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.

DRIVING MISS DAISY

Well, it seems that the Mayor has given another order and Commissioner Scirocco has done the deed.

First, we want to welcome the Mayor back from his minor surgery (the doctor’s had to remove a sliver from his butt that he received from a bar stool at his restaurant (he has to pad his seat).

However, to the stories:

 It seems the Mayor who is in contract negotiations with DPW again is getting a little testy and groveling to some of the DPW Commissioner’s pleas.  The foreman from the East Side who was arrested for DWI or DUI, I can’t keep my letters straight, cannot drive a truck anymore and word has it is that he will most likely loose his license for 90 days at his court hearing on 3/20.  An inside source buzzed that the last 2 snow storms we had that needed plowing, the Commissioner had to “hire” him a chauffeur (the Deputy Commissioner) to plow his route while the foreman sat in the passenger seat, collecting his foreman’s pay rate.  I hope as in past practices that when a foreman is suspended from performing those duties and has to be downgraded to laborer, the pay scale also goes down until such time his job title is restored if indeed it ever is.  This is something key to watch because it is a very dangerous situation when a City employee is inebriated and gets behind the wheel of a truck, if God forbid, there was an accident or even a fatality, we the citizens would have to pay the price and live with the knowledge that the superiors   are not monitoring a drinking employee.

I know, you’ll say, like the Mayor does every time he loses a law suit and the City has to payout that our ‘insurance’ will pay the monetary damages.  However we are not stupid are we?  Every time the City loses a lawsuit and has to pay, our deductable and rates go up costing guess who to pay more? Bully incompetence I say, incompetence.

In other news, the Commissioner had to address the Casino as it needs better drainage in the basement.  The City employ’s a City Engineer and an Asst. City Engineer, but like the Mayor it seems that the Commissioner likes to out source jobs as well.  He contracted for an outside Engineer to the tune of $100,000.00 and the aide of the Asst. City Engineer (allegedly costing us a figure estimated at $20,000.00 for her time, which was work time not paid extra) for a total of about $100,020.00 or so.  The decision was made on how to correct the situation but we have it from a bumble bee that the cost of the job was only $100,000.00 and will not be done, it seems that the Commissioner thought the job would be much higher and could be bonded but the basement will still be wet.

It was also reported by a Bat Fan that the Contractor that is doing the renovation at the water works is using City vehicles to transport piping over to and using City tools to cut and tool piping.  Taxpayers are paying this Company to do the job, why are they using our trucks, our tools and our fuel?  Use your own equipment, which is part of what we are paying for.

Will this never end?  Will the Mayor ever stop wearing his Cat Woman outfit?   Will Commissioner Scirocco ever remove his Joker suit?  We will find out when next we get together.

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.

OSCAR NIGHT

Saratoga Springs has an evening of celebration for Oscar night.  This year’s movies up for best of the year are:

WATERGATE – A small city, having water problems of their own really sinks when the City’s Mayor and Commissioner of DPW sells it’s water to an adjoining town in a possible back room deal that future developed land of 170 acres may be supplied with City water.  The tag line throughout the movie is ‘follow the money’, stupid, or see where the water flows.

COMPREHENSIVE – The Mayor of a small City decides he will hand pick the entire Committee of a 10  year Comprehensive Plan Committee which will determine the path the City will follow in growing, building and keeping green space which the City is fast losing.  The real drama comes when the Mayor nicknamed “Little Napoleon” leaves the other 4 Commissioners out of nominating a candidate, (3 of which do not live in the City and 3 or 4 others who have no vested interest in the City as they pay no taxes, a banker that handles all City money and a good local developer).  The Mayor tells the Commissioners that they can choose one of his picks.  THIS MOVIE IS IN THE COMEDY CATEGORY.

WHAT, NO BUILDING PERMIT? – The story of a small City Mayor, who for reasons unknown fails to issue a building permit to the developer of a 3 story parking garage for the City (yes, the City must issue a permit for any City project).  After 3 months of work, when asked, the developer said the City is responsible for supplying the permit and after the developer discussed this with a local blogger, just like magic a permit was on site the next day.  Something should also be done to the Good Olde Boy’s Network fellow Tom Roohan (see how I used the old fashioned Olde, has a nice look doesn’t it) as no permit can be found on his building which is undergoing reconstruction work; the lack of a permit is a pivotal scene if it involves a new office for Tamara Valentine.  If so, this movie critic would vote this for movie of the year. THIS IS A DEEP DRAMA MOVIE.

RECREATION CENTER – In a small City miles from any land that could be used  for recreation, the small town Mayor builds a Recreation Center on a piece of land that was used for recreation, spending $7 million dollars.  The dark side of this horror flick is that when the Mayor of this small town promises that the City will make large amounts of money after the first year, the taxpayers are being bled to death just to keep the doors open.  The Mayor also plays the bongos at his private club nightly.

These are the four movies up for the award for best whatever.  You choose.

In WATERGATE, the director wanted Harvey Korman & Tim Conway as the male leads, but with one dead and the other not available he chose one who looks dead and one who is not available in Johnson & Scirocco.

 In COMPREHENSIVE the director wanted TaToo from Fantasy Island, but alas he’s dead so they choose Scott Johnson.

In WHAT, NO BUILDING PERMIT? Shauna Sutton stars as the Mayor who can’t find the 3 level parking garage.

And last but not least, in RECREATION CENTER – the director wanted Don Knotts to play the Mayor but since he expired guess who got the part?

Rumor has it that Mayor Johnson’s wife Julie will present the Best Actor award.

MAYOR PLAY'S DOA ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

One may ask why is it so easy to pick on Mayor Johnson’s crazy way in how he runs the City.    The reason could be because it’s so easy or because he operates outside the City Charter and he is fodder for anyone, well, almost anyone that would print it.

This time we have yet another example of Mayor Johnson’s favorite statement “you’re making this political”, whenever he doesn’t get the votes to pass whatever he wants. 

The Mayor should be giving the Council the authority granted to them by the Charter to choose members for a committee, except those mandated by the State that only a Mayor can do like the Planning Board, Zoning Board, two that I know of, except every chance he can, he skirts the rules and decides to do it “his way”, he must be a Sinatra fan.  The latest example, which had been mentioned here before has some new information that came to light.

Regarding who picks the members of the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee:  Johnson made several statements at many Council meetings that he searched the records to see how previous Mayor’s chose these Committees, he made note that under former Mayor Keehn she allowed the Commissioners to choose 1 candidate.  In a recent blog authored by Lucian McCarty, it was stated that Mayor Keehn informed him (correcting the information Johnson gave the Commissioners as to why he (Johnson) is allowed to choose the Committee, by saying that after talking to the whole Council, that each Council member would appoint 2 members each and she would appoint 7, that’s Commissioners 8, Mayor 7.  The article further stated that Mayor Klotz who formed a committee in 2000, appointed 5 members and the Commissioner’s appointed 1 each, Mayor 5 – Commissioners 4.  Mayor Klotz also stated that this was based on previous precedent.

Mayor Johnson’s Committee’s make up – Mayor’s appointments 13 – Commissioner’s 0, you must also remember that 3 of Johnson’s appointments do not even live in Saratoga and 1 of the 3 does not even live in Saratoga County.  Is that politics anyone?  Do we hear the Mayor stomping his feet and pounding his fists on the table because the Commissioner’s didn’t get a choice in the matter? 

It is just too easy to find the points that an opponent can use this fall, oh yeh; he did say in the paper “I don’t pick my opponents, I just beat them”.  Two Republican Committee members had told a friend that he (Johnson) has become an embarrassment not only to the Party but around the State as the leader of Saratoga Springs.

One other item disturbs us.  Why did the McCarty article only show up on his blog and not as a newspaper article?  How much longer is the Saratogian going to protect Mayor Johnson?  If you needed facts you had them from the Mayors.  You could have checked with the Committee members and asked them who appointed them.  If you can’t find Keehn’s document, check his shredder, his Council was supposed to vote yes or no on the Plan or did he feel that it was DOA when it was time to vote on it?

WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHY?

Let’s look at some decisions here and see how they tie together and who benefits from them.

First, let’s take the Comprehensive Plan Committee. The upmost concern regarding this committee should be fair and equal representation for the future path our City will take in the next 5 years.  The Mayor in what I feel is an illegal move in going against the rule spelled out by the Charter and past practices, has appointed all 11 members of this Committee.  3 of these members do not live in Saratoga, there are no citizen non-business representatives of the 4 Districts of the City, there is a very good developer, but why a developer when you are talking about areas that could be affected by crafting changes for boards like Planning, Zoning and Design Review?  One question you can ask yourself is who is to gain by having all these “high level” people on the Committee?  I guess the Mayor feels he can’t get a few smart every day citizens to be on HIS Commission.    

An excerpt from Commissioner Franck’s response in the Saratogian, which I am surprised (lol), the Saratogian did not ask this of the Mayor states,

“Surely, with council input, the Mayor would not have had to look for individuals from Wilton, Clifton Park and Washington County. We would have helped him find local residents, local taxpayers.
Non-taxpaying institutions like the state park, the school district, Skidmore College, the Preservation Foundation and the YMCA certainly have a legitimate institutional interest in the Comprehensive Plan, but they have no taxpayer skin in the game. They should not be placed in a position of dictating our land use policies, and sending the bill to the already beleaguered taxpayer”. 

Seems like a sound statement to me.  I don’t think this is a Democrat against Republican concern, if Commissioner Scirocco had the good sense to see that he was being shafted by the Mayor you wouldn’t know it by his lack of concern for not being able to appoint a few members, but I’m sure the Mayor read him the riot act before the meeting.  If the Mayor is not blowing wind and truly believes what he said when he commented that ‘the Comprehensive Plan should be updated every 5 years and it hasn’t been addressed in 10 years’?  Well let’s see 10 years (2) 5 year periods, gee, the Mayor should have appointed a Committee 5 years ago when he first took office, what takes him so long?  I’ll mention a line that a friend of mine tells me all the time, “Follow the money”.

Does it seem to you as it does me that the Mayor likes to outsource almost everything but his Deputy?  He hires outside attorney’s (we pay 2 City Attorney’s over $160,000.00 & benefits) at $300.00 - $400.00 per hour, he outsources an HR person and pay’s him $75,000.00 per year for a 20 hour work week, he outsources members of City Committees to people that live outside Saratoga Springs.  Again the line from my friend “follow the money”.

Another issue that is disturbing is the Wilton Watergate.  We were told when this mess  started out that 8 homes would be sold Saratoga City water, now the Mayor said this number could be up to 25 units.  The scary thing is there is another 75 or so acres nearby that if developed would want City water.  I am not saying who the developer is but, well, you never know.  If Saratoga gets a Casino and all the hotels and extra businesses that come with it, think how much more water we will need.  The Mayor should start to think about Saratoga and not a possible run for higher office in the future.

He told a citizen at the last Council meeting that if he wanted more answers regarding the Water issue to send his questions to him in writing, what about telling the rest of the City?  Gee, that would be transparency, a word that doesn’t sit well with the Mayor.

Regarding his Charter Commission, I hear that they are discussing the Mayor’s orders to (a). Eliminate as many duties they can from other Commissioner’s and put them under his authority, (b) he would like 4 year terms and change key mandates in the current Charter to be placed under is control.  What he lacks in size he makes up for in arrogance.  We all remember that he was against Charter Change, but it looks like if his Change is to a Strong Mayor he will do anything he can to get it by the voters. 

In his State of the City message, the Mayor made this statement:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It looks like that was only filler for a longer speech; he sure doesn’t heed his own line of bull.

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.

IT’S OFFICIAL

Insider’s in City Hall confirmed today that the Mayor has appointed his cast of characters for the rest of his term.  He is copying the show Hawaii Five-O.

Chris Mathiesen – Steve McGarrett

John Franck – Danny “ Danno” Williams

Michele Madigan – Lydia Lei

Skip Scirocco – Chin Ho

Scott Johnson –   Wo-Fat (He will darken his hair shave his goatee and grow a fu-Manchu).  If the Mayor isn’t in the Wo-Fat role look for him as Gomer Pyle.

Shauna Sutton – Wo-Plump

A certain blogger that is very close to the Mayor, some say he is in bed with him, play’s the role of Kono “Kong”

The Mayor has issued an edict that all Commissioner’s and Her Plumpness get into their roles ASAP, he is also getting lei’s for all the staff in City Hall.

For those of you who have never watched the old Hawaii Five-O, you can watch the show on channel 556 or 13-3.  I started watching it and it is a lot better than the current one.

Aloha

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.

NEVER PLAY POLITICS

Show me a politician who doesn’t play politics and I’ll show you a goat that doesn’t have a goatee. 

Mayor Johnson in a startling announcement last night called for the Council to stop playing politics. After much laughter people got the gist of what he was talking about.  It seems the Council by doing their duty in the best interest of the City and elected by the citizens to do so, upsets the Mayor when they don’t bow down and kiss his ring.

This was the Mayor’s battle cry in his State of the City speech. “STOP PLAYING POLITICS” or in another way what he meant to say was, shut up and stop challenging me.  He has now appointed his Charter Commission, but we don’t know the names, charging them with the task of looking at the budget process and having them strengthen his power over the process.  He also appointed a Comprehensive Plan committee of 11 members.  The Commissioner’s at last Tuesday’s Council meeting cited State law and Saratoga’s past Comprehensive review Committees where the Council combined had the authority to appoint the Committee.  Tuesday night the Mayor would not take part in the discussion and we now know why, he already picked his 11 members, although he won’t divulge their names,(notice a pattern going on over the last 5 years?) thus ignoring State mandate and past precedent and ‘conceded in the speech that as a sign of working with the Council he would meet them half way and let them appoint 1 member each’, well Mr. Mayor, half way of 15 would be you appoint 8 and the Council 7 or you appoint 6 and the Council appoint 5, this is his way of ‘not playing politics’.  The Mayor has been trying to set his position as a strong Mayor under our Charter that was updated 11 years ago since he took office and there are numerous examples, the most recent, the Comprehensive Plan Committee debacle.  We now know why he wouldn’t discuss the legality of his (though process) Tuesday night.  If one compares the pre 2001 Charter, they will find that there were numerous changes made, most dealing with budget improvements which seem to be in fine working order.  Before Mayor Johnson assumed power the updated Charter was humming along nicely, mind you it could be running better with a new form but the people have spoken.  The Mayor then eliminated many [mandated] laws under the current Charter to weaken its effect and the need for those positions to run an efficient government.

The Mayor painted a staggering outlook on the shape of our City, both as a large tourist attraction and as a money generator with low unemployment, lower in fact than State and National numbers, there is no argument there.  He then calls upon Albany to get the casino into Saratoga. 

I feel as many do that since our area is doing so well during these troubled times the Casino will be placed in another area.  There is some growing talk among prominent Saratogian’s as well as us common folks that the casino not be placed in Saratoga but that a perfect destination would be the Catskills.  The area was once a large attraction drawing many of the big acts of its day.  The proximity to NY City is a plus and the low to non existent employment in that area would mean jobs for the area and help to make it prosper again.  Some feel Saratoga has the benefits of a City well run and an income stream that is second to none in NY State.  I personally wonder why the Governor would further advance our City when there are so many areas in the State that desperately need a venue like this to survive.  This may be one reason why we lost the income revenue from the Racino, later to get ½ of the total back.  The thought in Albany was that we were financially better off than most other areas; also remember that Saratoga Springs was the only City hosting a Racino that lost its income because at the time the government perceived us as being a very wealthy City.

So it is, we can’t have our cake and eat it too.  However, if there is a law to run around, our Mayor has proven he is a track star.  More to come on the Speech.

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

Commissioner of Accounts – John Franck – (B-)

John Franck probably deserves a B+ but just as Mayor Johnson deserves an F, there is something a politician does have and that is the desire to help their City, in Franck’s case he does, in Johnson’s case he tries. 

If you are looking for the strongest person on the Council for their knowledge, standing up for what he thinks is right (most of the time he has the facts in front of him), efficiency in running their Department, look no further than Franck.  Some say he is actually the Mayor of the Council as he seems to have the brains that the real one lacks.

Frank’s Deputy is most qualified to hold her position also.

Franck explains in detail every item he presents, whether he agrees or disagrees, so citizens absolutely know where he stands on the issues.  The years 2005 – 2007, when the Council was all Democrats he did not always follow the Party line on all the issues.  Today with Johnson as Mayor he has held him somewhat in check for the good of the City.

This past year he faced a crisis with class and dignity.  Mary Zlotnick, who it was said by an employee of City Hall, was a plant sent to Franck by super-spy Shauna Sutton and started to undermine and accuse, take pictures, remove files (temporarily) in order to set Franck up for a fall from office in her first days of working.  It was rumored that the Mayor wanted to hold the story up for later this year to come smack in the middle of this year’s election season and with the dirty trick Johnson & Sutton pulled at the last minute of the 2011 election regarding Brent Wilkes nothing would surprise me at what these 2 are capable of.

Zlotnick went to the Police, who found he did nothing wrong, she then called in the Atty. Gen. who after all this time has found no causes of impropriety.  Zlotnick called in every newspaper, television stations and a local blogger whose only purpose is to destroy a person even if he makes up disgusting information to aid her in her directive to bury Franck.  If anyone knows the story, Franck, who gives classes on how to grieve your taxes and will opens his books to anyone, seems to have nothing to hide.  The end result is that the Department of Accounts is as clean as a whistle, Zlotnick, after a public labor hearing (her choice) lost because it was determined she had no knowledge of the job she was doing. 

This year we will decide our new Council.  If the Republicans want to add seats on that Council, they should put up credible candidates rather than the one sitting there now.  We can always hope.

Yours truly

Captain America195

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.

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

Commissioner Chris Mathiesen – (B-)

Hi again.  Some of you might ask, why give Mathiesen a B-?  The reason is that Mathiesen ran on a platform that he is sticking to and he is taking a beating for it.  I feel  it is his opponents that are crying the loudest.  There is talk around town that former Commissioner Dick Wirth whom Mathiesen beat will be running against him this fall.  That would be a mistake.  In the past I referred to Wirth as a bobble head as he always nodded whenever the Mayor spoke.  He rarely spoke more that 20 words at a Council meeting if that.

Getting back to Mathiesen, some of his ideas were (a) to turn back closing time of bars by 2 hours).  While he did propose this, the push was to have last call at 2 and close at 4, however everyone could not remove the blinders and kept the bar owners and some of the citizens up in arms that God forbid the consumption of alcohol had to be shortened or at least those who stayed out past 2am had to pound down the amount of alcohol they normally would have if the bars stayed open until 4 and the loss of income would ruin the City as a tourist destination.

Something good did come out of all the furor though, bars in the City now have to hire licensed security guards and they have installed a system whereby one establishment can contact the others and warn them of a potentially inebriated person(s).  Remember also, that all bars must serve food until they close even if it is just sandwiches; this helps someone to get something in their system to help them, hopefully.

I personally believe the Commissioner when he speaks of the girl that was raped in the early morning hours in the latter part of last year.  It is a tough balancing act when trying to protect a victim, still conducting the investigation and trying to appease the public on what information to make public without jeopardizing that investigation.  Today, it seems that we should know all the facts even if it could prove harmful to the victim or the investigation; this is the world we live in.

One problem with the way the situation was handled though was the Commissioner’s constant talking and explanations of the incident.  This is one of the Commissioner’s faults.  He should make his statements and then not carry on with being so verbose about the topic, example: when the lady who presented the petition requesting more information addressed the Commissioner (which under the Charter, you are not supposed to do), instead of going into the whole explanation again, he should have just offered those concerned to make an appointment and that he would be glad to talk it over with them.  Commissioner, make a statement, then stop talking. 

All in all I think he is doing a fine job. Again, he ran on a platform, won and is carrying it out, what more can you ask of an elected official.


This is his Deputy’s second go around with a different Commissioner. I think she is very knowledgeable working with the departments, remember, Public Safety is the only department with 2 professionals running them the Police and Fire Departments.

IT’S THAT TIME TO REMMBER PART DUEX

Michele Madigan – C+

• While Madigan has been a breath of fresh air as Finance Commissioner (and that’s not because of her perfume), she does warrant the mark the League has given her.  Some of her best accomplishments should have been done years ago by past Finance Commissioners or even the Mayor by asking his Commissioner for complete transparency, of which the Mayor is famous for touting but has none himself or his office.  First off she put up a page that listed the income and expensed of each department and even broke it down to the sub categories, that and the fact that she appointed one of the most capable Deputy Commissioner’s ever to hold that position in Finance was a smart move, one that could overcome her shortage of knowledge and make that Department one of the best run in City Hall.

• One of the biggest negatives is that she held the budget to a 0% tax increase.  This as was her predecessor’s mistake shows a lack of fiscal responsibility for Saratoga Springs citizens.  Fact- no one likes tax increases but a 1% increase would have added some revenue to maybe add a police or fireman(firewoman), or an in-house HR person that would work full time rather than the Mayor’s penchant for hiring part time attorneys and HR people for twice what the City should be paying, or update equipment or just keeping up with the increases of every day operations, and if we had extra money left over from the increase then use it to pay down the parking garage debt and keep the 12 spaces that the Mayor sold to his Bank.  We need every available parking spot in the City downtown as you never know what could happen as in the previously stated example of Sonny taking almost all of Downtown Saratoga parking spaces.  We need the reserves for the bad times that are coming and the lawsuits that the City will be involved in as long as Johnson is Mayor, and it does not look like Saratoga will get a Casino that we are so sure we will get.

• This lack of the tax increase is bad enough to drop her from a B+ to a C+, even with Bachner as Deputy.

• We had said that there would be more news on the Mayor, but as he makes these crazy decisions a few times a week we’ll wait until after the State of the City address.Now my friends, it's time to watch the movie "Barbie Takes Manhattan"

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.

IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR!

There is no snow but the Christmas Spirit abounds.  The Mayor appointed former long time ZBA member and past Chairman Robert Bristol to a seat on that board that opened when Mayor Johnson did not reappoint current member and last Democrat Amy Durland.  This completes his termination of the  Democrats that he has replaced in the last 5 years with either old guard Republicans like Bristol, Tom Roohan and Jumpin’ Joe Dalton, City  Republican Committee people and/or political favors he has to hand out. 

While it is the Mayor’s duty to make these Board appointments, it would only be natural for a smart overseer (?) of the City, to appoint some new young blood to these boards instead of the men who had served 20 – 30 years ago and are walking around with a little formaldehyde in their veins.   I guess when he said ‘he would be a Mayor that would work across the aisle’ at his first State of the City speech I’ll bet he was talking about bowling lanes and thought they were aisles.  It also doesn’t hurt to have a few appointees of the opposite party to get some opinions.  I am sure of all the appointments he has made, there must have been at least 3 or 4 capable Democrats who could have filled the positions.  Well, that’s politics.

Well, it’s time for Batboy and Batgirl to hand out some presents to a few of our friends.

• First we’ll send the Mayor a case of Grey Goose.  That should take him through First Night.
• We’ll send some ex lax to Shauna because she always has that constipated look on her face.  We only hope she doesn’t overdose on it, and no Shauna, you can’t take the pills with Grey Goose.
• For Mary Zlotnick we will send her stockings stuffed with all sorts of listening devices, donated by former Commissioner Dick Wirth.  Tape recorders, phone cameras, stethoscope (for hearing between walls), a lock pick set, so you can sneak in and get into locked file cases.  We’ll have Batman deliver your stockings because he wants to take you for a spin in the Batmobile.
• To Al Callucci, coming your way is a pipe, magnifying glass and a deerstalker so you can look like Sherlock Holmes when you patrol the hood at the Terrace.
• If I could ever find Tamara Valentine again, who has turned up MIA since she was knocked off the Tattlers team, I’d send over some of the Captain’s peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses.
• To Lucian McCarty, I still say you are the best, so just tell me what you want and I’ll see if I can get it for you; it has to be legal of course.
• To Citizen Nancy, hang in there and keep exposing the truth.

Well this is the Mayor’s list, gee, I mean the short list.  We’ll have some great news to report in early 2013, but until then if we don’t write before, have a Very Merry Christmas and a Healthy 2013!

ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT JUSTIFIED

The Accounts Office – Commissioner John Franck, Deputy Commissioner Sharon Kellner-Chille and Tony Popolizio and anyone else Mary Zlotnick had accused of using their positions to cheat taxpayers out of money have been vindicated and now she can be terminated.  Mary has had it good these last 4 months. While not working she received full salary with benefits.

She is now living in Albany with a mystery man, reportedly the former Pinnacle HR person who had worked for the City.  She has been earning extra income it is said by leasing her assets (her house) in Saratoga Springs.

Zlotnick’s insistence of an open public hearing in front of  officer Christopher Nicolino, who oversaw the five days of witness testimony and weighed arguments on both sides of the case, found the city proved three of the five counts of insubordination they filed against Zlotnick Sept. 13.
Zlotnick went to the media with accusations of corruption in the city’s Accounts Department, where she worked as a clerk to Assistant City Assessor Tony Popolizio.  She “exhibited a willingness to be intentionally untruthful” during a disciplinary hearing on Aug. 25; and how she contacted the media “to spread untruthful allegations of misconduct” against Popolizio.
Zlotnick will be hard pressed to file a civil suit against the City as some say she will.  Testimony given against and by her have proven that she didn’t understand the Accounts office practices and it looks like she had started from day 1 to begin a witch hunt against her superiors.  Many wonder if she could even have been a plant by the Mayor or Deputy Mayor, but there are no hard facts of this, just inside scuttlebutt.  However, think about this, the Democrats have a majority this term, the Mayor is lost, and he looks like he is a deer in the headlights at the Council table.  The Mayor looks like he is a nervous wreck and has been complaining that he can’t get his way and is red as a beet 99% of the time.  The coloring could be because of high blood pressure or worse yet, dates with a Russian liquid.  It makes one wonder.  The damage to Franck and his office have been as bad as it could get.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a civil suit were filed against Ms. Zlotnick by the three, and if she is smart, take some heat off her and bring out those who put her up to this if anyone.

 Her accusations were cloudy from the beginning.  She contacted City Police and State officials before talking to her superiors, and then she went on the radio, newspaper and TV circuit to drum up support and portray herself as an innocent lamb looking to draw out self serving attention about her alleged scheme.  She has had her 15 minutes of fame and hopefully will ride into the sunset down in Albany.


 down in Albany.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH JOHNSON & SUTTON?

What is going on with Johnson & Sutton, the dynamic Smirnoff Duo at City Hall?  The Mayor negotiates a 15 minute break for City employees to go cash their paychecks every Friday, and to top it off it is on City time, not on the employees lunch break or one of the 2 fifteen minute breaks they get M-F.  Figure the average salary, times that amount by lets say 300 employees then divide by 4 and that is a large sum of money in a year.

The Mayor and Shauna fail to do their due diligence and failed to renegotiate the National Grid contract for 5 years, the City (taxpayers) are short at least $5,000.00 per month for 5 years.  After the Mayor is embarrassed and had pressure put on him by some citizens he then sits and negotiates a contract.  The Mayor, at a Council meeting then insults the citizens of Saratoga by saying the fault lies with National Grid and he negotiated a super great deal for the City.  However, he made a deal based on current market prices and locked us in for a high number of years so we will be behind again in a few years. 

The Mayor and Shauna for years spent over $100,000.00 plus City Hall employee time fighting a citizens group to change the Charter.  He said publicly 4 years ago that he would appoint a Mayoral Commission to study the issue and 4 years later, 1 week before the election, he announces that he will appoint a 15 member Commission by the end of the year.  He also has issued some directives that this Commission will discuss (he told us already), one demand they will change for him is to put the Mayor in charge of the budget, with his large donations to his outside attorney friends imagine how much more he will give them? The Mayor’s Commission will have at least a budget with a minimum of $50,000.00.  It would have been much simpler and less costly if he just appointed a Commission 4 years ago, but Herr Mayor likes to play the attorney game.  His Napoleon complex is so bad he has been making himself look foolish and smaller.  I wonder if the breakdown of his Commission will at least like former Mayor Kehen’s in who sits in the chairs?  Keehn appointed 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 3 Independents.  Her Commission was started a little late but at least she worked accross Party lines to come up with a document.

The Mayor and Shauna failed to renegotiate a contract for 5 years with Time Warner.  The contract had expired the first year Napoleon, I mean Johnson took office.  He knowingly did not negotiate a new contract which would have raised the amount of money Time Warner paid the City, by the way, The Mayor always says it is someone else’s fault, suck it up, you’re the Mayor and you are failing to do your job.

The Housing Authority is in his lap also.  The SSHA is supposed to come before the Council and inform them of the salary figures for the coming year.  He never asked the SSHA, as is the Mayor’s job to do so.  He keeps reappointing the same Directors to the Board and when he is responsible for not taking corrective action on the bedbug issue (he sat in his chair looking stunned) he then appoints two of the oddest people to sit on a Board, Ken Ivins and Al Callucci, WOW.  The only other person he could have appointed that would have topped these two would have been Rich Wirth.

These few examples and some clear liquid on the rocks show us why the Mayor and Shauna should hit the road.  The Republicans should strongly consider putting someone else in to run for Mayor.  We can’t afford this duo any longer.

If the Republican Committee can show us any mercy, cut the cord with these two Russian Cossack dancers.