COMMISSIONERS SCIROCCO AND MADIGAN AT IT AGAIN

Well you can tell it is an election year in Saratoga Springs.  We’ll start with Scirocco, has your lawn debris been picked up weekly since summer?  Have you seen articles in the paper about all the projects large and small that Scirocco takes credit for? If you answer yes to these 2 questions then you have to know election time is this November.

Scirocco can’t really take credit for much as he contracts out quite a lot of what DPW does.  He hires more outside contractors and engineers as much as the City hires outside attorneys.

The rest of the 1 1/2 years the City looks like crap, ripped up roads all over the City and City property looking terrible, overgrown grass is common place, Congress Park is a mess and Broadway doesn’t look any better until 6 months before an election and it has been this way since he has been in office, he bit off more than he could chew when he took office.

The lawsuits that he has had against himself and the City have been numerous.  Among the ones out there involves the City Engineer he suspended earlier this year because he supports Dillon Moran and the water hookup fee which I don’t think is wrapped up yet.

Remember that his son who works for him in DPW was arrested on 4 counts of DWI and allowed to stay on the job.  Skip had another fellow who worked for the water Dept. drive him to the job sites.  He also cries he doesn’t have enough help but I am told by someone in the Finance Dept. that he turns money back every year to his darling Michelle to make her look good.

Skip was also involved in voting to give Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend a contract to do business with the City through their business.  Yes, Skip hired the Hot Dog to work for him in Public Works (he gets the Independence endorsements that way and a nice campaign donation).

This November you must vote for Saratoga native Dillon Moran.

ONTO COMM.MADIGAN

Well you can tell it is an election year in Saratoga Springs.  Commissioner Madigan who has lost the Democrat line on the ballot due to losing the Democrat primary has broken off on being a Democrat.  She is running on the Independence line and that Party is run by none other than DPW employee Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend.  This Party has never ran a candidate but once that I can remember but just endorses friends of theirs.  Commissioner Madigan is as thick as a heavy burgundy with Hot Dog’s girlfriend and also voted to give Hot Dog Eddy Miller and his girlfriend Joanne Foresta a contract to do business with the City through their business, both Scirocco and Madigan received the endorsement and a nice campaign donation from the Independence Party run by an employee of Scirocco and Commissioner Madigan’s best friend.  This information was taken to the Ethics Board but since that board is run by biased men and a woman they decided that nothing wrong happened, WOW.

Commissioner Madigan has had a few of her own problems I am sure you know about.  The 30 year deal with the fiber optics company that will cost Saratoga Springs a fortune and believe it or not this Company is the only entity that can run cables through our sewer lines.

This week she announced a 0.05% tax cut for City taxpayers even though expenses have risen. Madigan’s plan, an increase of $1.1 million over the adopted 2019 budget. Contractual wage increases, additional funding for information technology, increased commodity costs, and health insurance accounts for much of the year-over-year change. Personnel and benefits are up 1.9% and 2.5% in 2020, respectively.”  By the way there is a story going around the City of a very unknown and non transparent present the Commissioner will receive if elected this Fall and that will be an all expense paid (by taxpayers) top of the line health care policy all complete for life, yes life.  Should elected officials get lifetime benefits for life?  What happened to serve the people? Now, back to the tax decrease.  The Commissioner plans on paying the rising expenses with the budget surplus which she has been draining every year since she has been in office to pay for these increases which has given her the magic of not raising taxes over the last 8 years.  This is not a sound practice to run a City.  Well there will be more as election time draws near.

We must vote Morrison for Commissioner of Finance to not only save the large expense of for life health insurance benefits but also not leaving the City with much of a surplus.

This November you must vote for Patty Morrison.

THE PREDICTIONS:

Mayor – Tim Holmes

Commissioner of Finance – Patty Morrison

Commissioner of DPW – Dillon Moran

Commissioner of PS – Robin Dalton

Supervisors : 2

Matt Vietch

Steve Mittler

WELL IT’S TIME FOR THE ENDORSEMENTS

Next Tuesday is Election and I hope everyone will seriously think about the 3 unopposed Commissioners running and use your right to write in a name.  Below are my picks.

Mayor – Meg Kelly – she has experience running the office, is smart and reacts great with people

Commissioner of Public Safety –  Peter Martin -  He worked out well as Supervisor and his legal background is a benefit.  Mr. Braim is a retired police officer and on a City pension, not a good mix as I think a non -police person should do the job as Commissioner with the Police & Fire Chief running their own show with the Commissioner working with them when they need anything.

City Court Judge – Francine Vero – she has the experience being on the bench and also no one knows who the heck her opponent is.

Now to write in these names :

Commissioner of Accounts – Gordon Boyd (you don’t need to be a CPA, just good)

Commissioner of Finance – Jeffery Altimeri – CPA, Former Senior Vice-President of Finance of a company doing 19 Billion dollars of business a year, yes,  $19 BILLION.  I think I would trust his financial recommendations over who we have now and he most likely wouldn’t have put the City in a 1 million dollar Budget deficit this year.   Also as John Franck said at a Council meeting  about Comm. Madigan – paraphrasing ‘she is a librarian not a finance director’.

Commissioner of Public Works – Patrick Kane – why?  He found out Skippy’s nickname - Chicken S.

County Supervisors:  Vote for 2 out of the 4 running

Matt Veitch, John Safford, Tara Gaston, Pat Freisen

This is a tough one to pick as all 4 are very good candidates and I wish we could vote for all 4.  Alas, it cannot be, so here it is.

1.    Matt Veitch – he has the experience, gets things done and works with Republicans & Democrats equally

2.    Tara Gaston – Young, great ideas and a background to get things done.

As I said they all are good candidates and good people so good luck to all 4.

CHARTER CHANGE – VOTE YES – turn your ballot over and vote YES to proposal 4.

ONE WEEK BEFORE THE ELECTION

As we near Election Day and the removal of those darn signs, we were discussing the choices this year.  It’s not that one Party is better than the other although each Party will say they are, but it’s all about the candidates.  This year it happens that the Democrats have the better candidates running for office.

You can’t top Joanne Yepsen, she was our rep on the County Board of Supervisors and throughout her tenure did a very good job and was an excellent partner along with Republican Matt Veitch.

Shauna Sutton on the other hand has a record that is mostly bad.  Why?  Well for starters she is not well liked by those who work with her in City Hall (there has to be a few exceptions), she is not liked by many people she meets and even quite a few Republicans won’t be flying with her.  One of the things she said in the paper and at the debate is that she saved the City $32 million dollars with settlement of contracts this year, heck our whole budget is $38 million dollars.  She was part of the biggest cover up in Saratoga’s recent history.  Hiding public information when the City built the Woodlawn Parking Garage and then you had to FOIL any public information that you, a citizen, had the right to have.  Playing games with 2 or 3 building inspectors when they wouldn’t name her tune, that’s right games.   Hiring a City Planner that was dismissed from Wilton (could she be a friend)?  Spewing along with the Mayor that the money for the Garage was a combination of public and private money when the lot was owned by the City, the City financed the garage along with the downtown merchants.  The downtown merchant’s money came from the business district taxes which in fact is public money.  Where is the private money?

Sutton is also anti small business, ask the small businesses on the West side that Sutton is trying to close.  It seems if your name is not Bonacio, Roohan or Julie Bonacio you can forget about getting a building permit in the City or cooperation or a CO, which by the way the Rec operated for quite a while without a CO and that was just dandy with Johnson and the wannabe Mayor.  It seems that some builders can get fast tracked and also the Planning Board rules have changed to facilitate these large contractors, just look at who is contributing to Sutton’s campaign.  It is the right of the Mayor along with his Deputy (Sutton) to mould very important Committees but during their tenure every Democrat was replaced by a Republican, so much for equal representation,

Nobody knows John Arpie, so not too much can be said about him except he doesn’t know squat about paint (inside joke John).

We know the job that John Franck does and he does it well.  He does not play political games in his capacity as Commissioner and has even started programs during his tenure to help citizens understand how to go about lowering their assessments if the committee sees a reason to do so.

Skip Scirocco just doesn’t get it.  The City looks a mess.  Broadway is always dirty, Congress Park is a disgrace and the final straw was the back room deal he made to sell water to Wilton when we do not have enough water for Saratoga.  What happens when the Weibel Ave. project is done and Sonny buys more property out there and they start sucking water?  When you go by our reservoir on 50 take a look at how many inches the water level is down.  Skip keeps telling us that we have all the wells we need but where’s the water?  We need a change.

Dick Wirth had his chance and didn’t get anything done.  If he did he never spoke about it at a Council meeting.  Tony Izzo spoke more in a month than Wirth did in 2 years. Mathiesen ran on a platform and won; he also has carried out his promises and has gone above and beyond expectations.

The Supervisor race should be an easy one to pick.  Veitch has the experience and the know how to get things done.  The race will be between Martin and Ivins.  Martin is far and away the better candidate.  He has worked with the Supervisors in his capacity as County Clerk and can solve and articulate the problems not only as a representative of Saratoga Springs but as a County rep as well.  We also feel that having two smart and well spoken Supervisors one a Democrat and a Republican on the Board will represent all of Saratoga Springs

MEN IN TIGHT’S, EVERYBODY’S IN BUT ANDY

The Republican Party has delayed the handing in of their petitions for 2 weeks and it looks like they may delay a few more days.  The best guess is early next week when they introduce Andy Jarosh as a candidate for Commissioner of Finance, opposing Michele Madigan, which will fill their ticket, Andy is probably away on vacation, hence the wait.  I have been told the first delay was because they couldn’t find any one to oppose Franck.  After getting turned down 22 times according to my source, the Party finally talked John Arpei into contesting Franck for his seat.  It looks like the same scenario for someone to accept a chance to run against Madigan.  Republican sources have said that the same number (in the 20’s) had turned down the call to run for Mayor, Accounts and Finance, it seems Supervisor and DPS were easy to fill, especially  since Dick Wirth promised to Primary any Republican candidate for DPS unless they chose him.  The Republican’s, of course, want to look united so they gave the nod to him.  Similarly, the position of Mayor was proposed to so many people who declined it, that they finally had to throw their support to Sutton, whom they didn’t really want in that slot.

Supervisors were an easier task.  Matt Veitch is considered a shoo in and rightly so.  Peter Martin enters the race against Ken Ivins, Ivins enters the race carrying so much baggage from his City seat, that after 2 years of $0.00 tax increases he was still soundly defeated by an unknown Madigan, who has done some very good things with the Finance Department, the best of which is updating the department and putting income and expenses of every department and even the sub categories of every dept on line, that’s transparency.

Martin will give Ivins a run for his money especially since Ivin’s theme seems to be that more Republicans should be on the BOS to get more things done.  We would like to remind Ivins that there are 19 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 1 Independence party members seated on the Board now.  How many more Republicans are needed to get things done?  I think a good mix would be a Democrat and Republican representing the City.

Bill McTygue versus Skip Scirocco should be an interesting race also.  Will Saratogian’s say Scirocco’s number is up?  I feel the question will come down to, other than the foolish deed of selling water to Wilton to fulfill the Mayor’s pledge to Dave Harper (the attorney for the developer) that a housing development outside the City will get our water is this:  Is Saratoga Springs a better looking City now than it was before he took over?  Infrastructure cannot be seen, so we should know what has been done to improve that.  One other thing, when a project like building a condo etc. is finished, the developer is supposed to grade the street that they wrecked or cracked and repave it, all at no expense to the City or in other words we the taxpayers, I hope this has been the norm.

ARE THE SLATES SET YET?

Well, it looks like the Republican slate is set to go.  One inside Republican told me that they had asked no fewer than 20 people to run for Mayor with no takers, so they had to settle on Shauna Sutton.  The only slots the Republicans are having more trouble filling are for Accounts and Finance and it seems that by asking so many candidates for Mayor, one would think they would also ask those people to run for these slots but alas, no takers.  The only worry that Republicans have is the race for Mayor.  Again, the Party did everything it could do, to have someone run for office and they wanted to stay as far away from Sutton as they could.  The City can look forward to one of the dirtiest campaigns ever.  Remember, she ran Johnson’s campaign last time and it got so dirty at the end that even the Mayor lost Republican votes, making the race close.  The rest of the slate looks possible, Vietch will win another term, the other race for Supervisor pits former Commissioner of Finance Ken Ivins against a yet unnamed opponent, however there are 2 names floating around.  Scirocco while a long term incumbent, looks like he will have an opponent this year so his unopposed runs might be over.  The problem to look at with Ivins and Wirth are that both are losers in the election businesses and it may be hard to sweet talk the voters they lost last time.

The Democrats have not yet endorsed candidates yet, although all have had fundraisers so it looks like a given the incumbents will get the official stamp.  The only races they haven’t officially spoken about would be the 2 candidates for Supervisor and the candidate for DPW.  With all the jockeying around it still looks like the Democrats will have a majority on the Council, how large remains to be seen, but rest assured Sutton will be the only Republican who will self destruct, its in her genes, her obnoxious behavior and acidic tongue will be a turn off as soon as she hits the road.  She should bring a pillow with her.