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/  

WHAT IS THE MOTIVE BEHIND MADIGAN & FRANCK’S BEHAVIOR

Many City residents, both for and against Charter Reform are dismayed at the behavior of Michele Madigan & John Franck both at the Council table and in the newspapers.  Both are elected City officials voted into office by those for and against the change.  Both represent all Saratogians not just those against the Charter change.  They should be the voice of reason at the Council table, they can state their vote of no confidence of the new form of government but the way they have been acting this year makes me wonder if they have just lost their minds and have been overcome by so much hate that they can’t control themselves and both have looked that way in the media and especially the eyes of the citizens of Saratoga.  

Why didn’t Commissioner Franck disclose when a Commissioner his CPA firm was hired to do a study in Mechanicville and he himself was paid thousands of dollars to do this study and told the City (who happens to have a Commission form of Government) that the study and he were recommending that Mechanicville switch to a City Manager form of government. This is a quote from his recommendation “It is the team’s view that a City Manager per se, may be unaffordable in Mechanicville’s present financial situation.  Alternatively, a city administrative officer, accountable to a Mayor and City Council, could be established, rationalize administrative functions, be affordable and be accountable to the elected officials of the city.  In either case, a significant revision of the City Charter is warranted.”

This revelation should have been disclosed by Franck, his professional credibility was put on the line as it is now.  He should have at least disclosed this information to the citizens of Saratoga instead of making himself one of the embarrassments of our government. 

He now raises questions about the Commission of trying to buy the election.  He should know but because of his actions this year that the City through an approved budget to the Commission HAS to pay for informative mailings, the Commission does not have to get Council approval to send out these mailings as another brilliant Council member (Scirocco) indicated and tried 3 times to make a motion without success and have the Asst. City Atty phrase it in the form of a resolution that the Council had to see everything and approve any literature before being mailed out, WRONG.  The Council cannot interfere with a Commission.

The bottom line is this, 3 unopposed Commissioners thanks to the inept Democratic and Republican Party’s, are insanely opposed to change while 2 outgoing Commissioners want the change.  The whole thing smacks of keeping power and   don’t believe Madigan’s promise not to run in 2019.  She has been one not to be believed and I wouldn’t take anything she says ‘to the bank’.

Flip your ballot over and vote YES for Charter Change, it is one of the only things that makes sense along with keeping Mark Baker out of City Hall.

Talking about Skip and our great water supply.  Do you think the taste of our water has gone down the last few years?  I have been told by many that they can’t stand the taste of the drinking water.

Both images below were provided by Property owners in Gyser Crest.

WHEN DOES POWER CORRUPT GOOD PEOPLE

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 30^th.  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!

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.

COMPROMISE

When things work out, you have to give credit where credit is due.

Your Captain was at the beginning of the Council meeting tonight and it was good news that a compromise was reached regarding the Comprehensive Plan Committee.  The Council led by Commissioner Franck had said from the beginning that the Council needed more input and as past CPC’s showed this to be the way it was done.

The Mayor to his credit did indeed drop people from his Committee and each of the 4 Commissioners appointed 2 of their own picks that were added to the Committee.  It was with great pleasure that one of the Mayor's drops was Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation Executive Director Samantha Bosshart.  That one almost feels like a demolition.

I know this result pleases me and it should also please the citizen’s that were opposed to the first Committee, now if you don’t like the choices, call the Council.

WHAT’S GOING ON?

What’s going on (not the Marvin Gaye song) in Saratoga?  This water issue just won’t go away and I don’t even think the tip of the iceberg has been seen yet.  This Watergate folly may and I say may even have legal ramifications for the Mayor and DPW Commissioner Scirocco.  I heard the other day that City Republican Committee Chairman David Harper was the attorney for the property owner’s where the water is being sold and the 180 acre parcel next to it that will ultimately be developed for homes and we all know what happens, the water is out there now, why not add on this development.  We don’t have enough water for the mandatory DOH rules what’s another fine and millions of gallons of water to supply an adjacent town.

 Ripped from the headlines- DPW Commissioner was allowed to borrow from the General Fund, monies to offset the deficit between costs and income received for our water and sewer usage (our bills).  It appears former Commissioner of Finance Ivins let the amount get up to nearly $1.5 million dollars.  The problem as I understand it is that DPW has to pay back the General Fund for the monies borrowed, which hasn’t been done for a while, as a matter of fact since Ivins and Scirocco were in office, there was never even a plan on how to proceed with the payback.  This, fellow Justice League members is going to result in sky rocketing water and sewer  bills and I mean sky rocketing for Saratoga Springs home owners.  Thanks to the smarts of current Commissioner of Finance Madigan and Deputy Bachner, they have started a framework on repayment and have already done so.  Thank you, for that, girls.  I say girls because they are very bright and businesses savvy young ladies, plus I like the term girls, meaning no disrespect to them.

One other item that may or may not interest you, but it does bug me.  Usually when I’m out at night fighting crime and there are fireworks going off, I always think it’s because of my costume and City protection (give me some leeway folks).  However, all kidding aside, it seems every Saturday night between 9:30 and 10:00 fireworks are booming.  I have an idea, why fireworks every weekend?  We all know how costly these displays are, so I have a suggestion.  Those that spend the money for these fireworks do the following.  Take the money you would have spent on these Saturday blasts, split the cost in half and put ½ in an account for fireworks for special events like 4^th of July, Hat’s Off, First Night and a few other special events, then take the other ½ and donate it to a different food pantry or other needy non profits.  You can have the distinction of being named a co sponsor of all the firework events and the tax breaks for the charitable donations.  Then at least we won’t have to cry when the money is not there for a special event fireworks display.

Just a note on Commissioner Franck’s announcement of making a motion to have the Imperial Ruler, I mean Mayor Johnson remove the entire Housing Authority Board for past failures and now the insult of not replying to the state after having 3 months to write a response to the audit’s findings at this coming Tuesday’s Council meeting.  Is this Commissioner the only one that has the pelotas to tackle this head on?  It seems that the Mayor sits on his throne, I mean seat and is trying to use mental telepathy with Sutton while any of these discussions are being held at the table.  I’ll tell you right now Mayor, its useless trying to play mind games with Deputy Sutton.

WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHY?

Let’s look at some decisions here and see how they tie together and who benefits from them.

First, let’s take the Comprehensive Plan Committee. The upmost concern regarding this committee should be fair and equal representation for the future path our City will take in the next 5 years.  The Mayor in what I feel is an illegal move in going against the rule spelled out by the Charter and past practices, has appointed all 11 members of this Committee.  3 of these members do not live in Saratoga, there are no citizen non-business representatives of the 4 Districts of the City, there is a very good developer, but why a developer when you are talking about areas that could be affected by crafting changes for boards like Planning, Zoning and Design Review?  One question you can ask yourself is who is to gain by having all these “high level” people on the Committee?  I guess the Mayor feels he can’t get a few smart every day citizens to be on HIS Commission.    

An excerpt from Commissioner Franck’s response in the Saratogian, which I am surprised (lol), the Saratogian did not ask this of the Mayor states,

“Surely, with council input, the Mayor would not have had to look for individuals from Wilton, Clifton Park and Washington County. We would have helped him find local residents, local taxpayers.
Non-taxpaying institutions like the state park, the school district, Skidmore College, the Preservation Foundation and the YMCA certainly have a legitimate institutional interest in the Comprehensive Plan, but they have no taxpayer skin in the game. They should not be placed in a position of dictating our land use policies, and sending the bill to the already beleaguered taxpayer”. 

Seems like a sound statement to me.  I don’t think this is a Democrat against Republican concern, if Commissioner Scirocco had the good sense to see that he was being shafted by the Mayor you wouldn’t know it by his lack of concern for not being able to appoint a few members, but I’m sure the Mayor read him the riot act before the meeting.  If the Mayor is not blowing wind and truly believes what he said when he commented that ‘the Comprehensive Plan should be updated every 5 years and it hasn’t been addressed in 10 years’?  Well let’s see 10 years (2) 5 year periods, gee, the Mayor should have appointed a Committee 5 years ago when he first took office, what takes him so long?  I’ll mention a line that a friend of mine tells me all the time, “Follow the money”.

Does it seem to you as it does me that the Mayor likes to outsource almost everything but his Deputy?  He hires outside attorney’s (we pay 2 City Attorney’s over $160,000.00 & benefits) at $300.00 - $400.00 per hour, he outsources an HR person and pay’s him $75,000.00 per year for a 20 hour work week, he outsources members of City Committees to people that live outside Saratoga Springs.  Again the line from my friend “follow the money”.

Another issue that is disturbing is the Wilton Watergate.  We were told when this mess  started out that 8 homes would be sold Saratoga City water, now the Mayor said this number could be up to 25 units.  The scary thing is there is another 75 or so acres nearby that if developed would want City water.  I am not saying who the developer is but, well, you never know.  If Saratoga gets a Casino and all the hotels and extra businesses that come with it, think how much more water we will need.  The Mayor should start to think about Saratoga and not a possible run for higher office in the future.

He told a citizen at the last Council meeting that if he wanted more answers regarding the Water issue to send his questions to him in writing, what about telling the rest of the City?  Gee, that would be transparency, a word that doesn’t sit well with the Mayor.

Regarding his Charter Commission, I hear that they are discussing the Mayor’s orders to (a). Eliminate as many duties they can from other Commissioner’s and put them under his authority, (b) he would like 4 year terms and change key mandates in the current Charter to be placed under is control.  What he lacks in size he makes up for in arrogance.  We all remember that he was against Charter Change, but it looks like if his Change is to a Strong Mayor he will do anything he can to get it by the voters. 

In his State of the City message, the Mayor made this statement:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It looks like that was only filler for a longer speech; he sure doesn’t heed his own line of bull.

IT’S THAT TIME TO REMMBER

Well Super Hero fans, it’s time to look back on 2012 and see if predictions come true in 2013.  The events are not in any particular order.

It’s hard to say anything bad about Sonny Bonaccio.  He gives back to the City in generous ways like starting the fireworks pledge of money and getting other friends with bucks to fork over some last minute tax deductions, but that’s a good thing.  However, nothing comes without getting something in return.

The City along with private money finally moved on building what I call the Bonaccio Woodlawn Ave. Parking Garage.  Why the Bonaccio name attached?  Well, for starters, when the new apartment building was going up on the land of the former Price Chopper you could not find any parking spaces anywhere downtown or for that matter for 3 blocks around in any direction.  The parking spaces were taken up by the construction workers.  I asked myself a question, Captain, with his money, why couldn’t Sonny have the workers park in a lot in the area and be shuttled to the site?  I felt that would have freed up many parking spaces for shoppers/businesses.  Much of this construction was going on while the parking garage, mentioned above, was being constructed eliminating about 184 parking spaces.

The project announced next was an 11 screen theater on the corner of the old Price Chopper area, next to the apartment complex.  Where do you think the construction workers parked?  Well, on Division Street and the Bonaccio Woodlawn Ave. Parking Garage, thus taking away spots for diners, shoppers and out of town guests.  I also feel and wonder if you do, was the Mayor working hand in hand with Sonny to get the garage up so he would have parking for his movie theater?  Only the Mayor knows and he won’t say unless you catch him on a good night at Sperry’s.

The next project that finally came to fruition is the development of the ‘Lillian’s parking lot’.  Now, here is something that baffles me (and that’s hard to do), with all this construction going on, Sonny has taken up around 75 parking spots between the Streets of Division, Franklin and Broadway, that’s right, he has roped them off so there is no parking, and guess where the construction workers are parking?  Right the SBWPG.  The Christmas season in full swing, the cry that we need out of towner’s eating and shopping on Broadway and you can’t get a parking spot, bravo for the planning.

I try to connect the dots and you have to follow the money.  Why shouldn’t Sonny pay to the DBA a sum of money for each parking spot he took for the number of days he will keep them shut off.

Let’s grade the 5 “heads of the City”

• Mayor “Rosie Cheeks” Johnson - D
• Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan – C+

• Commissioner of Accounts John Franck – B+

• Commissioner of Public Safety Chris Matessien – B-

• Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco – D

Now before you start to get hot under your collar, I don’t care what Party a person belongs to as long as they do his or her job.

• Mayor Johnson – D – The Mayor has said again that he will be appointing a Charter Commission to look at how to make the current Charter work better.  If only Johnson would have done this 4 years ago, it would have been credible.  Over the past 3 years he has said no less than 20 times that he would appoint a Charter Commission, then in the same breath he would say that he wanted everyone’s voice heard and after spending at least $100,000.00 of taxpayer money fighting citizens to put a legal proposal on the ballot, 5 days before the election he announced he would indeed appoint his Commission of at least 15 members.  I PREDICT that he will name the Commission during the State of the City address.  I have already been told by 2 members of the Committee that they have been charged with giving the Mayor power to control the budget process and to be the sole person to appoint outside employees i.e., lawyers, HR person, Engineers etc.

• It seems the Mayor is not only disregarding a Council mandate that he hire a                   Human Resource person that would be a full time City employee (vote 4-1, guess who the 1 was), as the City Charter calls for.  When citizens call him “Little King” I hope they know how little he really is (his goatee is even with the hem of a lady wearing a knee length dress, as a matter of fact, HBO wanted him to play Triyon the dwarf on the series “The Game of Throne’s”.  Well that may be stretching it a little but you get the idea.

• The Mayor would rather pay an ‘outside’ HR person $75,000.00 a year for a 20 hour work week.  Yes that’s $150,000,00 smakolas (a smakola =$1.00).  The Council especially Commissioner Madigan said there was enough money in the budget to have the City hire it’s own HR person for 40 hours a week for about $100,000.00 a year which would include benefits, wow, we know the Mayor loves using outside friends to work for the City, but his face isn’t too shiny on this subject.

The saving grace is that we will have to vote on the changes and we should vote no for a few reasons.  The current Charter was updated in 2001 which increased the Mayor’s authority, the positive changes in the Charter were eliminated during the first year of Mayor Johnson’s reign, as stated above the Johnson spent a large sum of money fighting a ballot proposal to be voted on by the people and his budget for his Commission will be at least $50,000.00.

I am sure that in the next year we will be finding out some interesting facts regarding the Mayor and his Deputy Shauna Sutton.

Next time, more on the Mayor and Shauna’s Building Inspector bungling.

Happy New Year and we will be discussing the Mayor, Shauna and Commissioner Mathiesen next time.

ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT JUSTIFIED

The Accounts Office – Commissioner John Franck, Deputy Commissioner Sharon Kellner-Chille and Tony Popolizio and anyone else Mary Zlotnick had accused of using their positions to cheat taxpayers out of money have been vindicated and now she can be terminated.  Mary has had it good these last 4 months. While not working she received full salary with benefits.

She is now living in Albany with a mystery man, reportedly the former Pinnacle HR person who had worked for the City.  She has been earning extra income it is said by leasing her assets (her house) in Saratoga Springs.

Zlotnick’s insistence of an open public hearing in front of  officer Christopher Nicolino, who oversaw the five days of witness testimony and weighed arguments on both sides of the case, found the city proved three of the five counts of insubordination they filed against Zlotnick Sept. 13.
Zlotnick went to the media with accusations of corruption in the city’s Accounts Department, where she worked as a clerk to Assistant City Assessor Tony Popolizio.  She “exhibited a willingness to be intentionally untruthful” during a disciplinary hearing on Aug. 25; and how she contacted the media “to spread untruthful allegations of misconduct” against Popolizio.
Zlotnick will be hard pressed to file a civil suit against the City as some say she will.  Testimony given against and by her have proven that she didn’t understand the Accounts office practices and it looks like she had started from day 1 to begin a witch hunt against her superiors.  Many wonder if she could even have been a plant by the Mayor or Deputy Mayor, but there are no hard facts of this, just inside scuttlebutt.  However, think about this, the Democrats have a majority this term, the Mayor is lost, and he looks like he is a deer in the headlights at the Council table.  The Mayor looks like he is a nervous wreck and has been complaining that he can’t get his way and is red as a beet 99% of the time.  The coloring could be because of high blood pressure or worse yet, dates with a Russian liquid.  It makes one wonder.  The damage to Franck and his office have been as bad as it could get.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a civil suit were filed against Ms. Zlotnick by the three, and if she is smart, take some heat off her and bring out those who put her up to this if anyone.

 Her accusations were cloudy from the beginning.  She contacted City Police and State officials before talking to her superiors, and then she went on the radio, newspaper and TV circuit to drum up support and portray herself as an innocent lamb looking to draw out self serving attention about her alleged scheme.  She has had her 15 minutes of fame and hopefully will ride into the sunset down in Albany.


 down in Albany.