Rental Rates In Saratoga County Stabilizing

The Albany Business Review reported that the monthly cost of rentals for Saratoga County was up 1.5% over the same period last spring.  It increased 10.6% during the same period in 2015 and 5.6% in 2016.

In a comparison of rental costs the ABR reported:

“Average asking monthly rents in the other counties were $1,438 in Saratoga County ($1.34 per square foot); $1,265 in Rensselaer County ($1.05 per square foot); and $1,156 in Schenectady County ($1.09 per square foot).”

More On Condo To Be Built Near Four Seasons Market

I wrote earlier on this upscale project but the Saratogian article has an interesting interview with the developer.

http://www.saratogian.com/general-news/20170626/new-condominium-planned-for-fall-2018

 

 

May I be excused for being confused?

I received an email from Bob Turner, Charter Review Commissioner Chairman, in which he corrects a statement I made in an earlier post that the Commission had made the mayor’s position fulltime in their proposed charter. His correction is as follows:

“For the record, the Charter Review Commission did NOT establish a full time Mayor.  No city charter uses those terms and neither does ours.  Those words are not in our charter.”  (The full text of his email is below).

Questions about the scope of the mayor’s job under the proposed charter arose at a forum put on by the Charter Review Commission way back in March.  In an email to me at the time, Mr. Turner, referring to the discussion at the forum wrote, “I said I thought that we needed a fulltime mayor and that a reasonable salary was in the $40-60,000 range…”    At the time, however, the members of the Commission told the public that if the charter were adopted, it would be the City Council elected in 2017 that would decide the issue of whether the mayor would be part or full time by setting the salary for the mayor.

The Charter Commission apparently decided not to trust a future council to determine the salary, though, and voted at their meeting on June 26th to amend their proposed charter to incorporate a salary for the mayor of $40,000.00 plus benefits.

It is not surprising then that both the Gazette reporter who wrote a story on the commission’s last meeting and I assumed that by adopting a salary of $40,000.00+ that the Commission was anticipating a full time mayor.

The fact that if this new charter is adopted the future mayor will be paid $40,000.00 plus roughly $22,000.00 in benefits but according to Mr. Turner will be allowed to determine for themselves how much time to devote to the job caused me to look more carefully at this issue.

In his email to me Mr. Turner offered the following:

“There is no correct number, but $40,000 seemed like a reasonable amount.  To put the $40,000 in context, we looked at the average and median household income for Saratoga Springs from the Census.”

Average Household Income	$86,757
Median Household Income	$61,518

 

I simply do not understand this explanation.  “Reasonable” amount for what?  What is the relationship between the household income chart and the $40,000.00?

So What Will The New Mayor Be Required To Do?

I assumed that the mayor would have significantly more responsibilities and duties than council  members and so it seemed reasonable that the mayor would be paid more. When I actually reviewed the proposed charter regarding the specific duties of the mayor, though, I was dismayed by what the Commission had crafted.  I reprint the list at the bottom of this post but I would draw the readers’ attention to two items.

Item #2 reads “Represent the city in intergovernmental relationships.”  While it would be unfair to exaggerate this issue, it would be unwise to underestimate its potential problems.  One expects that the City Manager will be working similarly with “intergovernmental relationships.”   I assume that in the case of the mayor, this will have more to do with advocating on behalf of the city with other institutions in general and the governor and legislature in particular but unlike our current charter this is not made clear here.  Again, given the right personalities, the vagueness of this would not be a problem but my experience in the real world of egos and power tells me there is the potential for mischief and conflict.

Far more serious is item #10 that reads “Perform other duties as may be specified by the City Council.”  So apparently, the mayor will, in effect, work for the city council.  Supposedly the council will pass resolutions directing the activity of the mayor.  I find this something of a stunner.  Even the most casual observer of what goes on every other Tuesday night at the city council will have to question the viability of this.  Remember, the Charter Commission has been promising us that their plan will result in greater comity in city government.  Here is a simple question, what will happen if the mayor refuses to do something that the council votes for the mayor to do?  Can anyone who has endured some of our less dignified council meetings really say that this could never happen?  Could the readers imagine a meeting in which the council stipulates some project for the mayor and the mayor responds that he/she, for $40,000.00 does not have time to take on the task?

Which brings me to my final point. With the exception of this last, dangerously nebulous item, all the other duties listed are quite modest.  According to the charter, the mayor has no other identified responsibilities that would seem to require he/she spend substantially more time on the job than the council members.  I am not the only one who is going to be troubled by the fact that we do not know what we are paying for when we raise the salary as anticipated in the charter.   It is one thing when the mayor is paid a very modest stipend as is currently the case.  Everyone knows that the amount paid is more a gesture than serious recompense given the mayoral duties under the current charter.  The commission’s plan is to reduce the responsibilities of the mayor under the existing charterand substantially raise the salary. There needs to be far greater clarity as to what is expected from the mayor in the proposed charter to justify the $62,000 for wages and benefits.  For the commission to say that they are leaving it to the elected person as to how much time they will devote to the job is not sufficient.

The mantra of the charter review commission is that the city needs better management.  Good management means that when a person accepts a job the scope of their duties are carefully spelled out so they know what is expected of them.  The Charter Review Commission struggled with the idea that the new position of mayor would be bigger than just running meetings and appointing boards.  Unfortunately, they were never able to find a consensus with clarity so they punted and simply raised the salary assuming that somehow it will all work out.

---

List Of Mayoral Duties From Proposed Charter

1. 1. Be a voting member of the City Council and shall attend and preside at meetings of the City Council.
   2. Represent the city in intergovernmental relationships. (One wonders how to untangle which relations the city manager will handle as compared to the mayor).
   3. Execute any and all contracts for which City Council approval has been granted.
   4. Appoint with the advice and consent of the city council the members of all regulatory boards and commissions…
   5. Present an annual State of the City message.
   6. Appoint Members and officers of City Council standing committees…
   7. Assign, subject to the consent of the City Council, agenda items…
   8. Create such advisor committees and appoint members…
   9. Chair the Finance Committee of the City Council.
   10. Appoint a Charter Review Commission…
   11. Perform other duties as may be specified by the City Council (Wow!!!! The mayor apparently works for the city council? The mayor must perform any duties assigned by the council? What if the council does not exercise this authority? What will the mayor do?

 

---

From: Robert Turner (Government) [bturner@skidmore.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2017 2:28 PM
To: John Kaufmann
Subject: RE: Compensation

Hi John,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

NY State law establishes the rules governing a City Council’s ability to raise its salaries.
According to Tony Izzo, a Council can do it one of 2 ways.

1.     They can vote to increase their salaries immediately.  A public referendum is held for voters to decide whether to approve the changes or not.
2.     They can vote to increase the salaries of a future City Council.  There has to be an
election between when a council member votes and the salary increases go into effect.
So if the City Council voted to increase their salaries in 2020, it would not go into effect
until after the 2021 election for half of them or 2023 for the other half.  According to
NYCOM, what usually happens is City Council delay pay increases going into effect until
the entire City Council is eligible.

According to the ICMA Municipal Form of Government, 2011 survey of local governments, 85%
of city council elections are staggered.  So, we don’t believe this is a problem.

Personally, I believe that the current provision of a medical plan with no deductibles,
premiums, or copays for part time City Council members is excessive.  To put their
compensation in perspective, the cost of their benefits ($18,000) and salaries ($14,500) of
$32,500 is higher than the legislative salaries of 30 state legislators.  (see
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-should-state-legislators-get-paid/)   And the provision of lifetime health benefits to City Council members after 10 years to service is unheard of in the public or private sector.

Hope this answers your question.

Also, Matt Veitch had asked: Is it now that Supervisors have 2 year terms while the rest of the elected officials will have 4 year terms?

Our original proposal, established 4 year terms for County Supervisors, largely because of your input about the position.  However, our drafting attorney, Bob Batson, told us: “It is my opinion that the Charter provision authorizing a term of 4 years for the Supervisors is not valid since it is inconsistent with the cited provision of state law.  Subdivision 2 of Section 2 of the General City Law authorizes a 4 year term for supervisors elected in the City of Geneva. I believe that Saratoga Springs would need either a special act of the State Legislature or a charter law of Saratoga County to give the supervisors 4 year terms.”  Batson is the Government Lawyer in Residence at the Government Law Center of Albany Law School.  Batson has drafted charters
for: Albany, Amsterdam, Cohoes, Glen Cove, Oneonta and Troy, among others.
Batson said that a special act of the state legislature is required to change the term length of supervisors to 4 years.  Evidently, Geneva, I believe, asked for this and it took 4 months to pass the change.  So the term lengths are 2 years until the law changes and then they are 4 years.

The revised language is below.
There are two slight wrinkles on this.
1.      BK Keramati offered an amendment to specify that the first subsequent election shall be the “beauty pageant” format, where the candidate with the most votes gets the 4 year term and the runner up gets the 2 year term.  After that, the supervisor elections will be staggered 4 year terms. Supervisor A would run in 2021, 2025, 205; etc and Supervisor B would run in 2021, 2023, 2027, 2031 etc.
2.      Matt Jones offered an amendment subsequently that each county supervisor position will be contested separately, head to head elections, until the state changes the law to 4 year terms.  His argument was that this increases accountability in elections, based on his time on the Board of Election.

The exact language is below.

Bob

Bob Turner
Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies and Sciences
Director, Environmental Studies and Sciences Program
Director, Faculty Student Summer Research Program
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

From: John Kaufmann [mailto:john.kaufmann21@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 6:29 PM
To: Robert Turner (Government) <bturner@skidmore.edu>
Subject: RE: Compensation

Thanks.   What about:
I am confused how, with staggered terms the council will amend salaries.  Since they will serve overlapping years, if they adopt a budget with salary increases for the following year, some of the council members term will not have ended so they could be voting to increase their own salary.  Is this an issue and if so, how will the commission address this?

With respect, B under ethics is vague to the point of irrelevance.

JK

From: Robert Turner (Government) [mailto:bturner@skidmore.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 4:35 PM
To: John Kaufmann
Subject: RE: Compensation

The commission will consider two amendments tonight.

8.07 (E)  Initial Salary of Mayor and Council Members.
The mayor shall receive an initial annual salary in the amount of $40,000 and medical
insurance paid in full by the city.  Each city council member shall receive an annual salary in the amount of $14,500 with optional medical insurance offered under the city’s plan, with the premium paid in full by Council member.  This compensation shall remain in effect until such amount is changed by the council in accordance with the provisions of this charter and State law.

Stronger Ethnics/Transparency language –

2.08 Code of Ethics

A.    The City Council shall adopt a Code of Ethics to guide the actions of elected and
appointed City officers and employees. The Code of Ethics adopted shall be consistent
with Article 18 of the General Municipal Law of the State of New York. The City Code of
Ethics shall be updated as needed pursuant to § 806 of the General Municipal Law.

B.    It is the policy of the City that the activities of City government should be conducted in public to the greatest extent feasible in order to assure public participation and enhance public accountability.

Bob Turner
Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies and Sciences
Director, Environmental Studies and Sciences Program
Director, Faculty Student Summer Research Program
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

From: John Kaufmann [mailto:john.kaufmann21@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 3:21 PM
To: Robert Turner (Government) <bturner@skidmore.edu>
Subject: Compensation

I see in the TU that the commission has decided to write the compensation for the mayor and the council into the charter.  I understand the proposed charter will be amended tonight to address this.  Could you email me the text?
I am confused how, with staggered terms the council will amend salaries.  Since they will serve overlapping years, if they adopt a budget with salary increases for the following year, some of the council members term will not have ended so they could be voting to increase their own salary.  Is this an issue and if so, how will the commission address this?

 As background for the readers of this blog, I am an agnostic concerning the proposed new charter.  Chris Mathiesen has put forward what I think are some compelling arguments for a new charter while my wife, Jane Weihe, has made a strong case against the change.

I do have some thoughts, though, on the latest amendment adopted by the Charter Review Commission on Monday night.

The Commission offered the following additional language to their charter’s ethics section.  

 “B.    It is the policy of the City that the activities of City government should be conducted in public to the greatest extent feasible in order to assure public participation and enhance public accountability.”

 This amendment seems to suffer from the same oversell that has afflicted the whole charter change process.

I simply cannot restrain myself on this amendment. Ok, here are my snarky questions.  How did this city manage to operate for so many years without this amendment requiring transparency and what will happen to the ethics of this city if the charter fails and this amendment is therefore not adopted?  Why don’t we add to the charter’s section on ethics that our elected officials shall be required to tell the truth in their professional capacities?  Let’s also require that the elected officials always be courteous to each other.

 How, one might ask, will the admonition on transparency be enforced?  Who will judge the city government on its adherence to this section of the charter?  Who knows?

 What does it say about the commission that they believe that the adoption of this amendment has some sort of significance?

I wrote to Robert Turner, chair of the Charter Review Commission, asking him how pay increases would be handled under the new charter in light of the staggered terms they are proposing for city council members.  According to New York State Municipal Law, an elected official cannot set their salary during their current term.  Bob is very good about responding to questions.  Here is his response.

---

---

Hi John,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

NY State law establishes the rules governing a City Council’s ability to raise its salaries.  According to Tony Izzo, a Council can do it one of 2 ways.

1. They can vote to increase their salaries immediately.  A public referendum is held for voters to decide whether to approve the changes or not.
2. They can vote to increase the salaries of a future City Council.  There has to be an election between when a council member votes and the salary increases go into effect.  So if the City Council voted to increase their salaries in 2020, it would not go into effect until after the 2021 election for half of them or 2023 for the other half.  According to NYCOM, what usually happens is City Council delay pay increases going into effect until the entire City Council is eligible.

According to the ICMA Municipal Form of Government, 2011 survey of local governments, 85% of city council elections are staggered.  So, we don’t believe this is a problem.

Personally, I believe that the current provision of a medical plan with no deductibles, premiums, or copays for part time City Council members is excessive.  To put their compensation in perspective, the cost of their benefits ($18,000) and salaries ($14,500) of $32,500 is higher than the legislative salaries of 30 state legislators.  (see https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-should-state-legislators-get-paid/)   And the provision of lifetime health benefits to City Council members after 10 years to service is unheard of in the public or private sector.

Hope this answers your question.

Also, Matt Veitch had asked: Is it now that Supervisors have 2 year terms while the rest of the elected officials will have 4 year terms?

Our original proposal, established 4 year terms for County Supervisors, largely because of your input about the position.  However, our drafting attorney, Bob Batson, told us: “It is my opinion that the Charter provision authorizing a term of 4 years for the Supervisors is not valid since it is inconsistent with the cited provision of state law.  Subdivision 2 of Section 2 of the General City Law authorizes a 4 year term for supervisors elected in the City of Geneva. I believe that Saratoga Springs would need either a special act of the State Legislature or a charter law of Saratoga County to give the supervisors 4 year terms.”  Batson is the Government Lawyer in Residence at the Government Law Center of Albany Law School.  Batson has drafted charters for: Albany, Amsterdam, Cohoes, Glen Cove, Oneonta and Troy, among others.

Batson said that a special act of the state legislature is required to change the term length of supervisors to 4 years.  Evidently, Geneva, I believe, asked for this and it took 4 months to pass the change.  So the term lengths are 2 years until the law changes and then they are 4 years.  The revised language is below.

There are two slight wrinkles on this.

1. BK Keramati offered an amendment to specify that the first subsequent election shall be the “beauty pageant” format, where the candidate with the most votes gets the 4 year term and the runner up gets the 2 year term.  After that, the supervisor elections will be staggered 4 year terms. Supervisor A would run in 2021, 2025, 205; etc and Supervisor B would run in 2021, 2023, 2027, 2031 etc.
2. Matt Jones offered an amendment subsequently that each county supervisor position will be contested separately, head to head elections, until the state changes the law to 4 year terms.  His argument was that this increases accountability in elections, based on his time on the Board of Election.

The exact language is below.

Bob

Bob Turner

Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies and Sciences

Director, Environmental Studies and Sciences Program

Director, Faculty Student Summer Research Program

Skidmore College

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

On June 26^th the Charter Review Commission voted on several amendments to their document and then had a vote on whether to adopt the document.  Of those present all but two supported it.  Elio DelSette, who was appointed by Commissioner Madigan, and Matt Jones, who was appointed by Commissioner Scirocco, voted against.

Strangely, the Commission’s website has a version of the proposed charter identified as “revised June 24^th”.  This is not the newest version adopted on Monday and as far as I can tell there was not a meeting on June 24^th.

The most significant changes adopted on Monday are:

1. The establishment of a full time mayor with an annual salary of $40,000.00 plus benefits.
2. The members of the council will be paid $14,500.00.  They will not receive any benefits.
3. A statement that requires the council act with transparency.

I will comment on this in more detail in later blog.

 

At their May community event at the City Center, the Charter Review Commission gave out a document titled “Saratoga Springs Charter Commission 2017 Proposed Charter Fiscal Impact Summary.”  The document had been drafted by Jeff Altamari.

Mr. Altamari moved to Saratoga Springs some years ago when he retired from an executive position with a Texas energy company.  Mr. Altamari has an impressive resume.   In a previous post I go into his credentials (https://saratogaspringspolitics.com/2017/05/03/charter-review-commissioner-altamari-calls-for-independent-internal-auditor/)  but for the purpose of this blog I would note that he is a Certified Public Accountant and has a strong background in finance.   I have chatted with Mr. Altamari on a number of occasions and I have always found him charming and informative.

In contrast to Mr. Altamari, while I studied economics as a history graduate student and have read extensively in the area, my focus and understanding is at the broader (macro as they say in the profession) level and I know little about accounting.

I have read his summary analysis of the projected financial benefits of the commission’s charter proposal and I ran into an issue that simply made no sense to me.

His paper documents that the proposed charter would eliminate all four commissioners, the four deputy commissioners, and the deputy mayor.  It asserts that all the rest of the city employees are assumed to continue in their jobs even though this could change over time if, for instance, the city manger decides to make changes in the workforce.  The only employees to be added, according to the paper, will be a city manager who they project will be paid $125,000.00 and an assistant city manager projected to be paid $90,000.00 although this position is not mentioned in the charter.  In addition, it proposes that a full time city mayor be paid $40,000.00.

Chris Mathiesen has made a strong argument against the commission form of government citing his experience as Public Safety Commissioner.   In my conversations with him he indicated that being an effective commissioner requires many, many hours.  While he enjoyed his tenure it was apparent from our conversation that it has taken a toll on him.  Apparently all the commissioners who spoke to the Commission expressed similar sentiments about the long hours required to administer their respective departments.  The Mayor has made similar remarks to the media.

Oddly, the Charter Review Commission, which sought testimony from many sources both inside our city government and outside, never interviewed the deputy commissioners or the deputy mayor.  In light of the fact that these people are charged with actually running their departments and are full time, one would have thought that interviewing them would be of particular value.

I know and have known several deputies.  I can tell you that the individuals I know and knew spent many more than forty hours a week on the job.  I am sure Chris Mathiesen would confirm that regarding his deputy as would all the other Commissioners and the Mayor.

So to a lay person like me it makes no sense that Mr. Altamari’s summary would expect the city manager and the assistant to absorb the work of four “part time” commissioners and five full time deputies yet the savings identified in Mr. Altamari’s summary factor in the savings from eliminating these positions.

I am also concerned about costs associated with the mayor and the six members of the proposed city council.  The budget makes no mention of any support costs for these positions.  It is the intention of the commission that the mayor’s position will be full time.  They envision the mayor as a kind of community organizer who will mobilize individuals and groups to support the work of the city government.  One would assume that the mayor will need office space, computer, some sort of secretarial/administrative assistance, travel costs, etc.  Similarly, one would expect the members of the council to need some sort of support budget.

I wrote to Mr. Altamari asking him to address these issues.  He declined to respond formally.  I followed up and here is our email exchange:

From:    John Kaufmann []

Sent:     Friday, June 23, 2017 12:46 PM

To:          ‘jeffaltamari’

Subject:   Financial Analysis

I am disappointed that you have declined to respond to my questions.  The latest iteration of your proposed charter  eliminates the four commissioners and the five deputies. Given that this charter proposal only calls for the hiring of a city manager (and you have indicated a deputy will probably be needed as well) it is logical to assume that the charter commission expects that the two new executive  positions will assume the workload of five fulltime and four part time positions.  This simply does not make sense.   I would also note that the financial plan you have put forward does not address the support costs for the ambitious responsibilities expected of the revised mayor’s position nor the support costs for the seven members of the council.

Given your acknowledged skills as an analyst and the assumed fact that you have thought this out, it does not seem unreasonable to ask you to explain these apparent anomalies.  I asked you to do it in writing in the interest of accuracy because I expect that I am not the only citizen that will have these questions about this proposal and I would like to post your response on my blog.

The Saratogians who will be voting on this charter cannot all be expected to attend the commission’s meetings and forums as you suggest in order to get clearer information.  Sooner or later you will need to address these issues in some kind of written document made available to the public.

While I will not be publishing your recent emails to me, I will be posting the text of this email to you.

---

From:    jeffaltamari

Sent:     Friday, June 23, 2017 1:10 PM

To:          John Kaufmann

Subject:    Re: Financial Analysis

As I stated previously, I will be happy to respond to you at our next public forum and was disappointed you deigned not to attend our previous forum, where these issues were addressed. I am happy to do this for you and any other citizen of Saratoga Springs. As a practical matter, and one of basic courtesy to Charter Commission members, we cannot be expected to provide lengthy written responses to all the email requests that come from the public. I hope you can understand and appreciate this.

Kind regards,

Jeff

Jeff Altamari

---

I was away on May 30 when they had their forum.  Even if I had been in town I would probably not have attended.

A confession to this blogger’s readers:  I rarely attend meetings.  They are, as a whole, interminable.  Fortunately, most of the city’s meetings are videotaped and can be viewed on line.  This allows a person like me to skip through them fairly quickly looking for anything that strikes me as significant.

In the case of the Charter Review Commission this approach is problematic.  The quality of the audio for meetings in the City Council chambers is excellent.  Unfortunately the Charter Review Commission rarely meets in the chambers.  I know there are probably scheduling challenges as the meetings of the council and the city’s boards would take precedence.  Still there are many nights that the council chamber is available.

The use of the city’s video equipment is limited to the council chambers. When the Commission meets in the Music Hall, as they frequently do, assistant  City Attorney Tony Izzo who assists the Commission uses his personal equipment to record their meetings.  The acoustics in that large hall are problematic and Commission members do not have microphones as they do when they meet in the Council chambers. The result is that it is almost impossible to follow the discussion of the commission when they hold their meetings there.  Several members have clear voices but many do not.  In addition, frequently there are several people talking at the same time and under those circumstances the voices are unintelligible.

So the public and I cannot use many of the videos on the city’s website to follow the work of the Commission.

I have some sympathy for Mr. Altamari.   He is a volunteer who has devoted many hours to the meetings of this Commission and it is not surprising that he bridles when asked to respond to someone like me. Still, this Commission often goes on about the need to educate the public and their frustration at how little interest in terms of public attendance at their meetings there is.

There may be a reasonable explanation as to the apparent anomaly of having two people doing the work of roughly nine people but in terms of what is available, I cannot find an explanation.

I  advised Mr. Altamari that I planned to post on the issue of his analysis on my website and offered him the opportunity of providing some kind of explanation.  Given his skills as a writer and my assumption that he has thought all of this through, it seems like a modest request to have him draft a response.  I regret that he declined.

This is a link to his document Fiscal Analysis. There is a table in the document that offers three scenarios of the money he projects the city will save with this form of government. Basically the first scenario projects no savings from greater efficiency (savings $118,326), the second projects savings from an increased efficiency of .5% (Savings $292,176), the third projects savings from an increased efficiency of 1% ($466,026).

 

 

I congratulate Commissioner Madigan on her effort to have developers/bankers produce amendments they would like to see to the inclusionary  zoning proposal and sit down with Sustainable Saratoga for a public discussion of their  differences.  Here is her email to Chris Mathiesen.

From: “Michele Madigan” <michele.madigan@saratoga-springs.org> To: “Christian Mathiesen” <christian.mathiesen@saratoga-springs.org> Cc: “Brad Birge” <bradley.birge@saratoga-springs.org>, “John Franck” <john.franck@saratoga-springs.org>, “Skip Scirocco” <skip.scirocco@saratoga-springs.org>, “Joanne Yepsen” <joanne.yepsen@saratoga-springs.org>, “meg kelly” <meg.kelly@saratoga-springs.org>, “Maire Masterson” <maire.masterson@saratoga-springs.org>, “frank coppola” <frank.coppola@saratoga-springs.org>, “Michael Veitch” <michael.veitch@saratoga-springs.org>, “Eileen Finneran” <eileen.finneran@saratoga-springs.org> Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2017 9:44:17 AM Subject: IZ Workshop with Planning Dept.

Commissioner Mathiesen,

After a brief email exchange yesterday, (but many discussions) with Commissioner Franck and hearing from the public, we both believe that another IZ workshop is required and would be beneficial.

An additional way to handle the IZ ordinance is to have both the Developers/Bankers sit down with Sustainable Saratoga (the original sponsors of the IZ ordinance).  This should be directed by Planning Dept. (and yourself as sponsor) and attempt to resolve the differences that I believe still exist in order to bring IZ to a successful vote. While I can redline the document, I can’t say that I can accomplish this in the allotted two weeks from the last workshop.  I may need an additional two weeks or more and even then I’m not an expert on such an all encompassing zoning ordinance.  I’m working on other fairly high-level projects on behalf of the City, just one of which is Parking. and it looks as though you would like a public update on Parking so that is where my energies will like over the next few weeks.

If the developers and bankers are negotiating in good faith (and I believe that they are) they will draft the changes they require to make this work.  If the proponents have a problem with these then they need to draft the reasons why and how their approach will address the issues.  After that the Council and the public will have clarity and the Council can weigh in on IZ. [JK: My emphasis added]

Thank you,

Commissioner Michele Madigan

 

 

[JK: News release from Sustainable Saratoga]

Sustainable Saratoga’s “Tree Triage” App Wins Smart City Technology Competition

We’re excited to announce that our innovative new mobile app, Tree Triage, took top prize in the Saratoga Go! Smart City Technology Competition on Wednesday. Saratoga Go! challenged individuals and businesses to create and pitch solutions that improve quality of life for residents, businesses and institutions, or visitors to the City.  The Tree Triage app, developed by our Urban Forestry Project Chair Tom Denny, is a user-friendly way for the City’s Dept. of Public Works (DPW) and Arborist to enter all tree plantings and tree removals into the existing tree inventory. Routine maintenance of the tree inventory, which will preserve both its planning value and funding value, is far more cost-effective than having to replace the tree inventory if it becomes outdated. With Tree Triage, the DPW can record tree information in less than a minute at the tree site. Smarter infrastructure is key to making our City’s operations more productive and efficient. Thanks to Tree Triage, sustaining and growing our urban forest — a critical component of our community’s infrastructure — will be easier than ever!

Well, the vote on  the SPA Housing Ordinance has been put off yet again following the full throated concerns expressed by the developers and bankers at the workshop on Tuesday, June 13.  The ordinance would require  that in residential developments of 10 or more units, 20 percent of the units for sale or rent be dedicated as affordable to households of moderate or low income.

However you may feel about this ordinance, the way this process has unfolded keeps getting more and more depressing as an example of how easily certain people with power get special treatment.

For those of us who regularly observe the operation of the City Council, the events of the last month regarding this issue have been anything but usual.  Bear in mind that the proponents of this proposal have been engaging the essential players of this drama going back practically a year.  The draft was written by a nationally recognized consultant who specializes in affordable housing.  He has drawn on the experience of communities who have drafted similar legislation across the country.  The proponents of the ordinance have had meetings with developers like Sonny Bonacio and with local banks.  There have also been numerous meetings with members of the City Council.  This was no surprise proposal suddenly dropped on the city.  There was ample notice of public hearings where both proponents and opponents addressed the Council.  Normal procedure and I do mean normal procedure, is that the Council then votes on the proposal.

Forget that.  Suddenly the members of the Council discovered that there are all these critical questions unanswered and the gears of government jammed to a halt.  Commissioner Madigan is quoted at the last workshop as follows:

“The density bonus, the zoning language, pilots, deed language, foreclosure and sunset clause and that’s just off the top of my head. And then I do think we are there. It’s just going to take a little more time to get there.”

I do not question that the items she referenced are controversial or that members of the Council may be uninformed on these issues.  Based on the chatter around the table it was clear that at least John Franck and Skip Scirocco shared her concerns.  My question is why weren’t these issues raised earlier in the process.

I am also skeptical that this can all be worked out with just a little more time. It was clear that for all the professions of some of the players about their desire to make this work, the solutions to the problems the developers and bankers raised with the proposed ordinance will not be fixed with just a few tweaks.  John Witt was the most direct.  According to the Times Union:

“Developer John Witt said he can’t make it happen.

‘I like the idea of more units, but the lowest cost we could get it to would be about $2,500 a month with mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities,’ Witt said. ‘That’s at a mortgage rate of 4.1 percent and if the land is sold at a cost of zero.’

Witt said his margins are only 5 percent and that he doesn’t have the money to invest in affordable units.”

So now there is no date for a vote and somehow the objections by the bankers and developers are going to be worked out “sometime” in the future.

Let me be clear, I am sufficiently ignorant regarding the ordinance that I have no idea whether some or, for that matter, all of the concerns scattered on the Council table by the opponents are valid.

I do, however, have certain basic insights  into the players in all of this.  I know that the bankers and developers are skilled people who have survived because they work very hard at maximizing the profit margin of their projects.  This is not a criticism of them.  This is the nature of what it takes to succeed.

I have noted on this blog repeatedly that I am something of a fan of Sonny Bonacio who is a most likable fellow when he turns on the charm.  I love his energy and I think he has done a lot across the capital district to create a variety of beneficial projects.  Caffe Lena immediately comes to mind, and he is doing some creative things in Troy which can use as much help as it can get.

I do, however, also remember that when he wanted to  convert Moore Hall into micro apartments he was adamant before  the Zoning Board of Appeals that taking down the building and replacing it with something more acceptable to the neighborhood was not financially feasible.  Of course, it turned out that it was feasible and the new condos for that site are under construction as I write this posting.

I seriously question the ability of the Council members to assess the arguments and changes that will be forward by those objecting to the ordinance.  I am particularly concerned that this will all be done at private meetings with individual Council members which in itself is not wrong but which will cast a serious cloud on whatever emerges (if something actually finally emerges).

I would offer a way forward that I think would be beneficial to both the Council and the public.  Tell the opponents that they need to sit down with the proponents of the ordinance and try to work it out with them.  In the event that they cannot come to an agreement, ask the opponents to draft their proposed changes and ask the proponents to draft a position paper that lays out their problems with the changes and how the proponents’ proposal addresses the basic concerns raised by the opponents.

The Council could then take whatever action they deemed appropriate and the public would be in a position to assess the outcome.  This would meet that badly overused term called transparency.

It is my hope that the Mayor and Council would support this approach.

In a June 7 article, Wendy Libertore reported in the Times Union about recent arrests by ICE in Saratoga Springs and the community’s response.

The previous week ICE arrested sixteen men. 

On June 5 the Saratoga Springs Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church voted unanimously to offer sanctuary to those facing deportation. Speaking on behalf of the church, Terry Diggory  told the TU that “This is not a partisan stand.  We are taking a political stand for the welfare of the community because the rhetoric under the Trump Administration has turned distressing.”

Citing the reliance on undocumented workers by the flat track and the “hospitality industry”, a number of politicians and business people expressed their concern about the policy.

This is a link to the full story in the TU:

http://www.timesunion.com/allwcm/article/Church-to-provide-sanctuary-to-illegal-immigrants-11202578.php

Here is a link to a story from Channel Ten News about more arrests that took place yesterday in Saratoga Springs:

http://news10.com/2017/06/15/ice-arrests-11-people-in-saratoga-springs/