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.

THANK YOU!

Thanks all the way around.  I want to say thank you to those who have sent emails about the blog.  It is appreciated.
  
Thanks all the way around.  I want to say thank you to those who have sent emails about the blog.  It is appreciated.

Thanks also go out to Dee Sarno who grew the Saratoga County Arts Council from 50 to 1,000 members during her more than 20 years as Executive Director.  A quote in the Saratogian, sums the whole thing up, “I see the arts thriving in Saratoga

always,” said Sarno, who moved here with her husband, A.J., in 1987. “To keep them going you need somebody with a vision who wants to work. You also need patrons because the arts have always needed financial support.”

Imagine that, a non-native Saratogian – a transplant, yet she is a true Saratogian.  She did a wonderful job being a great civic leader, something many non-natives do and do it well.  Again, thanks Dee for all your past endeavors in making Saratoga a little bit better off than it was and we hope you keep your imprint in the arts by staying active.

IT’S JUST TOO MUCH JOHNSON AROUND

You would think with all that is happening in Saratoga there would be other stories to be read and concerned about besides the Saratogian and Scott Johnson.  However, these two entities leave themselves hanging out there so much, that they monopolize the news and the two are joined at the hip.

Why do I think that these two, the Saratogian and Johnson are Siamese twins, because The Saratogian is a tool of Johnson’s and Johnson is a tool of the Saratogian.

Let’s start with the Saratogian.  Over the last 20 years the newspaper has been calling for a change in the form of government, a change mind you not a revision.  In 2006  when a strong mayor form was proposed, they said not to vote for it, then again in 2012 when a manager/Council form was proposed, they again said don’t vote for it.  One may ask, what form would they back, a King Johnson form?

The Saratogian never questioned why the Mayor spent over $100,000.00 fighting against putting the Proposal on the ballot or why after 4 years and countless times the Mini-me stated he would appoint a Commission, which he should have done anyway 4 years ago but was content in spending our money.  This sound like the newspaper is playing politics and cannot offend its own advertisers, some who voiced negative comments about changing, thereby endorsing some form of change itself.  It’s no wonder it looks like they will cease to exist in a few years.  They try too hard to please a Mayor’s & big business rather than be true to reporting the news ad back their own long time call for change.  Oh well, the Mayor’s businesses do spend quite a sum on advertising.

Next we bring up the dreaded BEDBUG CAPER.  The good thing that came out of this issue was the insane salary of its Director.  However, again, Johnson appointed or re-appointed the entire HA Board.  Every year Johnson failed to have the Chairman of the Board come before his Council with the proposed salary increases, then backs away from all the problems that the Council is trying to get to the bottom of.  Now the game begins for Johnson, he doesn’t re-appoint the former Chairman and it is rumored that after begging people to take a seat on the Board with no takers, puts Ken Ivins, a former political puppet of Johnson’s and Al Callucci, [no one in the City can figure this appointment out], although Callucci and Ivins along with an out of town blogger seem to be the front men for Johnson’s odd actions by their own instability.

Does the Saratogian go after Johnson for dereliction of duty by ignoring the yearly reports from the HA along with bugging out of sight when things heat up?  That would the Publisher and Editor in a bad light with Johnson and his Deputy the infamous Hound.  So they give him a pass.

The Mayor it is rumored, told the managing editor of the Saratogian to print a piece regarding the goings on at the Housing Authority and also put a piece written by Ken Ivins to be in the paper on the same day.  Ivins mentioned that the Mayor appointed himself and Callucci to the Board to bring sanity to the Board of Directors.  That is like putting Wimpy to work at McDonalds.

Again, here is another example of the newspaper being used as a tool of Johnson’s.

In the office of the Justice League, the saying is Holy Cow, Batman, it looks like the Saratogian is playing with their Johnson (the Mayor, silly).

The next item is that an idea that was put forth 6 years ago by a previous administration of revamping the parking lot across the street from the Police Station and using it for the City and the City Center.  This proposal was shot down by big business as too costly, now the City Center proposes to do a somewhat similar plan for $9 million dollars that the Mayor said “will not cost the taxpayers a penny”.  The loss of what the City receives yearly from the City Center, who has to pay off the debt, will affect the taxpayers.  More voodoo economics by the Mayor.

Last but not the end, in Monday (26^th) edition of the Saratogian, the business reporter gives a report about one of the Mayor’s restaurants i.e. Sperry’s and their plans for New Years Eve and that they are now taking reservations.  I hope the Saratogian does an article on all of the restaurants that are taking reservations for New Year’s Eve and what special things they have planned.  However, I don’t think that Michael F. O’Sullivan (Publisher) or Barb Lombardo (Managing Editor) would give away that much free advertising.  

Now, some will say, all I do is pick on the Mayor, but we like to get you info of this kind.  We promise not to make every story about Johnson, but will add those about our potentate when necessary.

THANKSGIVING

As Thanksgiving approaches we must take time and give thanks for all we have.  God, family, friends, food, a warm place to stay and trying the best we can to help our fellow man.

It is also time to reflect on the idea of Ben Franklin.  Ben wanted to name the noble bird, the turkey as our national bird.  A few things to ponder if this happened.  (1). we would be eating eagle on Thanksgiving Day, (2).  We could name our current Mayor Scott Johnson as our national symbol, instead of stuffed he is pickled most of the time, so we would celebrate with vodka pickled eagle stuffed with a Shauna Sutton.

Instead, the reality is that the eagle is our national bird and the turkey is our thanksgiving dinner, whether it’s roasted, deep fried or pickled.

Now, we are all waiting with baited breath for our esteemed Little Royal Lowness to name his Commission.  One has to ask the Mayor, what dollar amount will this Committee have?  All the meetings will have to be taped and have a secretary there to take the transcript.  The Committee will also have to have an outside attorney verify the wording and get it ready to be put on the ballot.  Who he will appoint will not be that much of a surprise and I’m sure that he will convey his wishes and orders to them and to carry out those wishes.  Look for the power they give the Mayor, only then will you be able to see where the man with the goatee has hands.
It's too bad Johnson took Mel Torme literally and roasted his chestnuts over an open fire. Ouch!

ANOTHER AWARD

Well citizens, Saratoga Springs has won another distinguished award.  A well known sports magazine has listed our Broadway as one of the top 10 main streets that geese love to fly over, on the way South.  The Mayor is so happy that he gets a Golden Goose to put on his showcase in his office, the Golden Goose Award will be placed in between his 2 bottles of Grey Goose.

Speaking of the Mayor, word out of City Hall is that after he empanels his 15 member Commission to tweak the current Charter, Johnson will order them to insert 4 year terms for Mayor and Commissioners and stronger powers for the Mayor’s position.  It looks like he wants to be sure he has a longer period of time to be away from his wife, who by the way is a very nice person, and give poor destitute cemetery caretaker Shauna some extra dough.  Remember another 4 years for these 2 means life insurance for as long as they live, paid for by us.

It will also be interesting to see how the SUCCESS group deals with 4 year terms that one of their members (Mayor Johnson) will tout.  We will see if the Sellers, Klotz’s, Weihe’s, Masie, The Saratogian,Wait, Roohan’s, former Mayors Lenz, Watkin, O’Connell, and current DA Jim Murphy.  Remember they all complained endlessly that this was a very strong point that “you can get rid of the bums after 2 years”.

I want to address a sad case.  A local blogger who never had any scruples to start with and who lives off of the taxpayers and what money he can get from a few supporters, has gone to a new lower level.  No he hasn’t moved downstairs.  He used to be involved in a group of break – away Democrats and attended their meetings at Mama Mia’s every month.  However, since last year, they told him to STAY AWAY.  They do not want him around and he has added them to his vulgar and idiotic blog.  His blog is followed by a handful of readers and sadly he posts many responses himself.  It is very sad to see him try and operate as a reporter the thinks he is.  He is truly a pathetic individual.

On a lighter note, Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away.  I hope everyone has family or friends to gather and enjoy the day with.  If you do, why not consider donating some stuffing mix, canned vegetables, potatoes, a jar of gravy or cranberry sauce to a local food pantry so a family in need can have a taste of the Holiday.

Thanks

EATING CROW - CONGRATULATIONS SUCCESS

Well, the election is over and I have to tip my hat to SUCCESS for running a campaign that did put the fear of high taxes and a change to a City run by big developers, I thought that’s what we have now.  However, they won and we will go on as usual.

It should also be said a round of thanks should go to the hard working people who worked on the Saratoga Citizen side.  They were a group of concerned citizens who fought for a cause they believed in with no aspirations other than to make the City better.  Saratoga would be even better if it had more citizens like them to join civic programs that just to sit back and complain about those whose intentions are not selfish in any way.

One thing that we can come away with from this election and can join SUCCESS in is that people do not want 4 year terms among other items, as the Mayor has indicated this himself.  His Commission will be watched by many to see if they will make sure that the mandates of the 2001 Charter passed by the citizens will be enforced.  The way to better this form can probably be done by just following that Charter’s mandates.

It will also be interesting to see how our economy will fare when as rumored the Governor announces soon that Albany will be the site of a new full blown casino, which has been talked about for the last few months.  I have no fear however, that our form of government will be able to keep Saratoga the lively City we are now with no tax increases and the same level of services.

   

Again, congratulations to SUCCESS for their victory.

IN BASEBALL, IT WOULD BE A 3 WAY DEAL

THIS JUST IN

It just came over the Justice League ticker (you can take it for what ever you want), that there may have been a three way deal in the Saratogian's non endorsement of Proposition 1 after years of calling for Charter Change.  here is the possible deal:

The Adirondack Trust receives the small parking lot on the corner of Woodlawn from the City, thus enhancing their drive up entrance.

The City gets A+ plus coverage and cover up promises on stories that may have to do with the Mayor's office.

The Saratogian receives choice stories over other news outlets and increased add revenue from Adirondack Trust.

It may be something that is just a rumor and we will be keeping our eye on the developments, but it does sound logical.

Another thing:  I'll be glad when this election is over.

LOOT AND A LOT OF IT

Someone sent me a picture of a basket of money, with the line "A Johnson & Masie slush fund for SUCCESS"

While I am not saying it's true, it sure is funny.




Just a small addition to my last post about businesses who have something to lose if the Proposal goes through.  I had mentioned The Saratogian and Adirondack Trust as a few examples.  Well, here are a few of the Board Members of Saratoga County Chamber.

Just a small addition to my last post about businesses who have something to lose if the Proposal goes through.  I had mentioned The Saratogian and Adirondack Trust as a few examples.  Well, here are a few of the Board Members of Saratoga County Chamber.  Remember, the Saratogian cannot stand to lose ad money if they came out in support of the Change of Government, something they have called for since at least 1991.

Great businesses all named below, but if they don't like Charter Change because of something they might miss out on, it's a long list of ad revenue the Saratogian could be afraid of messing with and that would scare anyone into making a forced backing.


Mike O'Sullivan (Chair Elect, Communications) - The Saratogian

Travis Bullard - GLOBALFOUNDRIES - Board member of Adirondack Trust

Lynn Pohl – Adirondack Trust Company

Ray O'Conor - Saratoga National Bank & Trust Co.

Susan Halstead (Chair) - Family Vision Care Center

Angelo Calbone (Immediate Past Chair) - Saratoga Hospital

Patricia Mangino - Mangino Pontiac Buick

Mark Pepin  - Time Warner Cable Business Class

Susan Slovic - Ballston Spa National Bank

Marcia White - Saratoga Performing Arts Center

  State Farm Insurance

Jason Lynch – Olde Bryan Inn

Gerri Thompson - Longfellows Inn and Restaurant

WILL IT BE A SURPRISE?

1. Will it be a SURPRISE, if the Saratogian, after nearly 30 years of calling for a change of the form of our government does not endorse Proposition 1?

  

2. Will it be a SURPRISE to find out that Mayor Johnson will pull a last minute slam out of his bag of dirty tricks to try and create fear and doubt to sway voters as he did in last years Mayor’s election.  I remember that one, he had his minions pass out door tags and mailings days before the election telling voters that his opponent Brent Wilkes had mismanaged his business into a 90 some million dollar loss.  It was proven that the Mayor had fabricated the information.  Newspapers reported in many articles of the unscrupulous act the Mayor pulled.

3. Will it be a SURPRISE if businessmen like Tom Roohan, Charles Wait, and Elliott Masie are against Proposition 1?  Remember that the Commission form was started “when fearful that the island city might never recover its prosperity under the leadership of the incumbent city council, a group of wealthy businessmen known as the Deep Water Committee devised a plan to have the governor appoint a commission to govern the city during the rebuilding period. To appease opponents who contended that appointed government was undemocratic, the plan was altered to provide for popular election of the five commissioners.”  The operative words here are WEALTHY BUSINESSMEN.  The Commission form was created by them and for them.  Look at Saratoga Springs rich history, who were the power brokers?  Roohan’s, Wait’s, McNeary’s, go ahead look back in time and see for yourself.  These men and those that came before them wanted to keep Saratoga Springs under their thumbs and do things when they wanted to, not when an independent Council set the pace.  Today we have a mini me version in Mayor Johnson, with his $27,000,000.00 clout and his business buying spree's, he is getting away with things local citizens could never get away with.

He has a fence surrounding his house that is illegally placed and doesn’t meet code.  He has stamped macadam sidewalks when City Code says you -have to have 5ft. wide by 4’ thick concrete with wire sidewalks, again he is out of code.  Why isn’t the code Dept. charging him with these code violations?  Is he inserting his private threats on City Hall employees?

4. Would it be a SURPRISE if SUCCESS was paying senior’s to vote no?

5. Would it be a SURPRISE if not one word that SUCCESS is promoting regarding the Charter is truthful?

Like it or not, the back room of politics is surely a game.  Will it change if the Manager form wins?  Not all games but most of them.  One Commissioner would not be able to stick it up another Commissioners backside because they wouldn’t play ball with them. 

 The Council would be the legislative body of government approving every piece of City business.  The Manager would oversee the running of the departments by qualified department heads, not political appointees or appointees that have a personal interest with a Commissioner.  This Manager will get the Departments to run smoothly and efficiently because if they don’t then it is his or her job on the line.

I hope you have made up your minds by now, but if you are against the Proposition or still on the fence, take a look at what happens in the next few days, say a Press release by the Mayor, a charge by the financial backer of SUCCESS, Elliott Masie and ask yourself, are these acts of desperate people trying to have fears and doubts about this issue?  If so take a look at what they do not want to lose and ask yourself, maybe it’s time to take our government back.

A great post by a Saratoga resident who is an author of his own site explained it well, visit his article here
http://tenoonan.com/2012/10/31/saratoga-springs-charter-vote/

IS IT REAL OR JUST A DREAM?

Two things struck me as funny today, well maybe 5 or 6.  In a Letter to the Editor to be published in Friday’s paper there is one by none other than one of the McTygue boys.  Some of the boy’s rear their heads at election time but unlike the beloved groundhog, shadow or not, they go back underground, except for Bill because we know where he goes.

Well brother Peter pens a letter that is both hilarious and like most of SUCCESS’s statements, the article is based on myth.  One person responded to Peter’s letter and they quoted a section not only proving that Peter like to stretch among other things, his stories.  The person that posted did give the chapter and section of the part of the proposed charter which if you can read English proved his allegations total fabrications.  I’ll never understand why members of SUCCESS can never argue any point on fact, Oh well, that was funny 1.

The next funny was the story on WNYT where Pat Kane, founder of Saratoga Citizen and tech guru Elliott Masie were interviewed.  Kane looked sharp in his sport coat while Masie looked like he just got back from Moreau Lake.  There were 2 funnies in his interview, (1). He kept saying he had a bridge in Brooklyn, I guess he was trying to sell it to the reporter and (2). "I don't believe that Saratoga, which is one of the top communities in the world, needs this change. If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Masie.  So now Masie is paying for full page ads for SUCCESS, he must be getting nervous for both himself and best bud, Scott Johnson.  Masie who has donated upwards of $15,000.00 to SUCCESS looks like he is piling it on again with full page ads of the myth & smoke screen that define both SUCCESS & himself.

Now I love Saratoga Springs and it is a beautiful City, but first, it was said to be the most beautiful City in the country by our business politicos , now our resident tech guru (I thought guru’s wore Kimono’s) say’s it is one of the top communities in the WORLD.  I guess Masie doesn’t get out of New York State that often.

Well there may be more, word has it that a well respected former City employee  (no not Mary Zlotnick) will have a Letter printed in the Saratogian in  which he will give us an inside look at what it takes to deal and work with this form of government.  This letter is found on page 6A and is a doozy. 

As it is November already and October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to say that some of my family have been touched by this dreaded disease and even when the doctor's tell you they "got it all", you are thinking about it the rest of your life.  So my prayers are with those who have loved ones that have breast cancer.  The below picture is done with tongue in cheek and I mean no disrespect to the cancer survivors, but he deserves the picture.