ERROR, ERROR

In past posts, I have alluded that Shauna Sutton, Director of the Greenridge Cemetery, that she (Sutton of the North) had hired her husband to work at the cemetery.  I would like to apologize, it is not her husband, it is her BROTHER.  The current Deputy Mayor has never taken or used her married last name of Dowd.  It is said that she tried to have her husband take her last name.  I find this quite comical, not that she would want to give  up her last name but woman usually use a hyphen between maiden and married names,  could it be that Sutton has never been married or is it because her husband is a car salesman and doesn't  fit her ‘station’ in life?

Also, why is the Republican team putting election signs on City properties?  Who the heck enforces these laws? Oh wait, it’s part of the Republican election team, now that makes sense.

One question everyone is asking themselves is : Who is John Arpei and why is he putting signs up?  It will be interesting to see how many votes he will get when no one knows who he is.

I hope that we finally have a small tax increase in this year’s budget. A City should never have a 0% budget.  Costs, wages, equipment replacement, benefits etc. rise every year and a tiny increase could add 2 or 3 jobs to the Fire and Police Departments, keeping the budget surplus there to tap when we need it.

Well, I must get ready to go to the meeting tonight, I heard there will be a ring of humanity (tonight it will be 4-5 people) protesting Super Fly who fell from the scaffolding and blamed the Police for brutality.  I heard that he broke a few laws being out that time of night and he was heard humming Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line”.

More after the meeting tonight, that will probably go on into Wed. afternoon.

Let’s end with Curtis Mayfield’s Song Superfly, or as 

Darryl Mount likes to say, it me theme song

“Darkest of night
With the moon shining bright
There's a set goin' strong
Lotta things goin' on
The man of the hour
Has an air of great power
The dudes have envied him for so long

Oh, superfly
You're gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don't ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die”

LEGACY OR LUNACY?

The City of Saratoga Springs Republican Party is looking hard to find a legacy for Mayor Scott Johnson with no luck.  The Recreation Center that was supposed to be a money maker for the City in its first couple of years is bleeding money big time.  The newest Parking Garage was the idea of a past City Council as was the Lake Front.  The things I will remember about him and his cracker jack terms would be his haughty attitude to fellow Commissioner’s and citizens of Saratoga, his suppression of the citizens right to vote on the Charter issue, having to FOIL any bit of public information from his office or the Building Dept., and the issuance of orders for employees to not give out any public information that citizens asked for.  The Building Inspector debacle will also cast his terms as a dark spot.  There were questionable decisions that were made regarding issues at the Recreation Center and the new Parking Garage which resulted in the Inspectors being let go after not bending to the will of the Mayor or Deputy Sutton, and if I remember correctly, after the City’s Inspector wouldn’t pass an item the Mayor wanted passed at the Recreation Center he was let go and an Inspector from Albany was called in and even she agreed with the City Inspector’s ruling and against the wishes of Johnson/Sutton. Should we trust a Mayor who, with only the Commissioner of DPW makes a back room deal with Wilton to get our precious water?

 Today another attempt was made regarding the sanctity of Johnson’s decisions. 

Ms. Sandi Cross, a current City Republican Committee person and former President of the City Republican Woman’s Committee and one who was taken under the wing of former County Chairman Jasper Nolan.  She is Saratoga County Director of the Office of the Aging (appointed by the County Supervisors yearly), and is now under the service of current chairman John Herrick. Ms. Cross was also the campaign manager for Skip Scirocco for a few campaigns.

Director Cross has penned a Letter to the Editor in Sunday’s Saratogian, stating “City Democrats are obstructionists”.  I don’t think anything could be farther from the truth. 

Ms. Cross is upset because the 3 Democrats who with popular support will not cave into Mayor Johnson’s elite appointments.  While the majority of the Council agrees that all the appointments (some who don’t even live in Saratoga Springs) are fine people, I don’t see the relevance.  I feel the appointments are good people looking out for their own interests (nothing wrong with that, if you can get away with it).  The Democrats however, would like to see citizens from different areas of the City that would be affected by the changes that will be envisioned by this Plan, not too much to ask for.  The Mayor has assured the Council as well as interested citizens that they will have their say during comment periods before meetings (we all know how that works at Council meetings), the Mayor will also set up a web site so citizens can ask questions, keeping them away from meetings. Ms. Cross and Mayor Johnson, we have plenty of caring and smart every day citizens that can be committee appointees, why even keep the consultant to keep the committee on track.

In the first paragraph I stated that Mayor Johnson was suppressing voter’s rights according to Saratoga Citizen in not allowing a lawful proposal to be put on the ballot while spending at least over $70,000.00 and very costly City employee time in fighting Saratoga Citizen in Court and losing both lawsuits.  The majority Party at the time (Republican) had no qualms about siding with the Mayor that time.

So, Ms. Cross accuses the Democrats of being obstructionists, while the citizens are clamoring for equal representation on the CPR.  Ms. Cross accuses the Democrats of being obstructionists because they don’t feel the $65,000.00 consultation fee is a tad too high for what the Mayor wants to bestow on a friends Company.  It is said, just follow the money, The Mayor spending well over $70,000.00 to outside Attorney’s & internal employee time devoted to keeping citizens from voting on an issue and wanting to spend $60,000.00 + on consultation when citizens can’t even have a say on who should represent their interests.

 It’s no fun to keep writing about County or City Republican Party lunacy.  The past 2 weeks have shown us some of the bad side of Republican strong arm politics regarding job spots, things are not what they used to be.  There are no more political bosses, people who care can raise their voices and make things happen.  Citizens of Saratoga, let’s raise our voices and demand equal representation on the Comprehensive Planning Review Committee, remove some of the special interest reps, businesses or non profits  that pay no taxes and put on some good, smart and willing citizens of our City.

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE (hum the Bocelli & Brightman song)

Well, it’s time to say adios as Poncho Villa Johnson rides into the sunset.  He leaves a legacy as a Mayor that has cost citizens the most money in outside attorney fees, legal losses and fines and penalty’s associated with the losses and other monies lost to the City such as having lost valuable revenue from Nat’l Grid by not renegotiating an expired contract for 5 years and not renegotiating the Time Warner contract (another 5 year loss of money).  The Rec Center should be his legacy because promising after it was built and in operation for 1 year it would not only pay for itself but make money, well it doesn’t pay for itself and costs taxpayers at least $100,000.00 - $150,000.00 in losses each year, plus WHERE ARE THE SHOWERS ? Now that is a legacy.  He terminated the full time HR Director the City employed and as is his managing style hired an outside company that supplies the City with an HR person that works 20 hours a week for a total of $75,000.00 a year or more, if he has to put in a few extra hours.  The dollar amount is much higher than the full time HR Director made.  He also takes credit for bringing peace and dignity back to the office of Mayor and to the Council.  That was the case when he had a 4-1 majority in his favor and had what we called the bobble head kids that sat at the table.  The 3 kids sat there bobbing their heads up and down at anything the Mayor said, leaving John Franck to be the voice of reason and as most thought the real mayor at the table.  However, when in a minority and where a real leader should step up to lead, our Mayor falls apart and becomes more hostile and pompous and the more ineffective he became.  You could read the fact he wasn’t going to run again after the last election when he was almost upset by a new comer to the local political scene.  He has looked dazed and confused ever since.  That stool at Sperry’s will be getting an even better workout now.

We would like to make one more think clear to the now Mr. ‘Lame Duck’ Mayor.  When you spoke proudly of the public/private monies that were used to build the new parking garage, you forgot to mention that there were no private monies involved.  The City owned the lot, the DBA donated money but that comes from their tax fund and the City paid the rest, so all in all it is tax payer money, no matter what the spin you tried to put on it.

Well, in closing I want to say thank you Mayor Johnson, you did make these last 5 years of Council meetings fun filled and sometimes hilarious.  I would also like to pass on a tip to the Deputy Mayor, she should have your gavel bronzed because after leaving office she may have some extra time and can come over to polish the thing.

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.

COUNCIL MEETINGS

The City Council meetings are getting a little embarrassing for those who live here and for those who listen or watch, either living in Saratoga or outside the City.  The Mayor has turned a willing Council, one that has been trying to work across Party lines to make Saratoga Springs a better place and is calling any positive move of theirs as playing political games, (I wonder if that’s anything like reindeer games?).  It is sad that because the Democrats hold the majority and it would accomplish so much more if the Mayor didn’t act like a 2 year old not getting his way.  Imagine if you will, what could happen if both Party’s worked together.  Also, will someone check what is in the water cooler?  The Mayor is up there 7-10 times a meeting filling his cup and gets redder as the meeting progresses.

In the Mayor, Saratoga Springs has a person who not only runs meetings like he was a judge in a court room ( a position he could never attain), but twists the legal parts of our Charter to fit his need for power while ignoring those laws that he should follow.  The Mayor seems to be getting worse every week at flaunting the laws of the city while totally disregarding specific laws dealing with the rights of the other 4 Commissioners, all the while blaming it on political games that the are being played and holding him hostage.  One could not even make this up if they tried and it is really getting sad that by his actions he is not only making himself a laughing stock in the City but also in the Capital District.

At the 2 minute time period allowed for citizens to air thoughts to the Council, Bill McTygue argued that the water sales concerning Saratoga Springs selling water to Wilton may not be in the City’s best interest.  There are 16 homes now that will benefit and the Mayor gave the total of 25 homes/businesses.  There is another 75-80 acres that could be developed in the area discussed and I wouldn’t doubt that the Mayor and Skip have already had discussions with a developer.  Anyway, Mr. McTygue was gaveled down the minute he uttered the evil words that the Mayor does not run a transparent government.  When the Mayor was asked there should be more time for citizens to have discussion on the matter before anything was signed as 2 minutes was not enough time for discussion on such an important matter he was ruled out of order and the Mayor himself looked like he wanted to tackle him for using the word transparent.

It was good that the next 2 speakers, Mark Lawton and Charles Morrison insisted that this issue should have a long period of time set aside for citizen discussion, but Johnson and Scirocco will not stand for this and the Mayor will find some word to do an end around the Council even if it means going to court.  Bill, run for DPW please!!

Let’s look at another example that took place at Tuesday’s meeting worthy of showing Johnson’s Napoleon complex.  He has started the process for the Comprehensive Plan Review as called for in the Charter, which gives him that duty as Mayor to initiate.    The law 2.8, Sec. states:

“Initiation of reviews. The Mayor shall cause a review of

the City Comprehensive Plan and City Charter to be

conducted periodically. The City Comprehensive Plan shall

be reviewed at least every five years, commencing with the

effective date of this Charter. The City Charter shall be

reviewed at least every 10 years commencing with the

effective date of this Charter.”

As said, the Mayor has caused the review, but nowhere does it state that he/she can appoint all members of the Committee, again, a run around of the law where he manipulates said law that he says indicates gives him the power to do so.  This is sad that a person (Mayor Johnson) has to have complete control when the law does not give him that right (lawyers, should never hold public office).  As Elmer Fudd once said 'there hasn’t been a law that I can’t manipulate' you wascially wabit.

We at the Justice League hope that enough people will see the long list of cover ups and huge mistakes that the Mayor and his Deputy have made during their administration.  I would hope that Sutton will be once again working among the dead after November.

THE SPEECHES ARE IN AND POSSIBLY SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION

First, important information regarding the upcoming November election.  It looks like the Dem’s will have a full slate of candidates for Council and for the 2 Supervisor positions.

Rumor also has it that either the Mayor or Deputy Shauna had released information on the slate for the Republicans running for City office.  They also have a full slate which includes Mayor Johnson, Ken Ivins (though not for his old position), Dick Wirth, Skip and loser in the race for the Chair of the City Republican Party, Andy Jarosh (think Kate Jarosh as his possible Deputy).  Some of these are hard to believe but when you recycle those who lost a seat on the Council rarely gain a position back.  Such is the state of the Republican Party, one which seems to be disintegrating since John Herrick took over and continues today.  We shall see.

Well, both the Mayor’s State of the City Speech took place and the Democratic Committee’s response has been printed in the paper.  The Mayor’s speech gave us a little to be worried about.

1. The State of the City Speech started off nicely but he ran into trouble when he did some things no other Mayor has ever done in a State of the City Speech before and that is when he told his fellow Commissioners that “he was voted into office on a vote of Saratogian’s “rejecting the then-dysfunctional government that was rampant with divisive politics”, then warned the Commissioners and warned them that “there have been indications” that “some are attempting to return to politics as usual.” He then “call told the City Council to abandon any personal agendas and earn the respect demanded of City Hall.” 

2. At the City Council meeting 2 days before the Speech, the amendment to create a Comprehensive Plan Committee was tabled for 2 weeks.  The reason for this I had suspected at the time was that the majority of the Council (4-1) members were afraid the Mayor already chose his members.  NY State law requires the Council as a whole appoint the committee, but as mayor Johnson has pointed out in the past, he thinks he is above the law.  Well, as you may have guessed, if you agreed with my 2^nd sentence, during his speech, in his own words, he said ‘Today I confirm that I have established a Comprehensive Plan Committee…’  He then names the organizations and boards the members will come from, however, he also does not mention that there will be no representation from the regular citizenry on the Committee.  He does allow the Council to appoint 1 member each, but he will have to approve the choice, (expect a lawsuit over this one).   The man again shows that he cannot work with the opposite Party while in the same breath, accuses them of the same thing.

3. There has been news from a person with knowledge of the Charter Review Commission that allegedly the Commission has been chosen by the Mayor and they have been meeting since December at the Deputy’s house crafting their plan.  Johnson has announced what he wants the Commission to look at updating. The budget (he wants more involvement), longer terms of office, Charter language stating he has the authority to outsource the HR Dept. We now pay an outsourced firm the Mayor has employed which pays them $75,000.00 per year for a 20 hour work week.  We could have a full time in house HR Director for that price working full time.  He has also charged them with looking into and possibly change each Departments duties and responsibilities (sounds like he wants to be a STRONG MAYOR), Mayor Johnson, that was voted down in 2006.  If the Mayor would just follow the current Charter that was changed in 2001 instead of eliminating mandated duties things might just run a little better, but again, why follow the law?

In the Democrats response they do make some valid points.   The commented that “the WHOLE Council worked diligently to enact laws for the welfare of all of our city’s inhabitants. We applaud the successes that they and many of our city’s servants participated in”.

“Some of these successes are easily measurable. The City Council reduced our real property tax rates while increasing city services (despite the mayor’s votes against both the budget and the fire department’s provision of emergency medical services). The council prudently set aside funds in various reserves such as retirement, buildings and infrastructure, and tax stabilization (rejecting the mayor’s proposal to spend a portion of these on a parking lot in a residential neighborhood), and set aside funds for contingencies involving unaddressed labor contracts.”

“Other success stories are just as meaningful. Through the combined efforts of the City Council and downtown business owners, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, private security guards and city police are now working together for safer streets.”

“The Mayor announced that he will appoint a Charter Review Commission with a very specific charge. Despite the defeat of a proposal to change our commission form of government to a strong mayor form six years ago, the mayor appears to have pre-determined that his commission will develop a charter that changes the power of the commissioners and specifically removes budget-making power from the commissioner of Finance.

We suspect that the Mayor’s powers would be commensurately increased.”  I had said this last month and anyone following the Mayor for the last 5 years could tell he wants to keep grasping for more power.  Something I always wondered about over the last 5 years was the Mayor by law gets to appoint members to three exceptionally influential boards: The Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the City Center Board. In five years, the mayor has yet to appoint one Democrat to these boards; every Democrat whose term expired was replaced by a Republican.  The Boards seats are now filled with mostly all Johnson appointments.  I would think in a sense of fair representation he would appoint some qualified Democrats and maybe reappoint some, not many but some.  This is an example though of what he stressed in his Speech though, he doesn’t play politics.  Praise the Lord.

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.