Saratoga Springs Politics

The fifth annual Saratoga Pride Celebration will be on Sunday,  June 16, from 1 to 4pm at the High Rock Park Pavilion. They will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Police regularly raided bars like the Stonewall. For more details on the many activities at the event here is a story from the Saratogian.

Wikipedia has an excellent history of the Stonewall Riot and the emergence of the gay liberation movement. Here is an excerpt:

The Stonewall Inn, located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, along with several other establishments in the city, was owned by the Genovese crime family.  In 1966, three members of the Mafia invested $3,500 to turn the Stonewall Inn into a gay bar, after it had been a restaurant and a nightclub for heterosexuals. Once a week a police officer would collect envelopes of cash as a payoff, as the Stonewall Inn had no liquor license. It had no running water behind the bar—used glasses were run through tubs of water and immediately reused. There were no fire exits, and the toilets overran consistently. Though the bar was not used for prostitution, drug sales and other “cash transactions” took place. It was the only bar for gay men in New York City where dancing was allowed; dancing was its main draw since its re-opening as a gay club.

Visitors to the Stonewall Inn in 1969 were greeted by a bouncer who inspected them through a peephole in the door. The legal drinking age was 18, and to avoid unwittingly letting in undercover police (who were called “Lily Law”, “Alice Blue Gown”, or “Betty Badge”), visitors would have to be known by the doorman, or look gay. The entrance fee on weekends was $3, for which the customer received two tickets that could be exchanged for two drinks. Patrons were required to sign their names in a book to prove that the bar was a private “bottle club”, but rarely signed their real names.^[10] There were two dance floors in the Stonewall; the interior was painted black, making it very dark inside, with pulsing gel lights or black lights. If police were spotted, regular white lights were turned on, signaling that everyone should stop dancing or touching.^[54]. In the rear of the bar was a smaller room frequented by “queens”; it was one of two bars where effeminate men who wore makeup and teased their hair (though dressed in men’s clothing) could go. Only a few transvestites, or men in full drag, were allowed in by the bouncers. The customers were “98 percent male” but a few lesbians sometimes came to the bar. Younger homeless adolescent males, who slept in nearby Christopher Park, would often try to get in so customers would buy them drinks. The age of the clientele ranged between the upper teens and early thirties, and the racial mix was evenly distributed among white, black, and Hispanic patrons. Because of its even mix of people, its location, and the attraction of dancing, the Stonewall Inn was known by many as “the gay bar in the city”.

Police raids on gay bars were frequent—occurring on average once a month for each bar. Many bars kept extra liquor in a secret panel behind the bar, or in a car down the block, to facilitate resuming business as quickly as possible if alcohol was seized. Bar management usually knew about raids beforehand due to police tip-offs, and raids occurred early enough in the evening that business could commence after the police had finished.^[59] During a typical raid, the lights were turned on, and customers were lined up and their identification cards checked. Those without identification or dressed in full drag were arrested; others were allowed to leave. Some of the men, including those in drag, used their draft cards as identification. Women were required to wear three pieces of feminine clothing, and would be arrested if found not wearing them. Employees and management of the bars were also typically arrested. The period immediately before June 28, 1969, was marked by frequent raids of local bars—including a raid at the Stonewall Inn on the Tuesday before the riots—and the closing of the Checkerboard, the Tele-Star, and two other clubs in Greenwich Village.

Wendy Liberatore’s Times Union article on the recent change in the Saratoga Springs Republican Party Committee leadership begins with the following:

“In an organizational meeting on Wednesday evening, Matthew Hogan lost his leadership role to Chris Obstarczyk…”

The clear suggestion here is that there has been an internal party coup with Matt Hogan being ousted in a competition for leadership. This is simply not the case.

I have spoken to both Matthew Hogan and to Chris Obstarczyk and they paint a very different picture. Matt originally recruited Mr. Obstarczyk to join the local committee. Matt told me that he just did not have the time to continue as chair. Mr. Obstarczyk made clear that he decided to take over the chairmanship after Matt indicated his plan to step down. If you read the rest of Ms. Liberatore’s article you will see that other than the above unflattering and misleading assertion there is nothing in it indicating that Mr. Hogan was forced out.

Matt Hogan has stepped down as chair of the Saratoga Springs Republican Committee. In his place, the Republican Committee has elected Chris Obstarczyk. Mr. Obstarczyk is a partner in the law firm Levy & Obstarczk.

I spoke to Matt recently and he shared with me that other commitments made finding the time to chair the committee too difficult. He has been chair since October of 2016.

I contacted his successor, Mr. Obstarczk, who spoke warmly of Matt. He told me that Matt had originally enlisted him to join the committee and that when Matt decided to step down that with Matt’s support he took over the chairmanship.

I happen to like Matt a lot. During a time of increasingly dark partisanship and incivility, Matt has always demonstrated a dignity and openness for which he should be recognized. His job had not been made easy by the changing demographics of the city where enrollment of Democrats has eroded a city once thoroughly dominated by his party.

While he and I have always assumed that we do not agree on many public issues he has always made himself available to me and his answers to my questions have proven to be accurate and complete.

I wish Matt all the best.

Looking back on my notes I see that I only offered the option of responding on my blog to Ms. Braymer. Of course should attorney Matt Jones wish to respond I offer a similar courtesy.

Ok. This has nothing to do with Saratoga politics but the video of this dog winning some sort of speed/agility event as part of Westminster Dog Show was so wonderful that I wanted to share.

Ray Watkin was mayor of Saratoga Springs from 1974 to 1979. Ray was a real visionarry. It was Ray who spearheaded the preservation movement that viewed the city’s aging architecture as jewels. His administration pursued grants and other policies to upgrade the downtown and bring out the beauty that years of neglect had hidden.

Ray ran a shoe store on Broadway in the block between Lake Avenue and Caroline Street. He used this store not only to make a living but as a vehicle for talking to the people of the city about issues. This evolved into his successful campaign for mayor.

Happy Birthday to my friend, Ray Watkin.

[JK:I offered Claudia Braymer, the attorney who represents the neighbors in the dispute with the hospital, a forum to address my recent blog post on the issue. I made a similar offer to Matt Jones who represents the hospital. Ms. Braymer sent me the following statement.]

While the Comprehensive Plan does define Institutional as an area that allows for religious, health, educational, cultural and tourism, the Comprehensive Plan does not state that the Institutional area would allow for commercial/professional office complexes.  Yet, that is exactly what the proposed OMB-2 designation would allow.

The zoning change is not simply about the Hospital’s one proposed-in-theory (but not actually before the Planning Board) medical office building.  The zoning change for Parcel #1 is about changing the entire 17+ acre Parcel #1 site (most of which is currently owned by DA Collins) to a zoning district that allows for professional offices (not limited to medical offices), plus medical offices, parking facilities, and other related accessory structures.  The Comprehensive Plan does not support changing all of Parcel #1 to a zoning district that allows for professional offices of an unrestricted nature.

The City Council should reject the OMB-2 designation, and have the Hospital & DA Collins bring forward all of their plans for this undeveloped land, so that the public and the City can evaluate the situation in the light of day, and come to a rational conclusion about the proper zoning designation.

Sincerely,

Claudia Braymer

Braymer Law, PLLC

Claudia K. Braymer

Attorney at Law

PO Box 2369

Glens Falls NY 12801

(518) 882-3252

claudia@braymerlaw.com

The Independence Party is sponsoring a debate on Friday, June 14, between the candidates in the upcoming Democratic primary for Finance Commissioner. Both challenger Patty Morrison and current Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan were invited to attend.  At this point only Commissioner Madigan has accepted the invitation.

The Independence Party has endorsed Commissioner Madigan but to ensure fairness has enlisted Chad Beatty, publisher/editor of Saratoga Today, to moderate. The event will take place regardless of how many candidates choose to attend.

The event will take place at the Saratoga Casino Hotel Riley’s/Arrowhead Meeting Room on Friday, June 14. Doors Open at 6:30pm, debate 7PM-8PM.

Previous attempts by the Saratoga County League of Women Voters to organize a debate between the two candidates were unsuccessful.

Chris Mathiesen recently brought to my attention an error in my Hospital vs Neighbors story. The committee that produced the 2015 Comprehensive Plan was appointed by Mayor Scott Johnson’s administration and not Mayor Joanne Yepsen’s.

I would like to publicly apologize to Ms Yepsen for my error. I have edited the story to correct it.

In a previous post I wrote about a totally opaque website on local politics. The site is called Common Sense Saratoga (CSS). After quite a bit of criticism about the anonymity of those involved in the site from a variety of sources  they decided to post the names of four people they characterize as “Founders.” They listed them as follows:

Founding Members

·         Gordon Boyd – Independence Party

·         Ann Bullock – Democratic Party

·         Mark Pingel – Republican Party

·         Bob Turner – Democratic Party

As those of you who follow city politics will know, Boyd, Bullock, and Turner were all on the charter commission that promoted the city manager form of government and were active with It’s Time Saratoga which was the social media face of this group. I assume that this site will replace It’s Time Saratoga, continuing the strategy of distorting the issues facing the city to try to convince the public falsely that the city is in crisis and the only remedy is to change our form of government.

The entire project has the feel of this kind of spin. It no longer mentions the charter (yet anyway) but presents itself as interested in broader issues. The selection of the “founders” is meant to put a non-partisan face on the site to appear to represent a broad based perspective. Conspicuously absent from this list is Pat Kane who some of us suspect has a role in this but whose name was perhaps omitted because of his highly public and documented history of disturbing behavior.

Interestingly, only a short time ago, Zuzia Kwasniewski asked Bob Turner on the Saratoga Unites Facebook page if he was behind the anonymous website and he disavowed any involvement. Now, of course, we find that he was a founder. When I asked Zuzia if she could send me a screen shot of his response she returned to the website only to find that his comment had been deleted.

A Dubious Story On Unpaid City Taxes

The top story on the site is titled “Why Doesn’t Saratoga Collect It’s Back Taxes?”

The piece begins with “… a surprisingly large number of taxpayers simply will not pay their taxes and, based on past experience, they probably see no reason why they should.”

First of all to put this issue in perspective it is important to note that 95% of the property owners in the city pay their taxes on time.

Secondly, contrary to what this article implies the city charter spells out clearly the serious penalties for tax delinquency, and these regulations have been scrupulously adhered to by the city.

Penalties include:

·         Fines up to 15% per year

·         Liens placed on delinquent properties which will mean the property cannot be sold

·         Damage to personal credit rating of delinquent property owners

·         Public embarrassment as names of delinquent taxpayers are required to be published annually in local newspapers

Understanding The Timing Of Property Seizures

The folks at CSS seem particularly upset at what they see as the indifference of the city to pursue seizing properties with liens on them. As often happens, in spite of what seems to make “common sense”, the issues are far more complicated than they appear. Such is the case with property seizures.

To begin with, New York State law requires three years before the city can seize property for failure to pay taxes. The process of the city seizing private property is long, complicated, and expensive both in terms of the cost in lawyer fees and in the time required of city staff. The city does not have the expertise to deal with foreclosures in house and so must find and hire outside counsel for this procedure.  Rather than doing foreclosures one at a time and continuously finding and hiring lawyers, the economical way of dealing with seizures in a city of our size involves waiting till a number of delinquent parcels can be packaged and dealt with at the same time and only initiating foreclosure procedures as a last resort.  If the city, in most cases can expect to get its taxes and penalties eventually without resorting to seizure, why tie up staff and spend unnecessary money on large legal fees unless it has been determined that the owner will never pay? It is also important to note that some of the delinquent property owners may be experiencing hard times, and the city prefers to try to give them time to recover rather than seize their property.

Saratoga is not a declining city like Utica where property values have plummeted and people are walking away from delinquent properties. The city will in the end get the taxes and penalties owed one way or the other. The question is when and at what cost.

When the city does end up seizing property, there is still the question of what to do with the property. The City does not want to be in the business of owning and maintaining delinquent properties. In the past the city has auctioned off foreclosed properties, a process that also involves the expenditure of many city resources

 A thoughtful assessment of the situation free of malicious spin is that there is no crisis involving the city bleeding away lost revenue.

Here is a link to Finance Commissioner Madigan’s thoughtful report on how the city handles the issue of delinquent taxes presented at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting with additional comments by City Attorney Vince DeLeonardis and Commissioner of Accounts John Franck who reminisces about past properties the city has seized.

The Mysterious Uber Delinquent Taxpayer

Further on in this same piece the writer makes allegations about a particular delinquent taxpayer.

“One taxpayer of particular interest in this group is the beneficiary of long-standing contracts for services to the City.  This individual owes to the City of Saratoga Springs and the City school district no less than $137,000 in back taxes, covering a total of nine lots throughout the city. “

The writer asserts that the parcels involved are worth over $1,300,000.00 and that “the owner operates thriving businesses on several of them.”  

This is a pretty shocking accusation so I decided to use their comment option to inquire further about this case. I wrote them asking who this person was and if they would not name the person, what was their reasoning for protecting this delinquent.

When I clicked send, I got a message that I was a bot and was not allowed to access their site. As you may recall from an earlier post I had asked the site who they were and never received an answer. Having a blog myself, I know how easy it is to block people who one doesn’t want to hear from.

My experience with this group’s history, especially Mr. Kane, is that they are quite capable of making outrageous accusations for which there is no source of verification. Maybe some other reader out there might help me by going on their site and asking the same question.

Ellen Egger-Aimone’s Regrettable Comment

One comment that did get published came from Ellen Egger-Aimone. It reads as follows:

The managers of this website have posted a comment by Ms. Egger-Aimone that is truly odious. Ms. Egger-Aimone basically accuses Commissioner Michele Madigan of allowing developers to avoid paying taxes. She also asserts that Commissioner Madigan is hiding from the public who the delinquents are.

If Ms. Egger-Aimone had a better understanding of how city government works or had bothered to ask before she posted her comment she would have known that in fact what she is demanding already exists. That is, it already is public knowledge who is not paying their taxes.  As noted earlier the names of those people delinquent in their taxes, including developers, are regularly posted in local newspapers as required by the city charter. Here is an image of the notice from last October.

Link To Avertisement With Properties In Default

But in an age of social media and negative campaigns, apparently Ms. Egger-Aimone doesn’t feel the need to be rigorous and accurate in making her accusations and is betting that her audience won’t care about fact checking either.

 Ellen Egger- Aimone is the campaign manager for both Patty Morrison’s campaign to unseat Michele Madigan as Finance Commissioner and Kendall Hicks’ campaign to become Commissioner of Public Safety. Where are they on all this? Should the public expect to see a similar disregard for accuracy in their campaign materials?  In a better world, both Patty Morrison and Kendall Hicks would disavow Ms. Egger-Aimone’s behavior but so far they have been silent.

And why would Gordon Boyd, Ann Bullock, Bob Turner, and Mark Pingel, the principles behind this site, tolerate and indeed promote this kind of garbage in both the articles they are publishing and the comments they decide to put up.

Ms. Egger-Aimone’s and this blog’s reckless and cruel attacks call to mind Attorney Joseph Welch’s response to similar baseless, character assassination efforts by Senator Joe McCarthy at the famous Army-McCarthy hearings.  

 

We may well ask the same question of the participants in Common Sense Saratoga.  Have they no sense of decency?