ELECTION NOT QUITE OVER

Well, the election season is almost over.  There are 3 races left to be determined, the Commissioner of Public Safety post which if Peter Martin holds onto his lead will be the biggest upset in Saratoga Springs voting in years.  The second position will be that of the 2^nd Supervisor post, Tara Gaston currently holds the lead and the third is probably the most important vote in Saratoga Springs in the last 100 years, yes Charter Change.  In a surprising vote at the end of election night The Yes vote had a slim 48 vote lead over the No voters.   With over 500 absentee votes to be counted on Tuesday it will be nail biting time for all those involved with the outcomes.  If I am not mistaken most of the absentee ballots are from senior housing and nursing homes so this will be an indication of how or aged population is up to date with the goings on in the City.

Again, it is very sad that our Democratic & Republican Chairmen cannot handle their jobs.  One of their functions is to make sure every position has someone from their respective Party running for office.  In a City as great as Saratoga Springs that can’t be too hard of a job, there must be many people that want to take part in keeping this City great, right?

One of the most notable and pathetic things that came out of this election was to show how bad of a job our unopposed Commissioners are doing especially one that was highlighted throughout the campaign season and that is Commissioner Skippy Scirocco, not only can’t he do his job but it seems there is no direction coming from the Deputy position.

It was highlighted during the season that the water in Saratoga Springs tastes terrible, some areas had lead in the water and low pressure was a problem in many areas of the City.  Pictures showing the disgusting shape of our water lines were shown by groups with the hope someone in DPW would get it.  Well some revelation must have happened election night.

I want to start off by saying that the picking up of leaves and lawn debris has come down to once every 4 weeks, Skippy has sheared off staff to help Madigan keep her budget deficit under 2 million dollars this year, so he hasn’t got the staff to work the streets and has to pull them off that job and put them on other jobs.

That being said, Skippy is feeling the heat for the condition of water pressure, and of the water lines which I had showed you in pictures in previous posts.  I’ll put one up here.  

Now, at this time of the year, with freezing temperatures, Skip, Donna or his Deputy has decided to FLUSH the hydrants.  The problem with this is, it’s the wrong time of the year, not only is it freezing out but the water will pick up and carry the leaves that haven’t been picked up by DPW workers (as they now have to flush the hydrants) will be floating and will cover the water  drains.  What type of leadership do we have here and how can this Commissioner sit at the Council table saying how much worse off we will be under a new form of government?  This man in incapable of doing his job and has been for the last 10 years.  This is what we get for having Party leaders giving someone a free pass at election time.

Flushing of the hydrants will begin Nov. 13^th and will continue through, THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING, November 24^th. 

Anyway, we wait to see what shakes out Tuesday.

Just one other tidbit, on election day, candidate and loser Mark Baker stopped in to most voting places handing out apples, something I don’t think was kosher for a candidate to do.

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.

CAN’T CATCH A BREAK

It seems the Republican Party is having a hard time getting candidates to run for office.  They have backed 2 losers in Ken Ivins and Dick Wirth.  When I say losers, I don’t mean it as a reference to their personal character (although that may be one reference, but not now); I mean to say that they were beaten on their records, so it appears that the R. Party will have to back these 2 announced candidates.

There is also a rumor floating around that Shauna ‘of the dead’ Sutton will have to take the endorsement of Mayor because of a lack of volunteers for the position and that she will do so while being backed by  Johnson money.  If this is going to happen, it will all but guarantee Yepsen a victory as Sutton’s husband and family would not vote for her, I am not one for political advice but Shauna, stay in the cemetery.

The Wirth run is interesting.  He was beaten, not so much from his lack of being at meetings (he was there but his mind was in the female officer’s shower room) and his failure to being anything but a pure puppet of John Herrick and Scott Johnson.  It was embarrassing when the Council had to wake him up so he could vote on a piece of legislation.  I think the only reason the Party endorsed him is (a) they had no one else and (b) he said he would run, with or with out Party support.

Wirth’s opponent, Chris Mathiesen, won the election because of the promise’s he would carry out.  He has carried out those promises and more, maybe a little too verbosely but performed as he promised.  His call to turn back the closing hours of bars failed to garner even a look by our County Board of Supervisors but  resulted in the Mayor of Glens Falls to pitch the same idea to the Warren County BOS, who last week voted to do just that, so now the proposition will go to the State with County approval.

Also, shouldn't it be a prerequisite that a candidate announce his or her Deputy before the election?  How do we know that the Deputy will be qualified for the position and not just a politicaly appointed position, heavens knows we have had enough of patronage attempts at the County level

I was wrong in predicting that Ivins would run against John Franck.  The order from Harper came down that he would not get the backing of the Party if he pursued that avenue.  If Ivins runs on his past record as he said in his announcement, he is in trouble from the get go and his statement that more Republicans are needed on a Board that is comprised of 19 Republicans to 3 Democrats and 1 Independence party members, (nothing against Republicans) are needed to get things done at the County level, must have been said after the cocktail hour.

Let us also not forget Johnson’s, Harper’s and Scirocco’s Watergate.  This will be huge at election time.

So, that leaves rumored Democrat Peter Martin to run for County Supervisor, a candidate who has not been named yet as Sciricco’s opponent, Andrew Jarosh a designated hitter for any position and opponents for Madigan and Franck.

The picture should become clearer by the middle of May.