I’ve long criticized Saratoga Springs’ form of government in which elected council members oversee specific aspects of City Hall, creating silos of administration. But the charter change now on the ballot would replace that shortcoming with one far worse – a ward system that would drastically reduce every city resident’s representation on the City Council and make elected officials less accountable. I’m voting no.
The claim that residents would gain better representation with wards is false and grossly misleading.
The ward system minimizes our individual clout as voters. It eliminates council members’ accountability to all but the sixth of the city that elects them. We would get to vote for a mayor and only one of six council members, with no promise that even that one candidate – let alone the other five – would feel compelled to address the concerns of our particular neighborhood.
I looked at a map of the election districts to see how areas were lumped together in the proposed charter (in Article XI, section C) to form six wards. Here are three examples:
Ward Three stretches from the city neighborhoods around the Caroline Street School to the sprawling estates in the Beacon Hill Drive area off Meadowbrook Road and the rural developments north of Route 29 toward Wilton.
Ward Four would combine the South Side (everything south of Lincoln Avenue, including Jefferson Terrace) with all the Saratoga Lake and Lake Lonely developments, more than three miles and a world away.
Ward Six puts together the downtown West Side (including the Beekman Street arts district) with the more suburban housing around Buff Road.
You get the idea.
Check out the map yourself.
Bottom line: Every citizen should be able to vote for all of the City Council members.
There are other reasons to reject this charter change. Promised cost savings are dubious as is the timing of the ballot proposal, with people unable to assemble to discuss the pros and cons, not to mention the city budget hole caused by the pandemic. And the idea of a city manager appointed to oversee all city operations makes sense -- but not accompanied by the unnecessary creation of a full-time mayor as proposed.
I could get behind a new charter with an appointed city manager beholden to a City Council whose members answer to all Saratoga Springs voters.
This charter change would radically reduce our voice. Vote no.
- Barbara Lombardo, Saratoga Springs
