Charter Review Commission Holds Public Forum on Proposed Amendments

The Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission recently held a public forum on several proposed amendments to the city’s charter that will be on the ballot in November. 

The proposed amendments represent phase two of the commission’s review of the charter which focuses on changes that would require ballot approval to be implemented. The first phase of the charter focused on things that could be addressed only by vote of City Council. 

Most of the changes proposed by the Charter Review Commission involve internal changes to certain functions of city hall as well as the transition between City Council administrations. 

Among the changes most impactful to voters will be a change to how the city deals with vacancies on City Council. Under the current charter, if a vacancy occurs, the council is required to fill the vacancy through appointment until the end of the year. If an election is not held by the end of the calendar year, then a special election is called. 

Under the proposed change to the charter, however, any vacancy that occurs over 180 days from the next general city election would be required to go to a special election between 70 and 90 days from the date of the vacancy. If the vacancy occurs within 180 days of a general election, however, the special election can take place on that day.

The other notable change to the charter concerns how budget programs are managed. Instead of starting the process in August with the issuance of a call letter, the new process would push the start date for the process up to July. It also provides more specific requirements for each department when submitting their budget requests.

During the public forum held on August 11, the commission heard from the public on the proposed changes. Five people spoke at the meeting, of whom two were city employees who had concern regarding language in the proposed charter impacting their work. 

Under the proposed changes, two offices — the Risk and Safety Office and the Public Information Administrator, would be brought under the umbrella of the Mayor’s Office. In the case of Risk and Safety, the responsibilities would be placed under the Office of the City Attorney. 

Currently, the Director of Risk and Safety is housed in the Accounts Department while the IT administrator is housed in the Finance Department. 

During the public forum both Rachael Capasso, Director of Risk and Safety, and Jeff Cornick, IT Systems Manager, expressed concerns that the current language of the proposed amendments would negatively impact their work.

Capasso pointed out that while the duties of the position transferred under the proposed amendment to the office, the position itself didn’t and requested that commission adopt language in their proposal ensuring that the position remains a professional role in the city.

“I’m not asking the committee to preserve an outdated reporting structure,” Capasso said. “I’m asking the committee to preserve the position title, professional responsibility, and civil service status while updating the reporting relationship to reflect the proposed charter amendment.” 

Cornick, meanwhile, expressed concerns that by making the positions appointed under the mayor’s office would remove civil service protection and make it so that the position could change due to the sole discretion of the mayor rather than professional needs. 

Outside of the two workers, the other three spoke about issues currently being addressed by the proposed phase two amendments such as providing more community input in government actions, elimination of language surrounding the supervisors, and the need for more information regarding the proposed changes.

The commission has until the end of the month to submit the proposed changes to be on the ballot.