KAREN KLOTZ IS KOO KOO FOR KOKOA PUFFS

Reading a letter to the editor in a local paper penned by Karen Klotz, one has to wonder at her comparisons to the current and proposed charters.  There will be a vote on either keeping the current form of government or switching to a new Professional/Council/manager form.

Mrs. Klotz, wife of respected past Mayor Ken Klotz has now become the bull dog face of the anti Charter Change group called SUCCESS.  If Karen had 1/3 the class of her husband she still would be a bull dog.  She takes the reins temporarily from Remiga Foy who fell ill and we all hope Foy gets better soon. 

Anyway, as I said Mrs. Klotz is the new poster face of her group and she does present a scary profile.  She believes that a strong point of the current form is that the elected officials can see first hand how their departments are run and that they can often hear from constituents.

WHAT??  If you think this a strong point of the Commission form you must be daffy.  Under the proposed form our ELECTED Mayor and 4 Council persons can see how departments are being run and will have more time to hear from constituents who hopefully won’t have to file a FOIL request for public information like our current Mayor Johnson has everyone do.  Why you can’t even go the Building Dept. to get public information because you are told they are not to talk to citizens per Johnson’s orders.  The Mayor or Council person can take the information to the City Manager and tell him or her to look in the matter and report back to them. This is easy for everyone to understand except for Karen & Jane Weihe and the faithful in SUCCESS.  Try calling the Mayor or the Commissioner of DPW and see how long it takes to get an answer.  Mayor Johnson, 23 calls, no call back.  DPW Commissioner, 29 calls, no response.  Visiting the offices are not going to get you anywhere.  Try getting past the Doberman (Shauna) and Skip’s Mexican hairless (Diane), no dice there either.  So much for access to our Commissioner’s.

Klotz’s next miss is that a citizen told her that if the change takes place we would no longer have to grovel to the Mayor and Commissioner’s during the comment period.  This is one that even Karen should understand.

There are usually about 10 people at a Council meeting unless some issue affecting a group or proposed laws being changed (old time Saratogian’s do not like change of any kind even if it helps them in the long run).  Citizens have a time limit of 15 minutes, each citizen wishing to say something to the Council has 2 minutes to say what they want.  You cannot direct your question to a specific Council person and the Council is forbidden to engage or answer your question.  You can have no impact on the agenda that night even if an item comes up for a vote that may be against public wishes.  This scenario Mrs. Klotz sees nothing wrong with and wants to keep this feature in our current form of government.

Mrs. Klotz also interjects her ideas and those of her group that are totally false and knowingly spreads this misinformation just to confuse voters.  She says ‘it’s a stretch that an appointed City Manager won’t hire an assistant City Manager” why stretch the truth Mrs. Klotz, no one has ever mentioned this except your group. She then goes on to say that the Proposed Charter says that the City Manager doesn’t even have to live in the City, the Proposed Charter says “ The Manager need not be a resident of the City or New York at the time of appointment, but may reside outside the City while in office only with the  approval of the Council.  How about if the Manager lives in Wilton?  Will that adversely affect his or her position?  We had a Commissioner that lived outside Saratoga Springs for over 30 years and never once did I hear Mrs. Klotz at a Council meeting say that wasn’t right.

Mrs. Klotz also tries to make a point that Saratoga Springs is the envy of everyone around.  Envy, I don’t know, but Saratoga Springs is a fine city to live in and changing our government structure will not make the city anything less.  The truth is that once you get an experienced Manager in position the real savings will show how many years ago we should have made this change. 

Mrs. Klotz you are right.  The voters will not be asked if they want a City Manager, they will be asked to choose a more cost savings, efficiently run government.  What we have is a 100 year old model that if replaced years ago, Saratoga Springs could be sitting on a much higher surplus than we are now.

Read the Charter; attend the informational forum on Thursday October 25^th.  Attend to get informed and make a real decision that will be best for Saratoga Springs now and in the future.

ZLOTNICK SEALS FATE

  

I had this sent to me as a response on another post for when I wrote on the goings on at City Hall, but I thought it would be better to put it as a stand alone.  Thank you for the following:

The post:

"It would seem that Ms. Zlotnick sealed her own fate with her closing testimony yesterday.  If she taped conversations between office staff knowing she was filing a suit as a whistle blower she has made it clear that she is in this for money and her statements “Friday, McCarthy cross-examined her about her concerns with Kellner-Chille’s assessment, during which she admitted, “I am not qualified to know what her assessment is supposed to be.”

“So you don’t have any qualifications but you have opinions, isn’t that what it comes down to?” he asked her.

“Am I qualified as an assessor? No,” she responded. “Can I have concerns about assessments in my neighborhood? Yes.”

Zlotnick who was supposed to be looking out for seniors who couldn’t or (didn’t) know how to grieve their assessments was a lie as she was only worried about, in her words, her neighborhood.

If anyone doesn’t know how to grieve their assessments it is their own stupidity and let’s not use the growing excuse prevalent in our country ‘it’s somebody else’s fault’.

With her quoted statement, Zlotnick blew up any notion she had of a civil suit against the City.  Her attorney fees are also in question.  The attorney charges upwards of $350.00 per hour and there is concern from many citizens just who is footing the tab.  You may only have to look down the hall from the Accounts department for the answer or just follow the money to understand what is going on.

It seems to many that this may have blown up 6 months too early as a story circulating around that Johnson, Sutton and their lap dog Tighe wanted to wait for next years election, but they could not contain the very public attention seeker Zlotnick."

End.

The prevailing view point among people who are following this (which is not that many) is that Franck's office will be cleared of any illegal activity and that this was a well planned scheme to get rid of a Democrat Commissioner by a current Council member 2 seats down.  Zlotnick was well placed in the office by recommendation by Shauna Sutton (one of Zlotnick’s close friends I am told) and I think the person who is paying her legal bills promised a top notch attorney and that there could be a civil suit in it for her if she 'played the public game'. I agree that the money should be followed to see who is paying Zlotnick's legal bills because that may very well be the story.  A question to ask yourself, why would an employee who was just hired, start taping conversations and filming with her cell phone at work if there wasn't a motive in the beginning?  Just follow the money.

 

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.

MARY HAS A LITTLE LAMB

Well kiddies, it looks like Mary Zlotnick will be drawing her complaint out for a time while making the City spend more of our money.  Let me know if you think Mary is being self serving in her fight for her good name.  First, she goes to the police last year and after an examination of her complaint the police find nothinf wrong in the Accounts Dept.  Then by having lunch almost every day with HR Joe, this move creates an immediate conflict of interest for her.  Then after removing office materials from the department offices, it looks like she discussed the files with her HR lunch friend and the newspapers.  My sources that are in the proceedings tell me Mary sunk herself during not only early testimony but also when she was on the stand.  This has all the signs of a shaft that Zlotnick is trying to give John Franck and staff, when she has no idea how assessments work in the City,

Speaking of Zlotnick, she was given a reference by her good friend, none other than Deputy Mayor Shauna Sutton.  This in itself should explain why there is turmoil in the department.  It appears Sutton doesn’t do anything unless she wants to drag someone down.   The Mayor has had a far away look in his eyes for a while, I hope this doesn’t mean he’s off the Pepsi and is moving up into adult beverages.

How one can look at the past and current Council meetings and honestly say they don’t want a professional in the building has to be blind and deaf.

We even have an acidic blogger, whose motto is,’if we find a story with no merit, we’ll make one up.

Below are two pictures below, and I would like you to give a response:  Can you tell, of the two which one is the blogger and which one is learning to read a newspaper? Hint - it makes sense whe the blog and blogger are bananas. 

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.

RECREATION CENTER OR POLICE STATION?

In the news, Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen has set aside $10,000.00 to explore how the police station in the basement of City Hall can be renovated. 

We remember not that long ago when then PS Commissioner Ron Kim declared the need for a new Police Station, a need I might add is 50 years past due.  The Republican majority at the time declared that we didn’t have the money and went on to pour money into a new Recreation Center.  The question I ask myself and others is, Why does Saratoga Springs promote itself as the best tourist destination in the country, yet in every aspect of government and outdated building codes, we are so far in the past it is pretty disgusting.  The only one that benefits from Saratoga taxes and fast track building permits, also a payment for City property that has not been paid in 5 years but was included in past budgets, is none other that that grand builder Sonny Bonacio.  Now don’t get me wrong, Sonny has done some good things in Saratoga but most of what he has done has ruined our ‘City in the Country’, that moniker does not even come close to what Saratoga Springs is today.

Anyway, back to the Police Station.  Why is it taking the decision makers like Roohan, Sutton, Tarantino, Anderson and pack to realize that they need to give the nod to get a new station in place?  They didn’t listen to Kim, but had a chance when Wirth occupied the seat.  Could it have been that Wirth would not have been capable to oversee such a venture?  Now must we wait for City Hall to collapse so that we can sell the property to Bonacio?  He then could build a new City Hall/Police Station/Law Library on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors and retail space on the 1^st floor and lease floors 2 & 3 to the City.  This sounds like a deal that Mayor Johnson/Sutton are salivating over.

Your Captain says to stay tuned, this isn’t over.  Just wait until the ceiling falls down, I’m sure some will blame Commissioner Christian Mathiesen for that.

RECREATION CENTER OR POLICE STATION?

In the news, Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen has set aside $10,000.00 to explore how the police station in the basement of City Hall can be renovated. 

We remember not that long ago when then PS Commissioner Ron Kim declared the need for a new Police Station, a need I might add is 50 years past due.  The Republican majority at the time declared that we didn’t have the money and went on to pour money into a new Recreation Center.  The question I ask myself and others is, Why does Saratoga Springs promote itself as the best tourist destination in the country, yet in every aspect of government and outdated building codes, we are so far in the past it is pretty disgusting.  The only one that benefits from Saratoga taxes and fast track building permits, also a payment for City property that has not been paid in 5 years but was included in past budgets, is none other that that grand builder Sonny Bonacio.  Now don’t get me wrong, Sonny has done some good things in Saratoga but most of what he has done has ruined our ‘City in the Country’, that moniker does not even come close to what Saratoga Springs is today.

Anyway, back to the Police Station.  Why is it taking the decision makers like Roohan, Sutton, Tarantino, Anderson and pack to realize that they need to give the nod to get a new station in place?  They didn’t listen to Kim, but had a chance when Wirth occupied the seat.  Could it have been that Wirth would not have been capable to oversee such a venture?  Now must we wait for City Hall to collapse so that we can sell the property to Bonacio?  He then could build a new City Hall/Police Station/Law Library on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors and retail space on the 1^st floor and lease floors 2 & 3 to the City.  This sounds like a deal that Mayor Johnson/Sutton are salivating over.

Your Captain says to stay tuned, this isn’t over.  Just wait until the ceiling falls down, I’m sure some will blame Commissioner Christian Mathiesen for that.

CITY REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS, GOOD OR BAD

I love watching and reading about how politicians in City government (any city) call each other bad, crazy, ignorant or in some cases even worse.  The reality is that in City politics there is little difference in being associated with any Party.  What you have in City government are capable leaders or inept imposters.

Take Mayor Johnson for example.  He has been in office longer than any Mayor in Saratoga history.  He has been involved in some good policy making (although I can’t think of any off hand) and some bad decisions that he would like to be his legacy.

The Rec Center being one.  Did we need a Rec Center?  I would say yes but the building of the Center was plagued with many problems, some of which will tarnish the Mayor’s reputation and could even be considered by some as bordering on being illegal.  Take the case of the building inspector at the time ; a source in City Hall has said the Mayor and his Deputy knew of the use of inferior and said by many, illegal insulation. When asked to sign off on this part of the job, the building inspector would not do so because of potential lawsuits that may arise using flammable insulation, by following the law the inspector was let go, given his walking papers, shown the door by the Mayor and his Deputy with some excuse they used and had known about when they hired him.  They then hired an Albany engineer to certify the job and after an inspection, she left the post.  The building was also opened for use without a Certificate of Occupancy.

The lake front property that was to be in use for all citizens of Saratoga, when after years of planning and promises that the job would be completed by July 2012 is still sitting the same way it was before he took office.

The new Parking Garage that opened on July 20^th which was not completed as promised also was a scene from an Abbott and Costello movie.  The use again of inferior materials, the dismissal of another building inspector because he wouldn’t sign off at the direction of the Mayor because of again a potential lawsuit for allowing unsafe materials to be used.  The City (through the Mayor’s Department of not getting a building permit which is required by law, using an outside engineering firm as a clerk of the works instead of any of our 3 city engineers that get paid to do such things all reflect bad decision making by Mayor Johnson. 

Spending upwards of $70,000.00 in court fighting a citizen’s group who legally followed State law to put a proposal on the ballot to change the form of government and he lost in Court twice.

He has not gotten 7 of the 8 union contracts settled like he promised in his first campaign 5 years ago.

And the list goes on and on.  Is he a bad Republican?  I don’t think so; he is just an inept leader who has a lot of $5,000.00 a plate friends and money.

CITY REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS, GOOD OR BAD

I love watching and reading about how politicians in City government (any city) call each other bad, crazy, ignorant or in some cases even worse.  The reality is that in City politics there is little difference in being associated with any Party.  What you have in City government are capable leaders or inept imposters.

Take Mayor Johnson for example.  He has been in office longer than any Mayor in Saratoga history.  He has been involved in some good policy making (although I can’t think of any off hand) and some bad decisions that he would like to be his legacy.

The Rec Center being one.  Did we need a Rec Center?  I would say yes but the building of the Center was plagued with many problems, some of which will tarnish the Mayor’s reputation and could even be considered by some as bordering on being illegal.  Take the case of the building inspector at the time ; a source in City Hall has said the Mayor and his Deputy knew of the use of inferior and said by many, illegal insulation. When asked to sign off on this part of the job, the building inspector would not do so because of potential lawsuits that may arise using flammable insulation, by following the law the inspector was let go, given his walking papers, shown the door by the Mayor and his Deputy with some excuse they used and had known about when they hired him.  They then hired an Albany engineer to certify the job and after an inspection, she left the post.  The building was also opened for use without a Certificate of Occupancy.

The lake front property that was to be in use for all citizens of Saratoga, when after years of planning and promises that the job would be completed by July 2012 is still sitting the same way it was before he took office.

The new Parking Garage that opened on July 20^th which was not completed as promised also was a scene from an Abbott and Costello movie.  The use again of inferior materials, the dismissal of another building inspector because he wouldn’t sign off at the direction of the Mayor because of again a potential lawsuit for allowing unsafe materials to be used.  The City (through the Mayor’s Department of not getting a building permit which is required by law, using an outside engineering firm as a clerk of the works instead of any of our 3 city engineers that get paid to do such things all reflect bad decision making by Mayor Johnson. 

Spending upwards of $70,000.00 in court fighting a citizen’s group who legally followed State law to put a proposal on the ballot to change the form of government and he lost in Court twice.

He has not gotten 7 of the 8 union contracts settled like he promised in his first campaign 5 years ago.

And the list goes on and on.  Is he a bad Republican?  I don’t think so; he is just an inept leader who has a lot of $5,000.00 a plate friends and money.

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.

TEMPERED BY MEMORY 9/11 SCULPTURE

I drove by the steel disgrace that plopped into our City today.  This eyesore monstrosity is better suited to be set up at the City landfill instead of being planted in the City proper.  If you get a chance, visit some cities via the internet and look at what beautiful memorials were crafted out of the steel that was given to them, you will be amazed by some and in awe of others.

However, Saratoga Springs can never do anything normal.  We (the City) accepted this heap of destruction and I guess from the arguments from last year this humongous bird perch is classified as beautiful art.  I’ll keep my mask, tights and shield, thank you.

I don’t think that I could ever bring out of town friends to visit this piece of art and tell them what it is with a straight face.  Someone has to bring these fruitcakes that think they have to keep bringing things like this into Saratoga Springs, under control.

First it was the Palacio Del Riggi, then 101 Condominiums now the Twisted Sister, what next, a statue of Scott Johnson holding Shauna Sutton?

Charter Change, or Damn the Citizens

saratogamoosetracks.blogspot.com


Let's get one thing straight, for better or worse Charter Reform is on the ballot and you can cast your vote for or against the Proposal that is presented.  One thing about Saratoga Citizen the organization that has been around for 4 years and holding monthly meetings is that everything has been out in the open and discussed before the public in their monthly meetings.  In today's Saratogian, Mayor Johnson who has spent at least $80,000.00 to $100,000.00 in outside attorney fees (that's taxpayer monies), and has lost twice in court, once in County Supreme Court and then in NY State Appellate Court by a 5-0 decision in favor of the Citizen's group, is quoted as saying 'he still has the option of appointing a Charter Review Committee'.  This some 4 months before the election. 

Last time a Commission was formed (by a Democratic Mayor) this late (2006) in the year the Mayor and his Party cried foul saying it's a rush job.  I guess he feels that when he uses his golden scepter all past statements will disappear.  Just some information to add to all of this, The Saratoga Springs Charter Proposal was put on the ballot by a 4-1 Council vote.  I'll let you guess who voted no.  Keep the vote away from the people. 

Remember this is the same Mayor that will not allow any of his department’s employees answer any citizen’s questions.  The department's under his office are the following:  City Attorney, Asst. City Attorney, Building Department, City Civil Service Commission, The Ethics Committee (ha-ha), Community Development and City Planner, these are most of the major ones and there are some minor ones as well as some Charter mandated positions he arbitrarily eliminated.  His motto of "Charter be Damned" is the reason he doesn't want citizens to be more active in THEIR government. 

By the way, I haven't seen Cozmo the Magician or Shauna Sutton around.  I hope both reappear by Tuesday’s court date or tongues will be wagging that Shauna is Cozmo's new assistant.

CAN YOU TELL WHICH ONE IS MAYOR OF SARATOGA SPRINGS?

        

Cozmo the Magician

 saratogamoosetracks.blogspot.com

This Cozmo the Magician guy is something else.  According to a Saratogian article in Saturday's paper Coz gets issued a ticket for performing in Congress Park without a license.  The basis for getting a performer's license dates back to the early 1900's in which an Ordinance contains a section for showing “moving pictures.”  This is probably one of the little gems that was put in the Charter when this form of government started back then.  Now back to Cozmo, he goes to City hall to obtain a license and is told no such license exists, he then spoke to Asst. City Attorney Tony Izzo, who handles all the important cases like this and he told Cozmo the Magnificent that panhandling has not been illegal in Saratoga Springs since 2010.

So Cozmo, not Tony, goes back to the park to resume his magic tricks and lo and behold as he starts doing a rope trick (probably getting ready to hang himself at what was coming), yes you guessed right, it was another Police Officer who this time gives old Cozmo a ticket for vending without a license, this charge was dropped but he Cozmo not the police Officer, is due back in court Tuesday.  Let’s hope he can make himself appear in court.  Cozmo said it all by exclaiming "I’m in violation of not having a license the city doesn’t even give out.”  One thing I don't like that Cozmo did however was pass a hat to kids for donations.  He should have had a monkey with a tambourine there so people could throw change in it, you don't ask kids for money.
When asked about the incident Mayor Johnson said, he did not know much about the issue.  By the way, when Cozmo was in City Hall he made Shauna Sutton disappear, has anyone seen her?

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.

Flopping Around in the Victorian Pool

Well, I am in my Wilton Bureau and the sicko blogger has started to pay the price for denigrating every one living in Saratoga Springs.  He spares no insults even his priest of the "Church" he attends.  If he goes to Church, it has to be the biggest con job in the last 25 years (since he belly flopped in the Victorian Pool and emptied half the water).
At least now the State and Feds are watching him post his garbage.
A quote from a post of his.

"We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a blog because of a post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity. We did not comply with this request, which we have categorized in this Report as a defamation request.

We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. We did not comply with this request. Separately, we received a request from a different local law enforcement agency to remove five user accounts that allegedly contained threatening and/or harassing content. We terminated four of the accounts, which resulted in the removal of approximately 300 videos, but did not remove the remaining account with 54 videos.

We received a court order to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. We removed 25% of the results cited in the request.

The number of content removal requests we received increased by 103% compared to the previous reporting period.

June 18, 2012 12:00 PM"

John's post to himself in reference to Deputy Commissioner Eileen Finneran "Changes in menstrual period; decreased sexual ability; swelling or pain in breasts; unusual secretion of milk; weight gain. (Google, word for word)"

 

Deputy Mayor Sutton Repays Favor?

 Much was made of the fact that at Tuesday's Council meeting Commissioner of Finance Michelle Madigan reappointed Rob Mains to the Civil Service Commission.  Rob is the husband of Amy Durland who is a member of the Planning Board and now the sole Democrat holding a seat on that Board.  With no conflict of interest, the Mayor said Tuesday night the Mayor questioned Madigan about her motivations or if she “had been put up to it”.  The story here is that the Mayor had promised a contract to paint a sign at the City's Recreation Center.  The painter that got the $10,000.00 contract is the husband of Shauna Sutton’s best friend who also happens to work with Shauna, who happens to be the Deputy Mayor.  Oh, by the way, the City employees a head painter who could have done the job.  This is a glaring conflict of interest which the Mayor had not one comment about when the contract came up for a vote.  Maybe the gentleman who was awarded the $10,000.00 painted the houses of Scott Johnson and Shauna Sutton.  The more you dig the more rot you uncover.