time Warner.  The contract had expired the first year Napoleon, I mean Johnson took office.  He knowingly did not negotiate a new contract which would have raised the amount of money Time Warner paid the City, by the way, The Mayor always says it is someone else’s fault, suck it up, you’re the Mayor and you are failing to do your job.

The Housing Authority is in his lap also.  The SSHA is supposed to come before the Council and inform them of the salary figures for the coming year.  He never asked the SSHA, as is the Mayor’s job to do so.  He keeps reappointing the same Directors to the Board and when he is responsible for not taking corrective action on the bedbug issue (he sat in his chair looking stunned) he then appoints two of the oddest people to sit on a Board, Ken Ivins and Al Callucci, WOW.  The only other person he could have appointed that would have topped these two would have been Rich Wirth.

These few examples and some clear liquid on the rocks show us why the Mayor and Shauna should hit the road.  The Republicans should strongly consider putting someone else in to run for Mayor.  We can’t afford this duo any longer.

If the Republican Committee can show us any mercy, cut the cord with these two Russian Cossack dancers.