Author: Kacie Cotter-Harrigan

My name is Ronald Kim. I was Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Public Safety for four years. While it was privilege to serve this City, what I witnessed dismayed me. 

The central problem with the Commission form of government is that Departments under their elected Commissioner work in silos. Silos discourage coordination. Silos encourage wasteful spending. Silos prevent real representation. 

The silo problem stares us in the face today. Amid pandemic caused fiscal stress, the City Council silos have done nothing to stop lavish spending on a Commissioner’s offices not covered by storm related insurance.Just the new furniture, delivered in April 2020, cost $57,000!The silo walls between Commissioners prevented any true checks and balances of this wasteful spending while revenues shrunk.   

This November we can put this behind us. The new City Charter will be more accountable, transparent and will give citizens real representation. The Mayor will be a policy leader, while a six-member City Council composed of citizens, elected from the neighborhoods will represent you. You will not have to hire an attorney to be heard in City Hall, you can just go down the street to your neighbor and tell them what is on your mind. A City Manager will coordinate all the departments. No more silos.There will be a City Auditor to watch the books—we could have used that as offices got renovated at the expense of our children’s recreational programs.    

Please vote YES on Charter Reform for a future of accountability, transparency and representation.

– Ronald Kim

In a 2016 survey city employees estimated they spent a third to half their work time navigating the politicized silos in City Hall that make up the current commission form of our government. If these insiders couldn’t always determine who would work with them, or what issues and problems were the purview of what department, is it any wonder that the average citizen of Saratoga Springs with a simple question or issue is often helplessly shunted from office-to-office in fruitless attempts to get someone to own the issues that are at the root of their concerns?

Add to this the ineffectiveness, waste, and self-dealing that are hallmarks of the commission form of government, and you’d be hard pressed to deny that we’re overspending for representation that’s underproviding. From lifetime health insurance perks, to hiring family members, to not pooling common purchasing needs if they originate in separate departments, to awarding dubious contracts to the politically connected, the inadequacies inherent in our current form of government are legion.

Enter regular city residents, elected to serve and be accessible to the needs of their neighbors, to work with a strong mayor, and to hire and supervise a professional city manager. This person’s charge is to tighten our belt, take advantage of efficiencies, and negotiate all contracts and spending with only the good of the whole citizenry in mind. Envision that, and you’ve got a snapshot of what our government could look like under a new charter. 

Don’t be cowed by the other side that arrogantly calls neighborhood representatives “uninformed newbies” incapable of making solid governance decisions.  Take citizen control of your city back and vote YES for charter reform.

– Tony Krackeler, Saratoga Springs

After lightning struck city hall, Mayor Kelly said, “We’re looking at being in temporary offices for up to a year.” Two and ½ years later, City Hall is still not finished and is millions of dollars over budget.  Why?

The project is managed by the Commissioner of Public Works, Skip Scirocco.  Before being elected, he had served as an animal control officer.  He hired his campaign manager, Michael Veitch, who had previously worked as the Press Secretary for State Senator Roy MacDonald as the Business Manager to run daily operations for Public Works instead of an engineer. While both are savvy political operators to knock of the McTygue machine, neither has any project management, construction or engineering experience. 

Meanwhile, Finance Commissioner Madigan has taken advantage of the crisis to order a $600,000+ lavish refurbishment of her office that was not even damaged in the crisis.

This is why 99% of the cities have abandoned the commission form of government. Taxpayers suffer when you put politicians in positions which require professional management expertise. Vote Yes on the charter for professional management and checks and balances. 

– Bob Turner

Saratoga Springs is worth fighting for. It’s a great place to live and the Commission form of government is one of the main reasons that Saratoga Springs has been so successful. There’s no place else I’d rather live in upstate New York. Plus the proposed 2020 city manager + wards system is worth fighting against. It’s significantly worse than the proposal we voted down in 2017.

A few unknown people added wards to divide our city into silos with politicians worried about slivers of the city rather than working for what’s good for the entire community. 

I also don’t like a part-time mayor being payed $65,000, a 448% increase for significantly less work than our current mayor performs. And the skeleton plan with only 4 employees eliminates 4 commissioners and 5 deputies, pushing about 18,000 hours of work yearly on a new out-of-town city manager. That’s impossible.

Finally, I’m fighting against a more expensive form of government starting with a city manager who will cost us $262,000 yearly.

I’m fighting for Saratoga Springs by voting No on the dreadful ballot initiative which would forever damage our great city.

– Richard Sellers, Spokesman for SUCCESS, Saratoga Springs

While your attention to one-liner political signs and messages may be waning, especially those playing to fears not facts, you may still need some answers.

How is the proposed Saratoga City Charter an improvement to our democratic system? How is it better for you? 

Simply put, it gives people throughout the city equal power and equal voice. Each neighborhood would be represented. Every member of the City Council would have one purpose, to represent you, the constituents. 

Voting YES on the back of your ballot means:

• Easier, effective input from you on the issues you care about in your neighborhood, directly through your representative, with the accountability you deserve.
• A broader more diverse pool of candidates for office because they run to represent people and neighborhoods, NOT to manage city departments full time at a part time salary. 

The City isn’t mandated to review our charter again until 2028. We came within a few votes of charter change three years ago. More than 1500 residents asked for it to be on the ballot again. 

In the midst of a financial, economic and health crisis, we need A YES Vote to ensure a more democratic, stronger future for Saratoga Springs. 

– Joanne D. Yepsen, Former Mayor, Saratoga Springs

There is a group which calls themselves Saratogians United to Continue the Charter Essentials to Saratoga’s Success or just SUCCESS who are for the continuation of the Commission form of government.  SUCCESS’s position is that the recent success of Saratoga Springs is due to our unique form of city governance.  The idea was that if you set up separate commissions with both executive and legislative rolls which eliminates separation of powers.  Through the 1920s about 500 cities had adopted this form of government.  Today there about 28 in the US and only two in New York, Saratoga Springs and Mechanicville.  Galveston’s goal was to have Commissioners having expertise in the department they are running has not been met in Saratoga’s recent history.  We have had a pharmacist, a dentist, and a former dog catcher as commissioners, nice people but not experts in the departments they ran.  We also have highly paid Deputy Commissioners who are supposed to provide the expertise that their Commissioner bosses do not have. But there is no vetting for these positions or approval other than the Commissioner who appoints the deputy. Does politics play a role in these appointments? Does the sun rise in the east? 

From its founding as a city into the 1940s, Saratoga at least tolerated and encouraged illegal gambling.  In the 1930s, Saratoga was a haven for the country’s mob run gambling establishments.  During this time, we had SUCCESS’s desired form of government. From the 1940s and into the 1980s, Saratoga Spring was dying.  This decline was over seen by the same Commission form of government that SUCCESS now says is KEY to Saratoga’s success.  So, if the Commission form of government in now hailed as the key to our success, why could it not turn things around over five decades?  If the Commission form of government in now hailed as the key to our success, why could it not turn things around over five decades?  Is this why they want this form of government to continue? It is true that from the 1990s until today, Saratoga has seen a great record of growth.  But if the form of government is responsible, why is Mechanicville not booming?  Why are the many troubled cities in upstate New York not rushing to adopt the Commission form of government? 

VOTE YES FOR CHARTER CHANGE 

– Rick Thompson, Saratoga Springs

Now that the charter change people have flooded the city with their propaganda, let’s talk real dollars. They have stated they are going to save taxpayers tons of money. This is the same untruth they used in the previous three attempts to destroy a governmental system that has created our great city.

In their misnamed Common Sense flyer, they list costs associated with a city manager system, but they “forgot” to reveal:

• Assistant city manager, $135,000
• Internal audit contract, $75,000
• Two support staff, $140,000
• Search firm and costs to find a city manager, $35,000
• Managers to replace 4 Deputies, $476,000

Plus there will be transition costs for two committees for attorneys, staff, and support of at least $100,000.

They claim they are going to save money by firing the day-to-day operating managers of city departments; claiming that a city manager can do the work of 4 Commissioners and 5 Deputies…roughly 18,000 hours yearly. Can’t be done.

They also forgot to tell you that only 13 of the 62 cities in NY state have a city manager, and four of them were recently fired. (Watertown, Ogdensburg, Batavia, and Long Beach)

Remember what your mother told you about promises from strangers: Beware. 

– Joe Dalton, Saratoga Springs

Everybody has the right to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

So I want you to know about the Ogdensburg NY City Council passed a resolution instructing their City Manager to eliminate 7 employees including 4 police officers. “But the authority to dismiss staff members rested solely with her, according to the City Charter; they couldn’t order her to take these actions,” which she refused to do. Source: NNY360

To be clear, according to their charter and the one proposed for Saratoga Springs, the elected City Council majority cannot force the appointed City Manager to fire anyone. I strongly believe that our elected officials are responsible for making these difficult decisions about what is best for our cities.

Google reveals that many (perhaps most) of the fights between City Managers and their City Councils are started by the weak Mayors who are fighting for more power than is allowed in their charters.

In Saratoga Springs, the proposed charter has a very weak Mayor, not much more than a ceremonial position. If you want leadership from elected officials, vote against the City Manager proposal which gives decision making to an appointed autocrat that you have no control over. 

– Corinne Scirocco, Saratoga Springs

Saratoga Springs’ citizens have an opportunity this year to move the City forward by adopting an amended City Charter which places professionalism and neighborhood representation over a government by- and for- the wealthy and well-connected.  A City Council, made up of representatives from districts across the City, will be responsive to the people of the City.  The Councilmembers will hire a professional City Manager, trained and experienced in running a city, to enact the policies and programs directed by the City Council.  Most cities of the size of Saratoga Springs have long-ago abandoned the City’s present form of government, structured around commissioners who not only serve as legislators, but also act as managers of departments for which they have no experience or training.  This is inefficient and results in city commissioners being responsive to their political supporters, not to ordinary taxpayers.  It is time for Saratoga Springs to say YES to its citizens and to vote YES to change to a Charter that values professional management and responsive government. 

– Ann C Bullock, Saratoga Springs