MESSAGE FROM THE SARATOGIAN 20 YEARS AND STILL NO GO!

I have been bombarded by posters and facebook friends that have posted it for their friends and have been getting messages from Saratoga Citizen to print an editorial from the 90's that the Saratogian wrote regarding changing the form of government.  So here it is.

 The Saratogian, November 1991 Editorial "Time to Trade In Antique Form of Government"

"The faces may change from election to election, but the City Council will remain an unwieldy, five-headed monster until the form of government is changed.
Saratoga Springs is a city rich in history, but the commission form of government is a tradition whose time has come and gone.
The form has all but disappeared from city governments. Yet Saratoga Springs hangs on to the commission form, the same one in place when the city was chartered in 1915. It’s like hanging on to a Model T – and still trying to drive it.
It’s time for a trade-in.
The problem with the commission government is not its age, but its set-up.
 The City Council comprises five council members, each of whom is in charge of one of the city’s five departments. A council member cannot simply be a legislator. A council member must also be responsible for a specific department; finance, accounts, public safety or public works. The only lone ranger is the mayor, although the engineering department is under the auspices of the mayor’s office.
 The four council members who are responsible for a department get to hire their own deputy commissioner, which is a full-time administrator, to run the office. The deputy commissioner therefore serves at the whim of the one council member responsible for that department.
 No one is in charge. "Mayor" sounds important, but don’t be fooled. The Mayor of Saratoga Springs has no more power than any of the other four heads of the council monster. One head, one vote. That sounds fair, but it makes for ineffective government.
Think of your workplace with no one in charge. The supervisors are left to work things out with one another. As the "Dilbert" cartoon character has pointed out, if one department needs the cooperation of another on some matter, but the matter is not one of the other’s top 1,000 priorities, it won’t get done. At least not right away.
The only hint of accountability comes every two years at election time, when council members can take credit for what got done and blame colleagues for what got stymied.
Over the years, the volunteers and the private sector in Saratoga Springs have done more to enhance the city than has the City Council. The form of government is in part to blame.
Instead of a city run by five disparate departments, one person – be it a manager, administrator, or mayor – should be overseeing the government.
Changing the form of government should be a priority in the coming term. Mayor A.C. Dake – who is unopposed this term – has said she would pursue charter revision. She should hold fast to that commitment to bring Saratoga Springs into the 20th century, before the 21st rolls around."

CAN MISINFORMATION HELP OR HURT SUCCESS??

Is SUCCESS is in trouble.   Saratoga Citizen and voters are asking this question, if spreading misinformation and it back fires will SUCCESS be in trouble?  They have no facts to back up any of their claims.  In a hand out on pretty pink paper they had some information that you can get off of their website.

BEGINNING of SUCCESS STATEMENT

“Radical Change Proposed for 
Saratoga Springs Government 
Let’s not surrender control of our city government to a stranger. We don’t know either the new City Manager czar or how the City Manager form of government will really work.

Commission: VOTERS WIN

Proven. Look at how successful Saratoga Springs has become,  
Efficient government.  
Mayor and all Commissioners are elected and accountable to voters every two years.  
Direct responsibility. 
No tax increase. Large reserves. 
Strong, knowledgeable council 

City Manager: VOTERS LOSE

Unsuccessful. Used by many depressed upstate New York cities.

Bigger bureaucratic government costing more.

*Undemocratic. City Manager is unelected and unaccountable to the taxpayers. 
All city administrators are appointed by city manager. 

Council members denied contact with department heads and employees.   
*Significantly higher cost/taxes. Total cost still unknown. *Strong, knowledgeable council Weak council, completely isolated from the departments

 Commissioners are accountable to the voters every two years. Four year staggered terms mean it could take 4 years to clean house of bad council members.”  End of partial SUCCESS STATEMENT!

If Jane Weihe is one of the best SUCCESS can put forward in a debate, they have a problem.  A well respected former Mayor Ken Klotz made more sense.  Also, he agreed at times with statements made by Kane & Martin but did tell why he felt this form we have provides some of the same points.  One big agreement he had was, and you must remember that Mayor Klotz appointed a Commission that passed a tweaked Commission Charter in 2000.  He said one weakness of this government was that the tweaked Charter mandated some very important departments in the City.  A full time Human Resource position and a Director of open land a spaces to name a few that can’t even be implemented. 

Jane said that as drawn up she couldn’t live under this proposed new Charter.  Let’s hope if the new Charter passes we don’t lose Jane as a Saratogian, she’s too funny.

                                                   

AN ARTICLE THAT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

An article written by a former employee in the Baltimore Housing and Community Development and Planning departments.

The reasons for change in Saratoga is spelled out in the last paragraph, which sadly is a side effect of the Commission form of government  and as we can plainly see, happens all to often in our City.



"The strong-mayor system, in which all key policy and management decisions flow from the mayor's authority, was eliminated from thousands of US local governments in the 20th century, beginning with the ‘good government’ reforms of the Progressive Era. However, Baltimore's government never experienced those reforms, meaning that Baltimoreans still live in a ‘boss’ system where almost all hope, credit and blame end up singularly associated with the mayor.

It is clear that developers and other interest groups perceive - probably correctly - that the best method to gain decisions in their favor is to ‘grease’ the pathway. Sometimes that grease is pure corruption. More frequently, it is some version of interest peddling that does not quite rise to the level of outright corruption. Either way, it bends governmental decisions away from the public interest and toward the private interest of those doing the greasing.

The best-managed and cleanest local governments in the United States are not strong-mayor governments; they are council-manager governments. This is the structure of almost half of the local governments in the US. There are a few varieties of this form of government, in terms of the roles of the mayor and the city council; In all of them, however, the job of the mayor is not to be the chief executive officer, with responsibility for day-to-day management and decision-making. That job is handled by a professional city manager hired by the mayor and city council. There are universities that train these managers, who would bring expertise in management/administration and an ethic of clean and efficient government.In this system, the mayor and the city council together set policy, make laws/ordinances, and establish and approve the budget. They also provide oversight of operations, holding the city manager to account. The city manager is responsible for hiring and management.

One way to think of this structure is that the mayor and the city council would be like a board of trustees, with the mayor chairing the board and the city manager as the hired CEO.

One great advantage of this system is that it insulates day-to-day management from the intrusion of politics. There would be no benefit of ‘greasing’ decisions with the mayor or with individual council members, because they would not have that sort of power. Of course, there would be a risk that this influence greasing would move over to the bureaucracy staff, but that is not how it has turned out. Experience around the country is that council-manager systems tend to be far cleaner.Such a charter-reform movement would have the goal of overcoming the cynicism that pervades conversations about Baltimore's city government and have the ideal of creating a government about which the citizens could be proud - but would still be vigilant."

HIDE AND SEEK, A SUCCESS TACTIC

The League of Woman Voters cancelled the debate between 2 members of Saratoga Citizen and 2 members of SUCCESS scheduled for 9/19 because SUCCESS could not field 2 people to debate against Saratoga Citizen.  SUCCESS had also backed out of a scheduled debate at the library scheduled for the 13^th of this month for not being able to field a person for the debate.  This would seem odd as Remiga’s group has been spreading a lot of information lately and if anyone has read the Proposed Charter knows, it is misinformation they are spreading.  The debate would bring this out into the forefront and they can’t get caught in a venue like this without facts, something they just don’t have.

If you were at the evening of discussion they held with SUCCESS members Scott Johnson, yes our own Mayor (has anyone but me noticed how blood shot his eyes look all the time)?  How can he be holding office and be a card carrying member of this group and his partner Joe Dalton, who it is said, upon arriving in Saratoga to start his job declared a statement regarding Saratoga as being a city in the sticks.  This is the same Dalton, who was making $190,000.00 in salary and $25,000.00 in other income from the Chamber plus retirement and all the other benefits.  Anyway, Remiga did have the sense to take questions from the audience, but only from SUCCESS members.  She advertised it as an open public meeting, although she never recognized many of the hands raised by Saratoga Citizen members or regular citizens who had just woken up from the Mayor’s speech.

Well some news on a Saturday, the League of Woman Voter’s has announced that a debate on October 25^th from 7:30 – 9:30 will take place at the Saratoga Springs High School Auditorium.  Those in the debate for the group against Charter Change (SARATOGIANS UNITED TO CONTINUE THE CHARTER ESSENTIAL TO SUSTAIN OUR SUCCESS), again they can’t remember their name so they use SUCCESS, will be Ken Klotz & Jane Weihe and representing Saratoga Citizen (Saratoga Citizen) will be Pat Kane & Batavia City Manager Jason Molino.  Pass the word around.

This event will go on said a spokesperson from the League, no matter if SUCCESS is there or not.  Captain America feels that former Mayor Karen err I mean Ken Klotz or Jane Weihe will pass on the spotlight.  Expect some red faces when they can't come up with anything but 'look at wherre we are now'.  Pass on the information, you will want the truth and this will be the place to get it.

JOHNSON DOES IT AGAIN, BUT IS IT A SURPRISE?

Well, it has been done.  Mayor Johnson, who has been saying for 4 years that he was going to appoint a Charter Commission to make the current Charter much better, announced he has done just that.  What I can’t wait for now is to see the cast of characters he appoints.  One thing for sure, it will be Johnson supporters, SUCCESS members (guess who?) and the good old boys network.  This last grasp for power by the Mayor, Shauna and it appears the Republican Party shows how they operate and how they feel about the citizenry.

Now, do you think this was done by the Mayor to confuse voters with only less than 6 weeks before the election?  Granted, he CANNOT change the fact that the Proposed Change has to be voted on in November.  Do you think the Mayor is smart enough to propose this Commission after saying he was going to 4 years ago?  Some say no, I feel this smells a little of Shauna Sutton yanking Johnson’s (better not said).  Like Charlie McCarthy to Edgar Bergen, so to is Scott Johnson on Shauna Sutton's lap.

When the Mayor joined SUCCESS, he made it perfectly clear to citizens he was opposed to Charter Change.  Instead of being a Mayor and staying neutral he has again joined with a small group led by Remiga Foy who, at her party last week with Johnson and Joe Dalton, (we call him the $225,000.00 man because of his salary amount at the Chamber before he retired), had admitted that professionalism is the best solution when dealing with groups like government, school districts etc.  Her example was that citizen’s elect a School Board and the School Board then interviews and appoints a Superintendent to administer the District.  This does sound like blueprint of a Mayor/Council/City Manager form of government, doesn’t it?

One thing stands out as explained to me by a friend who visited both a SUCCESS meeting and a Saratoga Citizen meeting.  She said at the SUCCESS meeting it was attended by the same old guard of Saratoga Springs and she did say OLD GUARD.  She then said she was impressed that the Saratoga Citizen group consisted of every age group, young and old and ages in between and had more information and that they allowed attendees to freely ask any questions they had a concern about.  It was said that at the talk SUCCESS held at the Principessa Elena last week with SUCCESS members Mayor Johnson and Joe Dalton that after their talk, questions were taken from the audience but sadly Remiga would never take a question from any Saratoga Citizen member in the audience.  This is the Mayor’s idea of hearing from everyone,

Mayor Johnson has said we have a great economy here, and he is right, we also have a beautiful City.  However, look at what happened when we lost Racino money, it cost Saratoga Springs dearly, we had to slash services in a hurry.  What if the State's takeover of the race tracks doesn't work and it starts to hurt the racing industry, we will suffer immensely, what planning is being done just in case this might happen???  We cannot have knee jerk reactions to problems like we do now.  We need to get out of 1918 and get into 2012, things have changed in almost 100 years, everything that is but how our City Hall operates.  Captain America says to know what the difference between the two choices that will be on the ballot in November and vote for what you think will be better for the whole City.  Remember though, the Mayor's Commission will not be on the ballot.  The Mayor does not want you to consider change, show him we are not as dumb as he thinks we are.

IT HAPPENED ONE EVENING

  

I have received some inquiries from various posters to blogs if I would post their responses that another blogger will not post, my answer sad to say is no. 

While some bloggers might be vile and offensive they do have a right to spew.  If they do not show your post, know that you probably either, hit a nerve, proved him wrong or just plain embarrassed him.

The only complaint I’ll post is against Captain America but I will not, if the language is vulgar.

Well, I attended the info session that was hosted by Remiga Foy’s group   Saratogians United to Continue the Charter Essential to Sustain.  Mayor Scott Johnson and Joe Dalton spoke about the benefits of the Commission form of government and how well it worked with the Chamber in bringing Saratoga back from the brink of disaster.
The discussion was what one would think it to be (talking to the choir), with about 35 people in attendance which included a number from Saratoga Citizen.  What was typical of Remiga though was when questions were taken from the floor.  Remiga who also served as moderator would not allow any questions from the Saratoga Citizen group in attendance.
This is the way Saratogians United to Continue the Charter Essential to Sustain and Remiga will be conducting her future ‘informational hearings’.  If I were you don’t bother to attend, just figure everything is wrong.

WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT II

Some interesting news the Justice League has heard from a Republican plant in City Hall (yes, we also have those).  What is going on in City Hall recently sounds like a good old soap opera.

 Oh! what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!

By: Sir Walter Scott

Well, the news goes like this.  The reason behind the executive session the other day was to get rid of the HR person that Pinnacle designated to City Hall.  It seems that none other than Mary Zlotnick (you all remember her?) was dating the HR fellow that worked in City Hall.  I guess we could call Mary a working girl, but there is nothing good that comes out of ‘pillow talk’, and this is probably the main reason of Ms. Zlotnick’s insubordination (could be because she wouldn’t stop the affair) and subsequent  termination and the following reason Mary ‘came clean’. The Mayor tried his best to keep the Company that works 3 days a week for a price of over $1,400.00 per day and it was pointed out by the Council that the budget line for the job would run out at the end of September.

Now remember, at the Council embattled Commissioner Franck made an argument and his motion was passed to give notice to terminate the Pinnacle contract.  The decision to get rid of the HR person and his company was done because of a possible lawsuit down the road for the City and Ms. Zlotnick.

This will be a series worth watching and the players seem to be changing every day.

More about the plant in City Hall.  It is a Variegated Ivy, so if you are standing by one do not talk, and if it’s red as a lobster, it’s Mayor Johnson.

MAYOR'S JOHNSON & SUTTON SINK SARATOGA

Since as far back as your Captain can remember I have never seen the Mayor’s office taken down to the low level Mayor Johnson and Shauna Sutton have taken it to.  Under their stewardship they really have sent the office into the slime at the bottom of Saratoga Lake.  Let’s look at the Recreation Center debacle and the firing of a building inspector because he wouldn’t do as commanded by the dynamic duo and sign off a part of the job when it was unsafe and illegal.  The two then hired an engineer from Albany to inspect and sign off for them and she walked away and went back to Albany without putting an initial on the paper.  They also opened the facility without a certificate of Occupancy.  Next when the two put their heads together to plan the project, they left out parking spaces and showers for those using the building.

The next item that citizens of the City paid dearly for was the Mayor’s intentional delays and court battles with the citizens group Saratoga Citizen.  Scott spent nearly $80,000.00 of our money playing one-upmanship with costly court and appeal delays.  He lost every point in court and in the State Appellate Court.  So much for his prowess as a great litigator, (in his humble opinion), and taking the advice of the great West Side Dive Bombers, Elliott Massie and Remiga ‘who needs ya’ Foy.  Ok, I couldn’t resist a swing at Ms. Foy but she makes herself such a great target.

This just scratches the surface.  Next, The Mayor and his Deputy, give free reign to Sonny Bonacio to reshape the landscape of Saratoga Springs.  If you check the records you will see that Sonny get’s his projects through the various Boards faster than a speeding bullet.  One thing I’ll never understand is why doesn’t the City’s boards make Sonny put a Victorian look to his condo buildings?  I thought we wanted to project a certain look of a past era.

The Lillian’s parking lot was sold to Sonny for about ½ its worth by the Mayor and the sale price was used in 4 budgets and the City hasn’t received a penny yet.  Beware when the Mayor says ‘it will be taken care of within the month’ (remember the statements regarding the Waterfront Park).

The new parking garage which was recently built has its own prints by the dynamic duo on it.  The Mayor contracted out much of the work that the DPW could have done for more than ¾ in savings (hooking water lines etc.), but 2 engineer’s were hired to see that the jobs were carried out by another firm, probably with ties that can go back to the Mayor and Shauna.  Again, when the Mayor and Shauna couldn’t force the building inspector to put his ok on part of a job that was unsafe, you guessed right fired, gone, thrown out.  We now have no building inspector.  It is being said at City Hall that Scott Johnson is studying to become a building inspector, but as Mary Zlotnik has proved most employees don’t know the whole story.

These are just a few tidbits that the Captain has now, but we will be exposing more costly follies and possible actions that have put the City and its citizens in financial peril.  Until next time, superhero’s.

EDUCATE YOURSELF AND LISTEN TO DEBATES

I am a self educated citizen when it comes to Charter Change.  Your Captain is not involved with Saratoga Citizen or SUCCESS, (although I have friends in both groups).  I feel it is up to the individual to do research on their own before making a decision.  There are all kinds of posts on the various blogs, from insightful to the ridiculous.  After doing some internet research I did find information on the Saratoga Citizen website informative, while honestly I couldn’t find out any information except for the donors of SUCCESS, on the internet.  All the information I received about the group was from friends of mine who are members and have told me where they stand and why as told to them by Ms. Foy. 

In researching the Commission form of government, which Saratoga has had for almost 100 years, I found that there are only 40 or so cities our size in the entire U.S. that use this form and about 76 total in the entire country.  The Commission form, as almost everyone knows, was started because of a disaster in Texas and businessmen needed fast action to rebuild their losses.  It still appears that the Commission form is promoted mostly by businessmen as evidenced by the list of donors of SUCCESS.  There also seems to be a few ex politicians who suffered tough losses and really didn’t want to give up their power as backers of the group.

One phrase a friend said to me is ‘what is wrong with Saratoga’?  ‘Our City is the envy of cities across the country’ (this has also been said by Mayor Johnson).  In response I said to her, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Saratoga Springs, we have a beautiful city and while I don’t believe we are the envy of the country, I find that many people like to live and visit our City.  Saratoga has a great volunteer base, a great downtown, an active Chamber of Commerce, a very busy Convention Bureau, these things can’t be denied.

However, there is a double edged sword, while we have all the above, we also have a dysfunctional and costly government.  The question one should ask themselves is, can our government run more efficiently and more streamlined?  Do we need 5 payroll departments?  Do we need to give City employees 15 minutes of work time to cash their checks on Friday?  Do we need 8 unions, which our Mayor cannot negotiate expired contracts, should we turn a blind eye when the City fails to live up to the laws they set forth? Is there proper planning for 5 to 10 years out?  Ten years is a stretch but there are some items that would benefit from a time period like this i.e. do we have a plan on the number of years and how many police cars needs to be rotated out for new ones?  The same plan should be planned with fire vehicles, or do we wait 19 years until a fire truck catches fire while trying to put out a fire?  By the way this last one made the national news.

It seems to me as I talk with people that young adults and those who moved here in the last 15 years or so favor a new form of government, while the ‘old guard’ of Saratoga favors the status quo, and if you ask them why, they have no answer other than to say ‘it’s always been this way’.   One thing Saratoga Springs has is a very high percent of voter apathy.  In the last primary, workers in 2 Districts reported a total of 6 and 7 people respectively, turning out to vote, (very sad).

Some people try to demonize Pat Kane, Brent Wilkes and anyone else in the Saratoga Citizen group.  I feel the issue is the form of government and the information a group puts out, not the people behind it.  If this were so, would that mean that if you disliked Remiga Foy, you would automatically say that SUCCESS is a bunch of crazies and be for charter change?  Should Ms. Foy be demonized because she is adamant in keeping the status quo? I don’t think so.

I did my research first on the various forms of government and truth be told the Professional Manager, Council, Mayor form of government seems like the best one out there.  Granted there is no form that is 100% perfect, but in today’s real world, running a government has become so difficult, that running a City without a qualified professional manager at the helm seems unreal.  Would you hire a carpenter to run a $37 million dollar computer business?  There are some who say that say they are for a strong Mayor, but it seems to me that you still are electing a pretty face who may be as dumb as a box of rocks.

Just one other thing, if you do your own research without having someone talk you into something you will feel more comfortable with your decision.  A question that pops up frequently is the cost of a new government.  The figures are out there, but think about this, if this new government form is voted in, it will be bound by the budget that is passed by the current Council, the very same Council that will be responsible for sifting through resume’s for a Professional Manager, one who will work under a Council elected by the citizens of Saratoga.

See how much information you can get if you take the time to do a little research?

THANK YEW!!

Well people, first I want to thank you for reading Captain America’s fun and fact filled posts (lol).  Your Captain started his blog in June of this year and there have been 6,250 hits to the site since then.  I appreciate it.  I promise to continue the blog without having any 24 hour money-thons to get my readers to donate money to me or beg on Broadway for SPAC tickets.  I will also promise not to have you think I have cancer so that I can get money from saps who believe I do, just so I can take a vacation with my wife Joyce, did I say Joyce?  I didn’t mean her.

Well just some interesting bits on area oddities.

It seems one of our greatest Mayor’s in the history of Saratoga Spring (and that’s going back hundreds of years when the area was known as Well Water Junction, by the Indians), translated that means mucho aqua.  Anyway, Mr. Johnson took umbrage to Lucian McCarty’s blog post about him (Lucian) asking the Mayor many, many times about his appointing a Commission at this late stage after 3 years of saying he could do so.  Well in a phone call with the Mayor it seems Sir Scotty said it wasn’t funny to keep making it seem like he was ducking the issue.  To that I say REALLY?  After 4 years?  Mr. Mayor, your middle name is Duck.  I hate to pick on the Mayor all the time (he does deserve it) because I am involved with Republicans on many levels and they think he is a little batty also.  I’ll have more later.

By the way, has anyone found Tamara yet?  Wonder Woman left a spare costume.

 Thanks again.

THESE ARE NORMAL DAY’S OF OUR LIVES IN SARATOGA!

Have you ever wondered to yourself, has the world gone crazy or is it you?  Well, Capt. Am.  Friends, it has to be the world or more specifically Saratoga Springs.

• “More than a dozen people spoke at a Design Review Commission public hearing Wednesday night regarding the future of 66 Franklin St.”

• “The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation says the building can be saved, according to Executive Director Samantha Bosshart. The SSPF even hired an attorney from a national firm to fight to save the stack of boards.

• “Boff (the owner), as well as the builder who has been maintaining the property, estimated a full renovation of the building would cost more than $2 million and the building would be worth less than $1 million when done.”

My good people this is daily business in Saratoga Springs unless your name is “Developer” Sonny Bonacio, then the City will pay you over $1 million dollars to tear a building down.

Here is another example of delirious business:

·         Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the Saratoga Springs Public Library, Saratoga Citizen brought another speaker in to discuss what they see as the benefits of the council-manager form of government. "The only way people can be for or against it is if the know what it's about," said Pat Kane, one of the groups primary organizers.  The proposal is legally set to appear on this November’s ballot for a vote.

·         "Nothing to report at this time," Mayor Scott Johnson said Tuesday night (August 16^th), when asked about whether he has decided to assemble a mayoral commission to explore charter change or not.

·         The mayor left the door open for the commission back in May when the City Council put the Saratoga Citizen proposal on the ballot, however, Johnson has done nothing about putting a Commission in place after saying he might do so 3 years ago.

·         “I've asked the Mayor about the commission virtually every time we've talked since then, and I am no closer than I was in May to knowing whether it is going to happen. At the end of June he said “I don’t want to unduly delay it. There are reasons why I’ve delayed my announcement.” He wouldn't tell me the reasons.”

Most of the information here is from Lucian McCarty’s blog piece.  Thanks Lucian.

Here are only 2 examples of how Saratoga does business, and these examples are just part of one day’s business as usual.

There is a serious matter though.  Two bears have been sighted on Skidmore campus in the last few days and this should be nothing to make light of as many people use the North Woods for walking, jogging or walking with their dogs, and the woods are very close to Maple Ave. Middle School, so be careful.

It was noted earlier in the day that upon hearing this, Mayor Johnson donned his best Daniel Boone cap and his bow and arrow to either get his wife a new bearskin rug or chase them back to Wilton. 

Just another day in Paradise.

THE TALE OF THE MISSING TATTLER, OR WHO TOOK TAMARA?

Well, it looks like the Tattler’s are missing one tattle tale, Tamara Valentine.  This should be a story for Lucian Mc Carty.  Lucian I beg you, please find Tamara.  She was my favorite Tattler and now she blows it and drops out of the quartet and now the group has become the Tattler’s Trio. 

 It could have been that Tamara attended the many social events as a participant and couldn’t write about what the heck these people do other than spend $500.00 a plate and buy at auction a $39.00 Timex watch for $6,000.00.  Now calm down, I know the money goes to needy non profits but it makes great tales to read about, but I want background details, what happens when the lights go down, who walks off with full bottles and continues the party at home etc.?

There is a lot of good material to be written after we know who was at these events, but alas, we will never know.  Now before any of you say ‘why not find out yourself and write about it’, I don’t think it would be proper.  I would look foolish wearing a tux over my uniform and that damn shield would keep getting away, although women do like the Captain America mask and uniform, well, to hell with the tux give me a notebook and pen and $500.00 to eat.

If anyone finds Tamara let me know, she has to be in trouble somewhere, then I could swoop in and save the day.

Hi all, just some information.  As probably most area bloggers do, we read each other's work and 99.9% of the time they are right on spot and very interesting.  From Citizen Nancy's news to Dan De Federicis local business and entertainment blogs, to name a few, are most interesting to read.  Most people especially most bloggers don't pay any attention to one blogger who doesn't live in our City but knocks everybody in it.  I want to thank this blogger for using information from my stories on his blog, the blogger does however, add his own venom to the stories.  I don't like this blogger, most people don't either, but I want to put up a post of his and let me know how you feel about his style.  First a response to his post by your Captain. Here goes.

Captain America here, blogger.  Just a note, please don't put me in the John & Nancy club.  We at the League are here to put out some interesting true stories and some truth into your mostly fabricated stories.  We are, as our profile states " Truth in blogging. News as pure as the wind driven snow." Thanks for putting my material on your blog."  Let me know what style you like better (lol)

  Now his poston his blog

"....So as much as Housing Authority Director Ed Spychalski along with his cheerleader and chief Eric Weller want to po po it {Weller called it "petty garbage"} there is a serious drug and violence problem in Saratoga Springs public housing.So heres to you AL, you were RIGHT"

"NOW on to the ulgy citizen team of Saratoga Springs, John Goldberg and his little racist wife Nancy Goldberg"

"So let’s see what they have to say about Saratoga’s new movie theater? These are direct quotes from them."
“What ever happened to the City in the Country we were famous for? We have sacrificed a peaceful, quaint, busy city to the likes of Tom Roohan, Sonny Bonacio, John Witt type realtor/developers and they have turned our city into a mini NYC. Remember, they are all in bed together (some literally). I would hope the Design Review Committee will come to a sane decision {on the movie theater} and throw this idea out the window, well we can always hope.’

On the new fish market

“Saratoga also has a new fish market and brewery opening, so Broadway will now start smelling more like NYC for the benefit of those moving here that want to change Saratoga into a mini New York City. You know the cast of characters, they are the usual suspects.”

Remember folks, these people along with Eileen Finneran Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, run the Saratoga Springs Democratic committee.The Anderson trial is starting in Federal court Monday in Albany. Let’s see if Nancy Goldberg is called to quantify her famous remarks calling potential residents of the Anderson project” spics and niggers or Negros” depending on the contradictory testimony.

I will be reporting on the ballet and everybody’s favorite 300k fuck up former Joe Bruno toy Marcia White later on this week.

JUST A FEW NEWS TIDBITS I WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON.

With the track opened, real information is pretty slow and well, Scott Johnson and Shauna Sutton must be in Miami getting a tan or something.

It looks like if and when the new ‘coming to your neighborhood Bonacio Theater’ happens, we will have to pay twice to see a movie.  Once for the admission and again to cover the tax break (someone has to pay for it).  Saratoga Springs just seems to get a bit crazier by the day but that’s the trade off for living in the greatest City in the world or so some people say.

Marylou Whitney and her husband John have given exclusive rights to sell the Marylou Whitney Rose, Yankee Candle to Saratoga Hospital.  Oh yes, there is joy in Mudville.  There is also a rumor that a statue of Marylou will be erected in Congress Park and that people can go there to light a candle, kneel and watch a video of her entrances from her various past galas with commentary from Michelle Riggi.  City officials are hoping that the heat and scent from the candles will heat the public restrooms and make them smell like a Marylou Whitney rose.  Her husband John will appear at the Spring Grand Opening of the public toilets (Skip Scirocco and Mayor Johnson cut the ribbon this year, no pun intended).

Saratoga also has a new fish market and brewery opening, so Broadway will now start smelling more like NYC for the benefit of those moving here that want to change Saratoga into a mini New York City.  You know the cast of characters, they are the usual suspects.

I see that a local out of town blogger, ‘he who shall not be named’ because he still thinks he lives here and is well a brazil nut, is using my (yes, your Captain’s) story lines on his blog.  Must be when they kicked him out of SPAC he doesn’t know what to write about.  We all know him; he is in bed with Mayor Scott Johnson, Esq., attorney for midgets.

I would like an answer to a question.  I ask this because I know my readers will give me a clean and honest answer and I would like you to respond.

Do you think Saratoga Springs should put a moratorium on building for a period of time on new building, including anything that is on the books for immediate expansion?  Again, I would appreciate your comments.

SARATOGA SPRINGS GREAT NON PROFITS AND IT'S 1 IDIOT

When you look at the good work non-profits do in Saratoga Springs you have to appreciate all the hard work that is done by the volunteers and the paid Director’s and support staff.

We have the unfortunate miserable luck to have in our area a blogger that is so hateful and acidic that we all should be ashamed to even say hello to this idiot.  I don’t mention his name not because I shouldn’t but because hardly anyone reads his blog and I wouldn’t want you to even bother to go and take a look at it.  He writes hate filled articles, then comments anonymously about his own article.  If you happen to be involved as an unpaid volunteer, drink a cup of coffee with your left hand, in need of a hair cut or any other of about 1,000 things, he will find a way to start to attack you (I have never been on his hit list, so this is not pay back).

This ‘blogger’ is now degrading every non profit director who makes a salary for doing their job.  He has gone after the YMCA, Saratoga Bridges, and SPAC and will be starting on the Hospital and Prevention Council next, according to his hit list.

It is hard to understand why this guy is filled with so much hate.  Everyone can complain (even I, your Captain does), but this guy takes the cake.  He has been out of work because of a ‘disability’ from the City for years, collecting a fat check every month that comes from OUR money and he demands that Director’s of non profits are “overpaid leeches”.  If he only sat in the chair of a Director for 1 week he still would not be able to comprehend all the work and extra time that goes into the job.

So non profits, we want to take the time to say thank you for all of your dedication and hard work, our City is in the hands of some terrific people.

There is a growing rumor that Deputy Mayor Shauna Sutton will run for Mayor of Saratoga Springs.  This will give her more time to work her regular job at Greenridge cemetery rather than working there while on the clock at City Hall and cheating citizens who pay her as Deputy Mayor (she makes a base salary of $79,000.00 + as Deputy).  The City would be better served to let her stay in the cemetery.

    Shauna rising for work

No one can make news up like this.  It could only have been leaked from Shauna herself.

Toga Tattlers

Toga Tattlers a group of 4 Saratogians that will cover the social scene for The Saratogian, sounds like a novel idea.  I think it will be a great twist and different viewpoints than the retired Jeannette Jordan.  There was nothing wrong with Jeannette, but her shtick was getting stale.  Robin Dalton, Sage Cerone, Tamara Valentine and Jenny Witte should do a great job and take our social news to a higher level.  I will personally invite Tamara to all of my parties.  Good luck girls.

Tighe Misses Another Big Story

Hi all, from Captain America:

Well once again our super sleuth detective blogger John Tighe has missed out on another big story in his beloved Saratoga Springs (he lives in Milton).  Telling the world how someone 'donated' seats to Yanni's performance at SPAC and someone 'donated' a one year patron's pass that allows him free food and open bar, he has the nerve to slam some of the patrons that actually bought and paid for their own patron pass.  John was seen stuffing his wife's pocketbook with 'pigs in a blanket' and mustard sauce to go along with them.

Now here is the story that none of his sources gave him any information about but gave every other local blogger.  The City has not received a building permit for the Woodlawn garage project.  It is a law that a permit be in plain site to be seen by all.  When Saratoga's blogger 'Citizen Nancy's, Nancy Muldoon asked the crew chief at the site if the City had to get a permit (again, a law that the City must follow for any remodeling or new building of any City owned property, he "Yes, we work for the city and the city is supposed to have a permit." I then asked him where I could get the permit and he quipped, "Ask the Mayor for one."  So she travels to City Hall and goes into the Building Dept. and asks to see a copy of the permit and is told that she would have to FOIL to look at it (there isn't one), then the office worker said she is not supposed to answer any questions from anyone.



John Tighe, Milton's Super Sleuth Being Programmed By Scott Johnson



It seems like our King, I mean Mayor who is a puppet of Remiga Foy and friends thinks he is beyond the law in performing his job duties.  This has been his method of operation for 5 years.  He is following Remiga's Law 'if it ain't done my way, hit the highway'.