FUNNY SARATOGA SPRINGS

 

With the beginning of Fall,  a few thoughts.

When will City Hall be open so everyone can see the palace that Madigan (the Mad Hater) call her office?  The amount she spent on furniture is the talk of City workers and soon the citizens when we can see it.

Talking about City Hall, exactly how much is it going to cost the taxpayers?  Madigan’s incompetence with budget matters pre pandemic will  raise taxes big time. 

The fight between Madigan & Scirocco regarding camera’s being monitored  in Congress Park at night was a bit childish on Madigan’s part ,she has to be yelling at someone at Council meetings and the big surprise is that it was her Siamese twin Scirocco .  Black Lives Matter destroyers toppled a Civil War era monument to those Saratogians that died serving in the Civil War and other vandalism will most likely never be caught.  Madigan hired a PR firm to come up with a ‘Mask Campaign ’ about wearing masks cost taxpayers some big money and was about 5 months too late.  She didn’t want to spend the money for a position to monitor Congress Park’s cameras and a nighttime dispatcher but had the money for her projects, it’s a funny thing what happens when you have 1 person in charge of all the money – they get what they want and everyone else has to beg.

Well Charter Change is back on the ballot and this year the Democratic Committee voted to support the initiative.  The renegade ex Democratic committee members who quit the Committee last year when they couldn’t get their way are leading the group opposed to the change.  They just can’t stand not getting their way on all things.  They are as bad as Republican leaders who don't want to give up controlling the City. As one of the Anti - Change leaders Jane Weihe wife of John Kaufman the unbiased blooger (hahaha) said “Abolishing and setting up a new government is expensive, disruptive, and challenging under the best of circumstances. Why would we want to do it – imagine this – doing it during a pandemic and in the midst of probably the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression? "So our message is this…make love, not wards!”

Jane Weihe, there is no large expense in a change and saving money and better management and citizen involvement with their government is a good thing right?  And as for your words of wit “So our message is this…make love, not wards!”,I hope your husband is up for it. Sore losers all around these ex Dem Committee whiners are.

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.

RIP VAN WINKLE (SCIROCCO) WOKE UP

I attended the Council meeting on Tues. April 1^st and as I sat there and watched the SAVE group who were happy in one sense but nervous in another.  The were thanking the Council for changing their minds from a year ago when they voted yes to expanded gaming by a 5-0 margin to changing their minds in March not to allow the expansion of table games.  However, they were a little nervous as was Commissioner Scirocco because the vote they took in March was non binding as they wanted to see what the RFA required and also see what negotiations could be achieved with Saratoga Casino & Raceway.

The issue looks moot for Saratoga getting a casino anyway because of the Albany proposal.  That proposal blows Saratoga out of the water and will truly become a destination venue which looks like it will even cut into the track season with the plans that the Albany casino has.

SAVE, now wants to go after the Saratoga Casino & Raceway to not be able to expand at all.  Get this through your heads SAVE, the City cannot make the Thoroughbred track, Harness track or Racino do anything or make them jump through any hoops to build or not build.  The City does not own the property, the State governs what can or cannot be built there.  The convention center and hotel will get under way very soon and has the go ahead to do so.

Now here is the comical part of the meeting.  If you remember at the State of the City address, Mayor Yepsen appointed a local Racing Committee made up of racing people from the Thoroughbred, Harness and businesses dealing with both industries to monitor the effect on developments that will keep our City officials up to date on any positive or negative trends that start to happen.  She introduced the Committee members who are outstanding in their own fields and they stood to a round of applause.  Last night when Mayor Yepsen announced that this Committee would look at a proposal for a casino to be placed somewhere close by and what it may mean for our economy, our sleepy Commissioner asked who appointed this committee?  Why is this Racing Committee just for Saratoga Springs, we already have a NYS Racing Committee?  When was this Committee appointed?  Obviously Scirocco fell asleep during the Christmas Holiday’s and woke up on April Fool’s Day. 

Speaking about Rip Van Scirocco, is everyone happy with how clean downtown has looked the past few years?  I have received some comments from friends that the streets never looked as dirty as they have been in the last few years.  I think either Rip or his outside Deputy needs to stay on top of this and they may even have to check with the inside Deputy, Donna Buckley to make things work.

In closing, I would like to ask Commissioner Scirocco to apply for the license to apply the copper sulfate to the ponds in Congress Park this year before you drift off again.  You forgot last year and the ponds looked like swamps which were quite embarrassing when showing a beautiful park to out of town visitors.  Get with it