I CAN TALK TOO!

Hello Bat fans.  The run for the money has started in earnest.  Looks like Sutton will have her (2) $500.00 per plate dinner fundraisers compliments of Scott Johnson and reportedly by residents of Palacio de Riggi.  The Mayor didn’t need the fundraisers as past Republicans did but Sutton’s lack of funds needed to win (about $75,000.00) will be made up by the fundraisers and by Johnson and his out of town attorney groups.

The NYS Funeral Association convention is being held this week in Saratoga and the guest speaker will be none other than our very own Mayor Scott Johnson, it seems that a group of happy funeral home directors were walking downtown one night and passed by Mayor Johnson as he came out of Sperry’s and thought he looked like someone from the Walking Dead, so they just had to have him on the agenda to see if he indeed talks.

The Police of Saratoga Springs, handicapped by former Commissioner Wirth’s layoffs are doing an incredible job in keeping the City in fine shape, is Saratoga Springs without crime?, No.  Take a look at national averages though and our crime rates are on the low side of cities throughout the country. 

According to the Saratogian:

“Saratoga Springs does have more arrests from reported burglaries than the national average.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation collects crime data from thousands of police agencies across the country, including Saratoga Springs. The national clearance rate for burglaries is 12.7 percent, which is the percentage of arrests made from reported burglaries. The city’s clearance rate for the last decade is 16.4 percent.”

 I would call that pretty good;  as for those of you who want instant up to the minute information on what the Police are up to, one word of advice would be to join the force, why is it that in today’s world we have to know everything that is going on as it happens?

The capital budget has been set and it seems that the Mayor and his aide Shauna Sutton have told residents on the Eastern Plateau that EMS and Fire protection should not be a priority for them.  Something has to be done and if it takes a change of leadership in the Mayor’s chair to do it then the Eastern Plateau residents should tuck this info in their mind for Election Day.

City Deputy Public Works Commissioner Tim Cogan said there are intake valves at the water plant that date back to 1871 and need to be replaced.  Please, if you could wait just 8 more years, we could have another year of Saratoga 150 festivities for those intake valves.

Remember that the primary’s are coming up soon and it should be a gauge on what the election will bring, so stay tuned and please attend one of those $500.00 a plate fundraisers, I know I will.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR - PART "QUATRE"

Skip Scirocco – D

Skip Scirocco, The Commissioner of Public Works, where do we start?  Well, it all started when Valerie Keehn ran for her 2^nd term and we all know the shafting that Tom McTygue gave her for 2 years.  Valerie was a decent Mayor but because of the squabbles along with her removing McTygue’s brother Billy from a seat on the Planning Board which in his position as Director of Public Works was at most unethical and may have been illegal started the bad blood, but she did what no other politician ever did and that was taking down McTygue while in the process it also cost her re-election.  Now, the story.  Skip, with the Democrat Party’s backing successfully drubbed McTygue.  The smartest thing that Skip did was name his Deputy (Pat Design), a former Deputy under McTygue, as a running mate.  Design was one of the best Public Works Deputy’s we’ve had in quite a while, so by naming him early on voters knew Design’s reputation and the results he produced which helped Skip immensely.

Just off topic a bit, some may be asking why did Skip announced his Deputy early on and other Commissioner’s wait until after the election?  The answer is really simple if you think about it.  The person running for a Commissioner’s position already knows who they would like as their Deputy and most likely has already discussed the issue with him or her.  The problem is that the Deputy probably has a full time job and if the decision was announced early their employer may start looking for a replacement and let the person go before the election, thus putting that person in a bad spot if their boss doesn’t win.

Okay, back to our story.  Why does Skip deserve a D?  You must know that Skip is a very nice guy, but nice guys don’t necessarily make one qualified to be a head of a department that they have no business running.  The Commissioner had it covered when Design was the Deputy as the Department was running in tip top shape, Broadway was always clean, flowers always pretty, Congress Park always neat etc.  Skip then forced Design out of his position and replaced him with Tim Cogan, who knows about as much as Skip does in running the Department.  I know Skip lost a number of employees and that may have a small impact on the Department, I say small, good management should be able to still get the job done if you know what you are doing.

With the Casino fiasco, having an employee paid $54,000.00+ to hand out rakes and shovels as a punishment, selling water to homes and businesses outside the City (a practice started by McTygue), installing mail boxes in the middle of sidewalks, keeping Broadway looking just a tad messy etc. grants him the D rating.

We must also remember that when he was a County Supervisor he worked very hard to keep the Racino out of Saratoga and now complains that we do not get enough money from the operation.  I can’t remember if he was part of the lawsuit that the illustrious Joe Dalton filed to fight the Racino from moving into Saratoga, but I would think that since they are all part of the good old boy’s network, one would think he was.

The latest bit of information gathered is that the City has bought 2 new trucks for both the Commissioner and his Deputy and that both are unmarked but are the property of Saratoga Springs.  I could be wrong but I thought all City vehicles had to be marked with either the round City logo or marked Saratoga Springs.  Well, whatever, does anyone really care?  If they did, I’m sure they would show up once in a while and ask some questions, oh yes I remember, we are not allowed to do so.