Saratoga Springs Politics

Lightning struck city hall and started a fire.  The fire was contained but apparently there was some water damage.

 

Minnie Bolster had an astonishing collection of all things Saratoga Springs.  From beautiful maps to souvenir chachkas there is an amazing accumulation.  She was an amazing historian of our city.
The estate sale runs through Sunday (tomorrow) August 12 from 9 to 4 at 161 Church Street.  If you are at all interested in the history of our city, you owe yourself a visit.

 Minnie died as 97 on December 16, 2017.   Here is a link to her obituary. 

 

This is an article about the estate sale.

 Even more fun and I cannot recommend it enough is the charming interview that Dave Patterson did with Minnie.  If you care about this city you will want to watch Dave interview Minnie.

In a story dated August 1^st on the Times Union website Wendy Liberatore reports that the current Charter Review Commission is considering expanding the city council by adding two additional members who would serve strictly as legislators with no administrative responsibilities over city operations as I had posted in a blog  earlier this week. This is a link to her story: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Spa-City-council-may-grow-13123866.php

In her story Ms. Liberatore writes that “Critics of this latest charter review group, which is made up of elected officials and their deputy appointees, dispute that two at-large council members would have equal power with council members who head up city departments. They say the idea demonstrates the group’s lack of understanding of municipal government.”

She then offers the following quote:

“They would be junior city council members,” said Bob Turner, a political science professor at Skidmore College who was the chairman of 2017’s charter review commission. “They will be at a significant disadvantage. It reflects their lack of any kind of research and understanding of the problems inherent with the commission form of government.”

I don’t understand how they would be “junior members” which I take is meant to be  pejorative.  These two members would have equal rights at the council table. They would be able to introduce legislation, have an equal vote, work with  constituents etc. Maybe he is thinking they will have a disadvantage because they will lack the kind of in depth knowledge and understanding of the workings of city government that Commissioners who run departments have.  But then that would have been the case of the entire city council in the manager form Turner’s commission proposed.

Even more puzzling, though, is Turner’s statement that the current Charter Review  Commission members don’t understand city government.

The members of this Commission are people with extensive practical working experience in government in general and in the Saratoga Springs’ commission form in particular.  I would encourage readers to sit in on one of this commission’s sessions or watch the videos on the city website. The conversations at the meetings I have attended/watched have been thoughtful, in depth, and sophisticated explorations of all aspects of our city’s charter. Members have shown not only an understanding of the charter’s provisions and legal implications but also how those provisions play out practically in the day to day running of city government. The other aspect of this commission that I find interesting is the lack of acrimony and the respect shown when members differ.

Professor Turner does not seem to understand what it means to civilly disagree with others. He might consider that Mayor Kelley supported the charter as proposed by his committee but in light of what appears to have been the defeat of the that charter, decided to explore what could be done to improve the commission form.  He also might consider that Commissioner Peter Martin who is a member of the current commission was an outspoken supporter of charter change. Turner’s attack on the current charter commission that they are have no understanding of the “problems inherent with the commission form  of government” is simply baseless and unhelpful.

Professor Turner’s obsession with ending the commission form of government in Saratoga Springs seems Ahab-like.  One hopes that he might step back and take the tack of Mayor Kelly and Commissioner Martin.  They have accepted that barring the overturning of the last election, the city will be maintaining the commission form and that we should explore how to make it as effective as possible.  Most of all, he might observe the proceedings of this Charter Review Commission as an example of how thoughtful people can come together to work on thorny problems where there are differences in a civil and constructive manner.

 

 

 

The City Council voted unanimously for a settlement offer to the Pedinottis, the owners of the Mouzon House who sued the city  over the original proposal to construct a parking facility for the City Center.  The settlement calls for the city to withdraw their approval for a site plan for the facility along with its subdivision of the plot.  The city agreed to keep the Pedinottis informed as the city works to develop new plans for the site.

Mayor Kelly told the Saratogian the city plans to develop a “community destination” that will include “green space, the rebirth of Flat Rock Spring, a parking structure, conference space, and an inclusion of the Greenbelt Trail in what’s being called the Flat Rock Centre.”

The full story is here http://www.saratogian.com/general-news/20180718/saratoga-springs-scrapping-plans-for-five-story-parking-garage

The original parking facility was supposed to have 480 parking spaces.  The Saratogian story noted, “The LA Group presented a conceptual design of the potential Flat Rock Centre Tuesday night, projecting possibly over 750 parking spots in addition to a park at the corner of the lot with a spring as well as green space.”

The original project was planned by the City Center which was going to pay for the construction.  While the City Council voted to authorize the Mayor to apply for funding it is unclear where the money will come from for this new design.

At a recent meeting of the Charter Review Commission John Franck offered a major change for the new charter.  He wants to add two “commissioners” to the city council.  These positions would have no administrative responsibilities.  They would in effect be simply legislators.  Commissioner Franck said that while he believed in the commission form of government, he believes that the advocates for that last charter change proposal had an argument very much worth consideration.  He acknowledged that he agreed that there were people who felt intimidated by the responsibilities of running a department.  His idea was to offer people interested in serving on the council a way to participate without the burden of administrative management.

There was some discussion about whether to call them “commissioner” in light of the fact that they would not run a department.  Commissioner Franck said he would prefer the title of commissioner but the label was less important than the principle.   It was agreed that while there would need to be some support for the new positions the costs would be minimal.  It was also suggested that the salary for these positions might be less than the other commissioners.

 Based on the response from the other members of the Charter Review Commission and those in the audience it appeared there was strong interest.  Still, it was agreed that it was an idea that required a thorough review to explore its full potential implications. The charter commission’s lawyers are exploring whether such a proposal would be allowable under NY State law and will be reporting to the  commission at tomorrow’s (Tuesday) meeting.

 

Michele Madigan and Larry Bulman, candidates for Democratic State Committee representatives from the 113^th Assembly District which includes Saratoga Springs, have been knocked off the ballot after their petitions were challenged by a group of insurgents. Saratoga County Democratic chair Todd Kerner had asked Madigan and Bullman to run for these positions. Challengers circulated petitions for Minita Sanghvi and Patrick Nelson who will now appear on the fall ballot and win these now uncontested seats.

What makes this story so bizarre is what being a New York State Committee member represents.  These people gather for conventions biannually to anoint whomever the institutional leadership of the party has selected.   If you go on line and search for the NYSDC party platform, nothing comes up.  If you go to the website of the NYSDC you will not find it.  You will find a series of platitudes under the category “What We Stand For.”

To appreciate how bad it is try the following:

1. The Wikipedia entry for the New York State Democratic Committee just lists the current and previous chairs of the committee.  There is virtually nothing else in the article about the committee because……there is nothing else to say.

 

1. There is also the video of the recent convention which is an homage to Governor Cuomo.   It represents the kind of sound bites passing for substance that most of us abhor.

Cynthia Nixon is challenging Governor Cuomo in the September primary.  While Ms. Nixon visited the May Democratic State convention, she was not allowed to address the delegates.  Cuomo received 95% of the votes at the convention.  Has that old Soviet Politburo feel.

Basically, Democratic Committee members who attend the convention are extras in a well orchestrated show.

Why do people attend?  Basically, it is a good place to network.  If you are interested in jobs in Albany or for running for higher office in New York or Washington, this is a place to develop contacts.  This is a place to try to get business as well.

It is not as though this group can be reformed.  Aside from the anointment of pre-selected candidates, it really doesn’t do anything.  There are a variety of reputable reform groups in the state like Common Cause, the New York State Public Interest Research Group, etc.  Nobody serious about reform goes there.

My wife, Jane Weihe, was chair person of the city Democratic Committee for many years and briefly served on the state committee.  The experience was brief because  she resigned because the experience represented everything she hated about the worst elements of American politics.

So why would anyone spend time on this?

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The successful candidates for the State Democratic Committee were Minita Sanghvi and Patrick Nelson.

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Dr. Sanghvi is a professor in the Management and Business Department at Skidmore College.  Her specialty is “Political Marketing.”  Her dissertation was titled “Marketing the female politician: An exploration of gender, appearance and power.”

Dr. Sanghvi was on the previous Charter Review Commission chaired by Skidmore professor Robert Turner.  This blog has extensively covered the very troubling advertising campaign waged by that commission.  At the risk of snarkiness, one wonders whether Dr. Sanghvi simply ignored the ugly and often false claims put out in the literature of the group or whether she actually helped craft it.

Patrick F. Nelson was the campaign manager for the unsuccessful campaign of Mike Derrick running against Elise Stefanik in the 21^st Congressional District  in 2016.  Most recently he was one of five finalist candidates competing  for the Democratic Party line to challenge Stefanik this year.  Of the five, he received the fewest votes in the primary (9.21% as compared to the winner, Tedra Cobb with 56.53%).

The insurgents put a great deal of effort into their campaign to elect their state committee members.  They gathered probably a thousand signatures as compared to the petitions carried by the members of the Saratoga County Democratic Committee who got only a fraction of what the insurgents gathered.  This reflects the fact that traditionally this is a pro forma process that attracts little interest.

 

Most interesting was the fact that the insurgents went down to the County Board of Elections and went through the petitions of their opponents’ challenging signatures.  This is a laborious process.  It is not as though they were looking for or found fraud.  What they found were illegible signatures and signatures of people who signed both groups’ petitions.

Bear in mind that this group sees itself as forward thinking progressives.  I have been involved in a number of campaigns over the years and have always opposed challenging opponents petitions based on technical problems.  My attitude has always been to let the voters decide.  Not so with this group, they were going for the throat.

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So why expend all this energy?  Because Michele Madigan was one of the two candidates for State Committee.

I went down to the Board of Elections to look at this insurgent group’s petitions.  It was instructive to see who carried these petitions.

From the previous Charter Commission were:

Ann Bullock

Gordon Boyd

Robert Turner

Laura Chodos

B.J. Keramati

In addition there were supporters of the last charter change proposal who were active on social media:

Patti Morrison

Dillon Moran

Holly Schwartz

Eddy Abraham

And other active charter change proponents Bill and Peter McTygue along with Joanne Yepsen

Former charter commission treasurer Gordon Boyd  circulated petitions for Sanghvi and Nelson although he is not a registered Democrat.  He was able to circulate a petition because election law allows a notary public to circulate a petition for a party position without being a member of the party.  Why, one would one ask, though,  would someone who is no  longer a Democrat bother to circulate a petition for Democratic State Committee positions?

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Kevin Madigan, Michele Madigan’s husband,  has been the representative of the 19^th district to the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.  His petition was thrown out in a challenge submitted by Rita Fornbush.  A number of signatures were disqualified because the people who signed Mr. Madigan’s petition also signed the petition for his challengers.   His challengers were Marie Fontain and Steve Bederian.

Interestingly, neither Bederian nor Fontain actually circulated petitions for this district although they did get petitions for the insurgent NYS Democratic Committee candidates.  Kathleen Harder circulated the petitions for them.  She also circulated petitions for the NYS Democratic Committee challengers.

I am sorry to say it but this is an example of the worst kind of politics.

The challenging of Kevin Madigan would make sense if it was part of a broader challenge to the Democratic Committee members who opposed the previous charter change proposal.  This would have at least had some substance.  The fact is that he was not the only member of the committee that opposed the proposed charter change but he was the only one challenged.

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What is truly stunning was that these people would go out in the heat of summer and spend hours  getting signatures over a pathetically symbolic position i.e. New York State Democratic Committee member.  As someone who has circulated petitions, it is not easy to get signatures.  Why waste that time and energy just to keep Michele Madigan off the State Committee?   What was accomplished?  It is a testament to the pettiness and banality of this group .  This is why people hate poitics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the readers of this blog know, Saratoga County has denied repeated FOIL requests from professor Robert Turner for the digital images of ballots from the last election.  According to the Gazette Newspaper, the New York State Department of State Committee on Open Government issued an opinion that argued that these images are covered under FOIL.  I contacted Mr. Freeman and he sent me a copy of his opinion.  I thought reviewing this opinion might help the readers of this blog to better understand FOIL (Freedom of Information Law).

Robert Freeman is the executive director of the New York State Department of State Committee on Open Government.  In February of 2014 he issued an opinion regarding whether the digital images of election ballots were accessible to the public under the Freedom of Information Law.  In his letter he affirmed that they were.

I summarize his major points here.  For those not familiar with FOIL his letter offers some insight into the law.

He states:

“First, FOIL is expansive in scope, for it pertains to all government agency records.”

He notes the very broad interpretation of what is a record:

“Section 86(4) of that statute defines the term ‘record’ to include ‘any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever…’” 

Under this broad definition he asserts that ballot images held by the county boards of elections constitute “records.”

He notes that the concept of FOIL is “…based on a presumption of access. “  This means that the onus of proving that records are not accessible falls on the holder of the records.  There are exceptions to FOIL and the custodian of the records must prove that one of these exceptions pertains to those records in order to deny access to them.  These exceptions are listed in §87(2) of the FOIL law.

Mr. Freeman then asserts that the digital images do not fall under any of the exceptions.

At the time he was writing this opinion he was addressing the denial by Putnam County of their ballot images.  According to his letter, Putnam County denied the records based on section §87(2)(a) of FOIL in conjunction with §3-222 of the Election Law.  Section 87(2)(a) states that in order to deny access to the item it must be “…specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal statute”

Mr. Freeman rejected the assertion that the ballot images were exempt asserting that “…there is nothing in the language of subdivision (1) of §3-222 [JK: Election Law] specifying that electronic images of ballots cast are confidential or “exempted from disclosure.”

To emphasize this point he noted that the Court of Appeals [JK: The highest court in New York] and the federal courts must, in order to assert records are “confidential” or “exempted from disclosure by statute”, document that the law pertaining to the records has clear and specific language that states this.

Both the Court of Appeals and federal courts have determined that the characterization of records as “confidential” or “exempted from disclosure by statute” must be based on statutory language that specifically confers or requires confidentiality.

Freeman writes:

“In short, to be “exempted from disclosure by statute,” both state and federal courts have determined that a statute must leave no discretion to an agency: it must withhold such records.”

 He notes that election law states that:

‘”Voted ballots shall be preserved for two years after such election and the packages thereof may be opened and the contents examined only upon order of a court or judge of competent jurisdiction…”’

As such the actual ballots are exempt from the FOIL law.  The important point here is that the law makes no such condition regarding the “images” of these ballots.  They are therefore available under FOIL.

It’s Freeman’s Opinion But The Courts Have Not Resolved The Issue

Mr. Freeman and his office are not, however, the final arbiters of what is FOILable.  It is the courts of New York who, in the end, decide the issue.

I would have preferred that Saratoga County had used Freeman’s opinion and released the images of the ballots.  Essex County is being sued over this same issue.  The plaintiffs won their initial suit in court but Essex County has filed notice of their intent to appeal the decision to the New York State Court of Appeals.  Legally, the county is fully within its rights to deny Robert Turner’s FOIL request until such time as the Court of Appeals rules on the case.

One never knows how courts will rule but based on Mr. Freeman’s extensive knowledge and long history, it is reasonable to be optimistic.

 

 

 

Medicare maintains a website that publishes their assessments of nursing homes.  Currently an assessment of the Wesley Health Care Center is not very flattering.

Their overall rating gets two stars out of five which Medicare characterizes as below average.  The result of health inspections gets two stars out of five for a below average rating.  Their staffing gets three stars which is considered average.  Their quality measures gets three stars for average.   

This is a link to the Medicare page: https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/results.html#loc=12866&lat=43.0964412&lng=-73.7242486

 

 

Peter Rosecrans and Burns Management have plans to construct a building with 72 apartments and retail space at 385 Broadway.  The building will have five floors and will have 117,000 square feet.  We are back to the micro –apartment concept.  There would be 26 ranging in size from 520 to 660 square feet.  The other units would range in size from 800 to 1,500 square feet.  These would have one and two bedrooms.  Rents would start in the $1,250.00 per month range.  The project is projected to cost about $20,000,000.00. 

This is the same firm that is developing a 105 apartment complex at Excelsior Park.   

Tom Newkirk of Saratoga National Golf Course fame owns the property which he purchased in 2011 for $2,000,000.00.

The developer claims the building will have a gym, fiber optic internet, and possibly a doorman.

He is quoted in the Albany Business Journal as saying, “It is exciting, but there is complexity to this.  It is kind of like building a ship in a bottle.” 

He is working with Phinney Design Group.

He hopes to have the existing building down by February.

 Missing from the Albany Business Review article was where he expected all these people to park.

 

At their Monday, July 2,  meeting, the City Council voted to initiate an engineering study for the bike lanes for Lake Avenue.  A dozen people addressed the Council at the hearing that preceded the vote.  All spoke in support of the plan.  The city voted to accept a grant for up to $50,000.00 for a survey, an engineering study, and installation of bike-lane signage from the New York State Department of Transportation. According to the Gazette  Commissioner of Public Safety Peter Martin said the bike lanes could happen next year.