Commissioner Michele Madigan should not expect an apology from the Times Union in spite of the 5-0 vote last night to accept her proposed budget.
An earlier post on this blog published the Times Union Sunday editorial taking Commissioner of Finance Madigan to task for not including money for the Greenbelt Trail in the city’s capital budget. Commissioner Madigan had proposed postponing this funding until the city secures grant money for the project. The TU editors rejected this reasoning out of hand and instead accused Commissioner Madigan of postponing this funding because of animus towards the Mayor for whom this was a priority. This was, they claimed, “petty politics at their worst” and they accused Madigan of having “an ax to grind.” The editorial announced that the Mayor was suggesting a separate vote on the capital budget something they endorsed so the Council could “tell Ms. Madigan to get her priorities straight.”
Well, at the City Council meeting last night the Mayor did not suggest a separate vote on the capital budget. Instead the Mayor joined in the enthusiastic love fest of praise for Commissioner Madigan’s budget which passed unanimously. All this can be seen on the city’s website.
One has to wonder again where the TU is getting its disinformation on Saratoga politics.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
Clearly they are banging on a drum that’s out of tune… One must wonder- not who is the ‘source’ on this – that was made clear on most of the comments on the previous post. Rather, what devil’s bargain was made to made to get this placed.
One does not wonder if these episodes are based solely on an incorrect premise, compounded by a lack of research, understanding of facts & nuance that anyone who calls themselves a resident for any length of time can see. One does wonder why The TU cannot.
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Their reporters want to be fed by phone calls…investigation and face to face rarely happen anymore….wonder if Edward R. Morrow would be a tweeter??…Lazy reporting gives the readers rumors and a Tom Clancy view of realty!
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Screw the TU. Seriously.
You’re right on target, Arthur.
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Wendy Liberatore did her best to try to wipe the egg off the TU editors’ faces with her article on the vote on the City Budget Tuesday night. Linking the passage of the budget to Yepsen achieving “a pledge of support for the popular project” Liberatore’s article tries to attribute passage of the budget to the Mayor’s action. ” The budget…was passed…after Mayor Yepsen got assuance from the four commissioners that they would support amending the capital budget for the Greenbelt Trail if the project received grant funding….” she wrote. Is this a factual statement of the sequence of events? Yes. But the sentence suggests a cause and effect relationship between the Mayor’s actions and the vote which is unjustified.In fact if one attended the meeting or watched it on line one could watch the four Council members stating their intention to vote for the budget and their strong support for the Greenbelt Trail before the Mayor even spoke on the issue making the Mayor’s insistence on yet more assurances simply an exercise in prolonging a redundant conversation. Nice try, Wendy , but again hardly a reflection of reality.
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One has to wonder what the Mayor is going to owe Ms. Libertore for all her propaganda journalism (if you can call it that). They are clearly in this together whether directly or via one of her minions.
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Straight Shooter has it right. The budget had received unanimous support prior to the Mayor suddenly asking for a “show of hands” in support of the greenbelt trail, which is essentially a straw poll vote and extremely bad form to request this of elected officials when a motion to approve the whole budget was on the table. Everyone was uncomfortable. I’m not sure if this is legal or even ethical, this is why we have agendas with discussion and vote and an assigned topic and run meetings according to open meeting laws. It was awkward and unnecessary and had nothing to do with unanimous vote for the entire budget. All the Commissioners have already shown their support for this project on the record numerous times starting in 2013 when Mayor Johnson brought this project forward. Still it’s costly and we must continue our due dilligence on this project.
Overall I produced a very good budget and it includes more than just the greenbelt trail project something the TU doesn’t seem to realize. The Saratogian did a very nice job covering the budget vote.
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Well, there it is, folks. Michele just confirmed the reasons for tension between herself and our Mayor.
Might as well throw Ms Liberatore into the threesome, who all seem to have problems getting along.
Maybe we should sit the three of them down in one room for about an hour, and work out their differences??
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Or perhaps the Mayor should be transparent as she claims to be and stop surprising the rest of the commission at the table. If it’s not on the agenda it shouldn’t be brought up without a vote to add an item to the agenda. Not the first time she’s done it and likely won’t be the last. Hard to get along with someone you simply can’t trust not to grandstand at the expense of the rest.
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