I received the following statement from Mayor Joanne Yepsen:
Not sure which Charley Brown you spoke to?
Charley Brown, the City Democratic Chair and I spoke Thursday for 26 minutes. (I, of course, called Todd Kerner, the county chair as well twice). In our conversation, Charley said he knew I wasn’t sure, and he appreciated the call before Saturday’s meeting. If you had asked me two weeks ago, I was running. But out of RESPECT to the process, I made my final decision last week. I brought him up to date that there are too many options opening up that I need to explore and Charley completely “understood” and thanked me for my dedication and service.
Also in our conversation, Charley was enthusiastic about Meg being willing to run and asked that she call him that evening, which she did. He said he was concerned about who we could run, if I didn’t. He asked her to attend the meeting on Saturday. (I had just been asked to attend the Skidmore Commencement breakfast and ceremony to welcome our special guests, which I did as Mayor on behalf of the City). In the end, Meg waited for 3 hours but was not allowed to speak. She’s happy to go through whatever process they feel is appropriate at this point.
In that same conversation on Thursday, Charley and I discussed the fact I would draft a press release and get it out on Friday. He asked that I call him to let him know when it goes out so I called Charley again — from the Carrie Woerner democratic women’s luncheon on Friday — I called Charley at 1:18 p.m. to let him know it was done and would be emailed shortly and that I would send him a copy to circulate to the Committee, which I did. Again, he thanked me and I said whatever he needed, I’d be happy to help.
I then sent Charley an email Saturday morning before the Dem meeting to say I hadn’t heard that he wanted me at the meeting. I wished him good luck knowing it was a big day and assumed he had circulated my letter.
Meg Kelly being willing to run (and win!) helped me in my very difficult decision. I love being Mayor and plan to do so with the full vigor and dedication that I’ve shown throughout the last 3 1/2 years. I needed to feel the city would be in good hands after I leave the office. Therefore, I threw my support to Meg because she’s running with hopefully the Democrat, Working Families, Women’s Equality, and Independence Party endorsements. With all my campaign experience, I will help her raise money and serve as her campaign advisor. But, I really want to focus on being Mayor, not the candidate. Charley and I also discussed this as well.
Happy to talk, or provide you witnesses and documentation to confirm this process as written, if necessary. Hope it doesn’t come to that. There’s enough distrust in the world. I’m sure Charley misspoke or misunderstood and will clear it up soon.
Joanne
Saratoga Springs Politics 
Pfft. How can anyone trust or believe her?
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pfft, how can anyone trust you Mr. Morris. You are so blinded by hatred for the Mayor and your love for the Com. of Finance anything you say just gets brushed aside.
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I do not deny my respect for Michele Madigan. I’ve found her to be a good, caring honest person who’s always willing to listen and work with anyone – and like it or not, has done one hell of a good job in her position as Finance Commissioner. I’ll say the same about Skip, John and Chris as well. We don’t always agree, but we can and do work together. Democrat or republican, it doesn’t matter to me. Politics is about doing the right thing for the people. Not the party. Not for yourself. That’s why I have a good working relationship with those four council members. I met with John today in fact. We’ve been friends now for oh, 35 years or so (we went to school together, played many sports together, ect.). Does that make me a ‘bad guy’ too???
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This is in itself seems more like a campaign message than an explanation. And, ABM you are so blinded by your love of Yepsen that you have no abiity to see reality or use any degree of open thinking. Yes, she has done some very good things during her time in office and I would never take that credit away from her. However, the amount of time she has had “foot IN Mouth” disease does tend to overshadow any positives. While this may be unfortunate, it is a reality of today’s political culture. So, as I said in another post, her endorsement has much less power than it would have 3 1/2 years ago. Meg would be well to recognize this reality.
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not in love with Yepsen, just sick and tired of the constant verbal raping by mr. morris. its not right.
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ABM,
Let me explain to you why I deplore Joanne Yepsen.
You probably know that I advocate for affordable workforce, senior, and veteran housing, as well as for the homeless. In my dealings, I came across a man in dire need of help: a Vietnam vet, who after serving his country honorably came back home and became a firefighter, to further serve our city and community. This man was in a horrible accident in the line of duty. A car plowed into a fire truck as they were responding to a call, and the truck rolled over on him, crushing his legs and leaving him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Since his accident, he has managed to keep his home, thanks to the help of friends, family and the brotherhoods of firefighters and vets, who made sure things he needed done around his home were done: mowing the lawn, repairs around the home, or even a trip into town for groceries. They even re-modeled his home to make it easier for him to use his bathroom, cook, ect.
But as time moved on, it became harder and harder for these people to help him as they aged too. He realized he had to sell his home, because he could no longer maintain it. He then started looking for apartments but realized they were not only out of his reach financially here, but also literally, because he had to find someplace where he could do things like washing his dishes or cook his own meals.
I met this honorable man on my housing Facebook page and hearing his plight, reached out to help him. At the time, our president put forth a challenge to make sure we housed every veteran in our community. Now, I don’t know about you, but my thoughts were simply this: how can we NOT help a man who gave not only once for his country, but twice to his community as well?
Without hesitation I contacted the mayor and explained the problem to her. Now, I had met with Joanne a few times before this over a few issues. I knew her ‘connection’ with the McTygue’s, but I gave her a chance. She said she would send myself and this man an email with a time to meet her.
I never received the email. But the firefighter did.
In that email, she told him to meet her at her office at 10AM the next morning. He replied he couldn’t, because he didn’t drive, and was reliant on the local vets and such to take him, so it would take him a couple of days to get it scheduled.
He never heard back from her.
Even after repeated emails.
I then started contacting her concerning this, but via Facebook, which has a time/date stamp on it.
She saw the messages. She did NOT reply. Three times.
The very next week she was out patting herself on the back telling everyone that would listen how ‘she’ solved the veteran housing problem here (which btw? NONE of which were housed HERE. She literally just shipped them off to other communities).
I never told this story publicly, first out of respect for the firefighter who asked me not to, and secondly because people wouldn’t believe it from me anyway because, well, “he just hates Joanne!”, you know?
This good man is STILL trying to find a place to live as his home crumbles around him. In my last contact with him he refused to talk to anymore politicians for help. The mayor’s ‘help’ was more than enough, thanks. But today I just heard from his daughter on a post in which I referenced her dad’s plight (not by name, but rather in a bunch of stories I told the city council about what I have seen personally talking with people on housing, visiting their ‘homes’ and such. She thanked me for what I do, and for trying to help her dad out. I reached back out to her, and hopefully I can start fresh with him again, and find a place for him to stay here in his hometown that he gave so much for, and where his VERY important ‘support system’ is. Here. HOME.
So if I have to respond to my ‘verbal raping’ of one Joanne Yespsen? That above is the best response I can give you. It shows you the REAL Joanne Yepsen – not the fake one you see at all of those photo-op’s that she calls ‘work’.
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I hear what you are saying here ABM yet so many of your posts defend her – and you seem to have the same negative response to Michele Madigan that Dave has towards Yepsen. They have both done good things – yet you see only good in Yepsen and only bad in Madigan. This gives me pause to give your observations or opinions any credibility as they seem bias and based on a personal agenda – not on facts or reality.
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Please note: I’m not saying Joanne hasn’t done anything ‘good’. She obviously has. My issues with her are based upon what I have seen and dealt with in my own dealings within city hall, housing, ect.
I take pride in the fact I can work with both sides of the aisle to get things done. I take a LOT of bullets for that, believe me (and mostly from my own ‘side of the fence’ sadly). Many can’t understand how I support John Safford because he’s a conservative republican Christian minister and I’m a liberal democrat/Indy atheist. Or Matt Veitch because I am opposed to the Geyser Rd. Trail plan (not a bike path, but this plan in particular). But the truth is it’s because they are both GOOD, honest men who care deeply about the same city I do. While we don’t agree on every issue (does anyone?), we respect each other’s opinions and work towards a common ground – the betterment of our city and it’s residents. Together. because that’s how it SHOULD be in politics. It’s not about pushing one’s personal agenda or that of special interest groups, or ‘taking credit’ or photo op’s. It’s about doing the right thing for the people and the city you represent by working WITH them to solve issues – not making them worse by shutting them out because you disagree with them.
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