SARATOGA SPRINGS — The first of two public hearings regarding the city’s 2021 budget will be staged at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20. The proposed budget, at just under $41.9 million, is approximately $6.8 million less than the originally adopted budget for this year. 

“The 2021 Comprehensive Budget is driven by reduced revenue due to the effect of the pandemic on the national, state, and city economy,” said city Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan, who introduced the proposed budget to the City Council earlier this month. 

Due to the pandemic, 2020 current revenue projections are about $12 million less than the $48.7 million represented by the 2020 adopted budget, and 2021 revenue is estimated at $6.8 million less than the adopted 2020 budget, resulting in available revenue of approximately $41.9 million for 2021, Madigan said.

To partially off-set a pandemic-induced financial shortfall, discussions about employee lay-offs – which would cut costs, and property tax increases – which would increase revenue, are on the table. 

Year-to-date sales tax collection through August 2020 is 22.43% lower than the same period in 2019, NY has held back 20% of state revenue sharing for municipalities, and NYRA Admissions Tax, which provided the city just under $430,000 in 2019, was this year non-existent with no public admissions to the summer meet. 

“The city budget is one of our most important policy documents. It will also be key to the city’s financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is an extraordinary event for our city, a year-round destination accustomed to numerous activities, special events, with substantial citizen and visitor participation,” Madigan said. 

“City taxpayers have enjoyed a stable tax rate for an unprecedented 8 years of my tenure as Commissioner of Finance,” Madigan said. “For the first time during my tenure, we have suggested a noteworthy tax levy increase over 2020 in the amount of 6%.”  That 6% increase in property tax rates would generate $949,000 in revenue for 2021. It would increase the property tax payment on a home assessed at $200K by $6 per month, or $72 per year; a home assessed at $400,000 by $12 per month or $144 per year, and so on. 

The city’s single largest expenditure is personnel service. This, together with benefits, represents about 84% of the total General Operating Budget and includes wages, social security, retirement, and healthcare benefits. 

Budgeted expense reductions include a 10% cut in all wage appropriations for full-time employees, serving to mitigate the number of required layoffs, and lessen the impact to police, fire, and DPW labor and other wage lines. Absent federal fiscal stimulus, layoffs will be required. In addition to the 10% across the board pay cut that has been budgeted, additional staff reductions are included for DPW labor lines at 25%; and for DPS at 15% for police and fire personnel lines.

“The 2021 Comprehensive Budget is a plan designed to be amended if further revenue becomes available – such as much needed assistance to local municipalities from the Federal Government,” Madigan said. “While there are few layoffs that require a January 1 target, additional layoffs are not off the table. The Departments of Public Works and Public Safety, which are the departments with the largest personnel lines, will each require a plan to work through year-end 2021.” The proposed budget, she said, is designed to be fluid and flexible as the new post-pandemic economy develops, “specifically designed to prepare us for our challenges, while being amendable as new revenue and expense information is available and opportunities unfold. “    

Tuesday’s council meeting marks the first public hearing of the budget. While the first floor of the newly renovated City Hall had reopened to the public for a handful of meetings recently, the city announced that beginning this week, City Council meetings will be closed to the public for in-person engagement. The announcement was posted on the city’s social media page, where it appears public comments have also recently been altogether disabled or restricted. According to the post, meetings absent of a physical public will continue “until the Music Hall at City Hall is functional as a public meeting space.”

A livestream (and subsequent recording) of the meeting will be posted on the city’s website, the public will be able to participate in public hearings and public comment during the meeting via Zoom, according to the city. 

The line-by-line 190-page budget proposal and accompanying documentation is available for viewing on the city’s website. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Election Day is Nov. 3. In addition to national and regional elections, Saratoga Springs city voters may vote to amend the City Charter. 

Saratoga TODAY has prepared questions for submission to members of Common Sense Saratoga – a group in favor of Charter Reform, and Saratoga Works – a group in favor of keeping the current commission form of government. It is anticipated those questions and answers will be published in next week’s Saratoga TODAY newspaper.

Note: Early Voting will take place Oct. 24 – Nov. 1 at three Saratoga County early voting locations. Those locations are: 

• Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library: 475 Moe Road, Clifton Park 
• Board of Elections Building: 1st Floor, 50 W. High St., Ballston Spa 
• Gavin Park: 10 Lewis Dr., Wilton

Hours for early voting at Saratoga County sites. Those dates and times are: 

• Saturday and Sunday: Oct. 24 – 25: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Monday, Oct. 26: 12 – 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 27: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Wednesday, Oct. 28: 12 – 8 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 29: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 
• Friday, Oct. 30: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

(Early Voting times and locations: LWV of Saratoga County). 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The COVID-19 Emergency Housing Assistance Program – CEHAP, will fund up to six months of emergency housing needs for low-moderate income city residents preventing homelessness for those at risk, and rapidly rehousing those without adequate housing.

Applicants seeking emergency rental assistance must: be a City resident; be a low-moderate income household (80% Area Median Income or below: Albany Schenectady-Troy MSA); have a pandemic-related lapse in income; and  be in good standing with their landlord as of March 1, 2020. 

All CEHAP applicants must work with a Participating Provider to access funds. City-approved Participating Providers include: CAPTAIN Community Human Services, Catholic Charities of Saratoga County, Shelters of Saratoga, Veterans & Community Housing Coalition, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern NY (for those also requiring legal assistance), Salvation Army of Saratoga Springs, Transitional Services Association and Wellspring (domestic violence victims). 

Applications, eligibility guidelines, and Participating Provider contact information can be found on the City’s website: www.saratoga-springs.org 

CEHAP is administered by the City’s Office of Community Development, was funded by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. 

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SARATOGA COUNTY ­­— The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County (LWV) is seeking questions from the public for upcoming Candidate Forums. The Forums will be recorded this year without an audience and be recorded and available the following day on YouTube and on the League’s website, www.lwvsaratoga.org

Questions should be emailed to vslwvsc@gmail.com and the pertinent Race should be placed in the subject line. There is no limit to the number of questions submitted. 

Assembly 112 – Oct. 13: Joe Seeman and Mary Beth Walsh.
Assembly 113 – Oct. 14: David Catalfamo and Carrie Woerner.
Assembly 114 – Oct. 14, Claudia Braymer, Matthew Simpson, and Evelyn Wood.
Congress 20 – Oct. 20: Liz Joy and Paul Tonko.

At this time, LWV is attempting to schedule Senate 43 Daphne Jordan and Patrick Nelson and Senate 49 Thearse McCalmon and Jim Tedisco. Questions are being accepted in anticipation of these event. Candidates will make opening statements, take questions submitted by the public and make closing statements. Go to www.Vote411 to see candidate information, background and responses to questions.

LWV, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages the informed participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and to influence them through education and advocacy.

Longtime New York State Sen. Joseph Bruno died Tuesday, Oct. 6. He was 91. 

Bruno was born in Glens Falls in 1929, and first began serving in the New York State Senate in 1977. He was Senate Majority Leader from 1994 to 2008. 

In June 2008, Bruno announced he was stepping away from the political theater after 32 years of service. One month later, he made one final trip to Saratoga Springs on his farewell tour as state senator, were he announced he had secured an additional $6 million from the state Dormitory Authority to help fund the expansion of the Saratoga Springs City Center. He had previously delivered $6 million in 2006 toward the $16 million City Center expansion project. 

Earlier, the Republican senator from Brunswick delivered a $4 million grant from the state that was used to complete the new 54,000-square-foot Zankel music center on the campus of his alma mater. “I graduated from Skidmore College before most of you were even born,” quipped Bruno, a Skidmore graduate of the class of ’52. 

Bruno died at his Brunswick home, surrounded by family, according to the Associated Press.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A Special City Council meeting was held at City Hall on the afternoon of Oct. 1 to address public safety concerns in light of recent protests and marches held in Saratoga Springs. 

“The safety of the community and all involved is the number one priority of the Department of Public Safety,” Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton said, to begin the meeting. Dalton specifically cited a protest held the previous Friday night led by the group All of Us. The regional grassroots organization describes their goals as fighting for liberty through unity and active resistance and ending all forms of oppression and exploitation.   

“Over the last six days we have received hundreds of complaints from residents, businesses and people who are visiting our city, over the protest that happened in our city Friday night. The Saratoga Springs Police Department recognizes the right to peacefully protest, however, one person’s constitutional right does not supersede another’s,” Dalton said during the meeting, attended by all council members, excepting DPW Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco, who was absent. 

Accompanied by video clips of the protest, Dalton provided a timeline of the march, which commenced in Congress Park and proceeded through the downtown business corridor. For safety reasons, police blocked off streets around the Broadway and Lake Avenue intersection, she said, and a video clip depicted marchers moving along Phila Street.    

“Frequently the group stopped in front of area businesses to intimidate and harass diners and pedestrians,” Dalton said, showing a five-minute clip that depicted one of the group leaders in close proximity to outdoor restaurant tables and loudly addressing diners with words at times peppered with profanity.  “You all can have dinner, while black people are dying,” the clip showed. “You all feel comfortable, having dinner, while we’re being murdered? Come outside walk with us.”

“Suffice to say none of the customers came back to dine at those restaurants that evening,” Dalton said. “That also happened at several other businesses, where they stopped and harassed and intimidated people who were eating.”

Protests for social and racial justice have ramped up regionally much as they have nationwide since the May 25 murder of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after being pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee. In early June, more than 1,000 attended a rally in Congress Park. In late July, Black Lives Matter/All of Us marchers protesting racial injustice crossed paths with another group supporting law enforcement in a Back The Blue rally. 

Citing “intelligence collected by outside agencies” that police say reported one of the protestors was possibly armed with a handgun, the city added the assistance of the State Police, state Park Police, and the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department. Later that same evening, as members of the group rallied on Broadway and impeded traffic in front of Congress Park, the sheriff’s department utilizing their MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle, dispersed the crowd using pepper projectiles. The city Chief of Police authorized the action “once the situation started turning violent,” according to a statement issued by SSPD. 

The most recent protest led by “All of Us” was staged two days after a Kentucky grand jury decided against charging police officers with homicide in the death of Breonna Taylor. The 26-year-old emergency room technician was shot multiple times in her apartment by officers executing a search warrant earlier this year in what the N.Y. Times described as a “botched raid.” 

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At this week’s special council meeting, Assistant City Police Chief John Catone read a prepared statement which said SSPD respects the right to peacefully protest at public property – “such as parks, government buildings, as long as they are not blocking access to the buildings or interfering with the other purposes the property was designated for.” 

Citing the video clips played during the council meeting, Catone explained that marchers had obstructed vehicle and pedestrian traffic to the point that the safety of all had been compromised. 

“Moving forward, should demonstrations and protests which have not been coordinated with our department occur obstruct vehicular pedestrian traffic and compromise the peace and safety of all community members, the police department will ask demonstrators, protesters to remove themselves from the roadway and stop obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic,” Catone said. “The demonstrators/protesters will be given the opportunity to move and if they fail to do so, the appropriate police action will take place, and they may be subject to arrest.”

He added the police department continues to make itself available to meet with rally organizers for safe protest planning purposes, but said members of All Of Us had thus far not agreed to meet with the department. 

“It is time to make some changes here because we cannot have this happening time and time again in the city of Saratoga Springs – period,” Mayor Meg Kelly said. “We are not going to block streets; there’s going to be a time where somebody’s going to get run over by a car. There’s going to be a fight in the street and it’s going to be a bad scene,” she said. “I think this is a very important turning point.” 

Lexis Figuereo, identified as a leader of the group “All of Us,” spoke to the council during the meeting’s public comment period. 

“This is the first meeting I’m hearing anything about protests. Until people started complaining about restaurants last Friday – now you guys want to talk. Now we’re having a special council meeting. There was no Special Council Meeting when you guys shot at us,” said Figuereo, referring to the late July rally that resulted in law enforcement using pepper balls. “Why has it taken this long for this to happen, because we’ve been doing this since May. It seems to me what’s more important is property and money than people and people’s lives.” 

All Of Us is advocating for what it calls its “13 Demands Against Police Brutality, State-Sanctioned Violence, and Abuse of Power.” These include structural changes be made to policing and incarceration, including the abolition of all no-knock warrants, anti-racism training for all persons working for law enforcement, and the abolition of chokeholds, among others.

In June, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an Executive Order requiring local governments with a police force to perform a comprehensive review and develop a plan to improve current police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices. The purpose of the order is to address the particular needs of each community, to promote community engagement and foster trust, and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.

Earlier this summer, city Mayor Meg Kelly Mayor convened a Task Force to address the governor’s Executive Order. The next meeting is Oct. 14. When completed, the Task Force will present their recommendations to the City Council and the public. The council is required to adopt a plan by local law or resolution on or before April 1, 2021 and to implement the recommendations.

ALBANY —  The state has launched a mobile contact tracing app in partnership with Apple and Google software that will alert smartphone users if they were in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19. 

COVID Alert NY is a voluntary, anonymous, exposure-notification smartphone app created for the purposes of contact tracing. Contact tracing is key to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and helps protect individuals, their families, and entire communities, according to the CDC. It lets people know they may have been exposed to COVID-19 and that they should monitor their health for signs and symptoms of the virus.

“Contact tracing is awesome and our (Saratoga County) contact tracers have been working very hard – but it also relies on your memory,” says Tara Gaston, one of two Saratoga Springs Supervisors representing the city at the county level. “If you have COVID and you’re diagnosed, they ask you: Where have you been? Do you remember when you went to that gas station, and did you brush up against that person? Do you remember when you saw your neighbor out in the front?’ It relies on you remembering every place you’ve been, who you’ve been in contact with.” 

The expectation is the app will “remember” contacts in greater detail than the human memory, and it will do so without compromising privacy or personal information. 

“What I do right now is I have a Proximity List,” explains city resident Charlie Samuels, an awards-winning director and photographer and early supporter of the potential benefits of the system. “I’m a documentarian, so I write down everybody I come close contact with.  I have my own list. But who else keeps a list? And sometimes I forget. This would be an easy, non-thinking way to do that.” 

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In April, Apple and Google – normally competitors in business – announced plans to collaborate on building COVID-19 software into iPhone and Android operating systems.  On Oct. 1, in partnership with Google and Apple, the New York State Department of Health launched the COVID Alert NY app which enables the software to be used, for those who choose to do so. 

The app leverages a private and secure Bluetooth-based technology that alerts you if a sick person spends 10 minutes or more within 6 feet of you, and lets you alert others if you have tested positive without revealing anyone’s identity, according to the state Department of Health.   

“The important thing is it doesn’t tell you where you came in contract with them, or when – except that it would have been sometime in the previous 14 days,” Gaston said. “It can be beneficial, and I love the idea especially because there’s also so much privacy built into it. I’m a big pro-ponent of privacy and I don’t want people’s information being shared.” 

The more people who download COVID Alert NY, the more effective it will be. The free mobile app is available to anyone 18 or older who lives, works, or attends college in New York or New Jersey, and is available for download from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. COVID Alert NY is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Korean, Russian and Haitian Creole. 

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Bridges’ virtual White Party with “A Splash Of Color” raised more than $50,000 net in sponsorship dollars and via an online Silent Auction held on Friday, Sept. 25. 

Saratoga Bridges has provided services and programs to people with developmental disabilities and their families for more than 60 years by promoting their abilities and achievements in every aspect of community life.

The organization says the funds raised are crucial and will assist the agency with the unanticipated expenses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as generating support for their non-funded or underfunded programs.