Blogger Invites Proponents Of Charter Change To Be Guest On His Site

The proponents of charter change have a theme based on three claims:

1. Accountability
2. Real Representation
3. Transparency

This blogger has been trying for some time to get answers from them about three issues that are central to their proposed charter:

1. You say the proposed mayor will oversee the city manager.  I can find nowhere in your charter where you establish this.  It appears the mayor has no more role in overseeing the city manager than anyone else on the council.  Where in the charter is the mayor empowered to oversee the city manager?

2. How did you arrive at the $65,000.00 salary for the proposed city mayor?

3. You say the mayor is full time but there is nowhere in the charter that either states this nor is there anything in the charter that precludes the mayor from having other employment.  Could you please document what in the charter would require the mayor to be full time?

Questions submitted to their websites.

Earlier in the week I put two of these questions up as a comment on the Common Sense Saratoga Facebook page. Having had no response, I have posted the above three questions on the five most recent posts on their two Facebook pages which are Common Sense Saratoga and It’s Time Saratoga.

One would think that in the interest of Accountability and Transparency that they would have jumped at the chance to address these questions. Instead, they have ignored them.

I think that their inability to answer these questions is due to the fundamental problems with their proposed charter. It is also indicative of the ethical problems with their campaign. They are happy to attack the members of the city council for behavior that they themselves exhibit on a regular basis.

Still, I am perfectly prepared to be proven wrong. In that spirit I invite any representative from the proponents of the charter to submit answers to these questions which I will put up prominently as a guest post on my site unedited.