The School Board made the right decision when it decided not to re-arm school monitors this fall. This is not only my opinion on the subject based on what I have read; it is based on the authority and responsibilities of a school district to its community.

First of all, I am not someone who is afraid of or hates firearms. But I do understand that weapons should only be introduced when the risk of accident is outweighed by the needs of security.

I spent the majority of my adult life in the US Navy. Sometimes I carried a sidearm or a rifle, as did others around me. Every time we armed out, it was because of a specific need, and as soon as we were done, back into the locker all weapons went, because firearms are inherently dangerous – at a rate of about 500 deaths per year due to accidents. These aren’t just irresponsible owners; these include trained, proficient law enforcement officers, and it happens right here in our own community.

We, as a military organization, elected not to take unnecessary risk. I would appreciate the same consideration in our schools.

Every additional weapon on campus increases the risk of accidental discharge. Comparatively, the risk of a student being killed in a mass shooting at a school in the USA is fairly low: 100 in the last ten years, or ten per year. Of those 13 incidents of mass shooting that specifically targeted children (vice workplace employee-on-employee violence), 5 perpetrators were students or recent students who entered the school without challenge. 6 perpetrators committed suicide – presumably undeterred by the prospect of armed resistance.

Compared to 500 or so accidental discharge deaths a year, 3000 auto fatalities a year for teenagers, or 5000 suicides per year for those under 25, it seems like there may be better areas to direct our efforts.

Nonetheless, parents are concerned about school security, probably because we feel like it is the one place where we have little control over our children, and our gut instinct is to turn to the police. Reliance on regular law enforcement in schools isn’t without controversy, and organizations that promulgate current best practices advocate for methods that include a combination of training and physical access control, as well as mental health.

While there have been instances of law enforcement in schools preventing incidents, there are just as many success stories from the passive methods. Most importantly, by paying attention to warning signs, providing community intervention services, and other “soft” techniques, we have stopped many of these tragedies before they occur – the measures taken at the outbreak of violence should be a last resort.

Note that the entire debate discussed above is about whether School Resource Officers, who are by definition active, sworn law enforcement officers, are effective. Nowhere do armed guards, no matter what their background, appear in the literature.

All of the information above has been studied, restudied, debated, and used to enact policy. However, chances are, if you have been caught up in the local debate, you are not an expert on what makes a good school, and certainly not a safe school. I am not either. I can secure a pier, I can secure a boat, but I have never been trained in securing a school, and I have certainly never participated in any comprehensive study on school security. Neither has anyone on the school board, as far as I know.

Luckily, the New York State Education Department, from which all School Boards derive their authority and their mandate, provides guidelines for school systems on how they should operate.

NYSED is not a law enforcement organization. Neither they, nor any of the school boards over which they have authority, are in the business of arming and training security personnel. That is why in their guidelines they state that “if a school determines that it needs to have an armed professional on school grounds, SROs are the only school personnel of any type who should be armed.”

School Resource Officers are so much more than a “good guy with a gun”, or even regular law enforcement. They are trained to deal with psychological issues faced by teenagers, to work with faculty and school staff, and to support the learning environment. Most importantly, they derive their authority and ongoing training from a commissioned law enforcement organization. Their selection is determined by law enforcement, and they participate in continuous education and certification. This protects the school system from unneeded liability by leaving law enforcement to the police.

From my background in submarining, I know sometimes there may be situations that require you to put aside doctrine for immediate needs. However, you must be able to explain, after the fact, what exactly you knew that meant you needed to disregard studied, proven expertise by people who were hired to give you the right answer. My anecdotal evidence is that most naval officers haven’t been vindicated when disregarding established doctrine.

Additionally, I know that a response to being challenged of “well, we’ve always done it that way” or “well, nothing bad has happened yet” is a poor way to operate in a world that changes – especially when the well-being of our children is involved.

Like it or not, unless we think there is something particularly dangerous about Saratoga Springs, there is no reason to introduce unnecessary risk. The school system exists to raise the knowledge, skill, and opportunity of all people in our community, and that is exactly what the school board is doing by following recognized, holistic best practices for the school environment. Keep doing things the right way and we will stay at the forefront of educational practices and success stories.

 

6 minutes. For some of us, this is the time it takes to shower or to hit the snooze button on our morning alarm. For some it is the wait in line for coffee or the time it takes to scramble an egg. For some, it will be the time it takes to read this article. Most importantly, it is the minimum wait time for emergency response in the event of a school shooting. These precious minutes are something we at Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools have agonized over since late September.

Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools wholeheartedly believes the solution to school violence is multifaceted. We support a comprehensive approach to school safety, which includes mental health counseling and services, family support on a multitude of levels and additional soft measures that increase safety in an educational learning environment. SPSS, in conjunction with other professional organizations such as National Association of School Resource Officers, are in support of train, armed personnel on our school campuses. It is the 6 crucial minutes referenced above that prompts this support. It is essential that we have the proper protection in place to mitigate response time in the event of an emergency. This can only happen when we place armed protection on our campuses.

At this time we are asking the Saratoga Springs City School District to place at least one SRO in each district elementary school and 2 within the High School and Maple Avenue Middle School. To not have armed protection within each building is a gross inequality that should not exist within our school system. Additionally, Officers such as LT. Briscoe need to be allowed to work security and carry concealed while working. We are fortunate to have the expertise of NASRO and would urge the District to take full advantage of the SSO training for retired police officers. These SSOs are an invaluable line of defense and work alongside SROs in making schools safe nationwide. Further, we would like to see Saratoga adopt an 8 point plan similar to that put in place after The Parkland Tragedy. More information on the plan can be found at americansforclass.org Like the 6 minutes mentioned above, time is of the essence. Every day that our children are at school unprotected is a day in which the Saratoga Springs City School district is operating with careless negligence. We all want to believe that this couldn’t possibly happen in our community, but the sad reality is that we have no guarantees that it will not. What we can have however, is preparedness, shorter emergency response times and the assurance that if a tragedy were to befall is, the protection we seek would be readily available on our campuses. As taxpayers and parents we demand this. More importantly, our children deserve it.

Here are the results broken down by district of the November, 2018,  election ( 2018-General-Election-Results-by-TownDistrict ). The document includes all the municipalities in the county.  It is organized first by the elected office and then by the municipality.  They are in alphabetical order so the first item is the results for the town of Ballston for the Governor’s race.  If you scroll down to page 11 you will see the results for the Governor’s race for Saratoga Springs.   Page 23 has the results for Saratoga Springs for Comptroller, etc.   The results for  Question 1 for the Saratoga Springs charter update are on page 140 and for Question 2 on page 142.

I have also provided a pdf file of the city of Saratoga Springs showing the districts ( C_Saratoga_Springs_Elect_2012 ).  If you use the telescope option (+) you can drill down to better view the boundaries for each district.

At the November 20^th City Council meeting Mayor Meg Kelly announced that a number of vacancies will be occurring on the city’s boards in the coming months. She encouraged those interested in serving on any of these boards to use the application form available on the city website. This is a welcome move towards transparency in alerting the public to the many volunteer opportunities to serve the city as members of its boards. Past administrations have merely announced new appointments without  ever giving members of the pubic the opportunity to consider putting themselves forwards as possible candidates to serve on these boards.

 I know that many of the people who follow this blog are aware of my criticisms of the makeup of the land use boards.  On December 31 Keith Kaplan will finish his term on the Zoning Board of Appeals and Cliff Van Wagner’s term on the Planning Board will end.

Hopefully, Mayor Kelly will have a pool of candidates to consider for these two important positions beyond the usual members of the development community.

Here is a link to the city website with a list of boards that will have vacancies in the next 3 to 6 months and the application form.

 

 

 

 

 

The Boston public radio station WBUR in cooperation with the Boston Globe Newspaper has posted a set of podcasts on the history of the infamous theft at the Gardner Museum in Boston.  The theft included a Rembrandt and a Vermeer along with eleven other pieces.  They have never been recovered.

While the podcasts sometimes have a breathy eEntertainment quality to them, they are still a lot of fun.  The story includes some very colorful players.

As it turns out, one of the suspects had previously attempted to rob the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls.  One of the podcasts/episodes (No. 8) focuses on this attempt.

The podcasts are titled “Last Seen” and can be found at this link:

 

 

On  Tuesday, November 20^th, the Saratoga Springs City Council voted unanimously to move forward with the design phase of the Flat Rock Center Concept Plan.  Below is the full text of the resolution but the key element states: “City Council recommends that the Saratoga Springs City Center Authority proceed with initial design proposals for the municipal parking structure, with such proposals to incorporate a reduction in the total number of parking spaces as originally proposed in the Concept Plan, and to present such proposals to the City Council and the public for consideration and review”

The resolution passed the council unanimously.

During the comment period there were three speakers who expressed reservations about the resolution but the vast majority, most of them from the downtown business community, spoke in support of the proposal.  City Center executive director, Ryan McMahon, told the council that thirteen events had chosen other venues due to the lack of parking and another twenty-nine were looking elsewhere also because of parking issues.  He estimated that this had lost millions of dollars of income for local businesses.

This is a link to an excellent story by Thomas DiMopoulos for Saratoga Today on the current plan

A video of the public comments as well as council members’ comments before voting for the resolution is available on the city website.

A RESOLUTION

OF THE CITY COUNCIL

OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS FLAT ROCK CENTRE CONCEPT PLAN

 

WHEREAS, by deed dated June 25, 1986, the Saratoga Springs Urban Renewal Agency conveyed a 2.6 acre parcel of land to the City of Saratoga Springs, with such land bounded by Lake Avenue, High Rock Avenue, York Street and Maple Avenue; and

WHEREAS, since its acquisition by the City, the parcel has only included a paved parking surface; and

WHEREAS, in May 2018, a Committee was convened and included a construction expert, neighboring property owners, representatives from the Greenbelt Trail Committee, the Complete Streets Committee, the downtown business community, the Administrator of Planning and Economic Development, a County Supervisor, the Commissioner of Finance, and the Mayor; and

WHEREAS, the Committee was charged with developing a Concept Plan for the entire 2.6 acre parcel that incorporates the Guiding Principles of the City’s Comprehensive Plan as adopted by the City Council on June 16, 2015; and

WHEREAS, the Committee has since established a Concept Plan for the 2.6 acre parcel which consists of four components, including (1) the establishment of a public park (Flat Rock Park) at the southerly end of the parcel along lake Avenue and where Flat Rock Spring once existed; (2) the continuation of the Park at the easterly side of the parcel along High Rock Avenue, which will connect Flat Rock Park to High Rock Park and include the Greenbelt trail, Downtown Connector; (3) the development of a municipal parking structure; and (4) the retention of outparcels for future development; and

WHEREAS, the Concept Plan was presented to the public at a City Council meeting on July 17, 2018, together with the City’s application for CFA Grant funding for the development of Flat Rock Centre, and again at a Special City Council meeting on November 13, 2018; and

WHEREAS, public input indicated a number of ideas, including the need to consider a possible reduction in the size of the municipal parking structure as well as a possible increase and reconfiguration of the public park, green-space and outparcels; and

WHEREAS, the costs associated with the four components of the Concept Plan may require that development and implementation occur in one or more phases, with parking and the Greenbelt Trail, Downtown Connector, identified as a priority and to be included in Phase I; and the public park, green-space and outparcels to be included in Phase II; and

WHEREAS, the City intends to work collaboratively with the Saratoga Springs City Center Authority, in accordance with the provisions of the City’s Comprehensive Plan to ensure adequate parking to enable the City Center to continue to attract conventions and other events to our downtown; and

WHEREAS, the City Council envisions the collaborative effort to include the City Center providing the costs associated with the design and construction of the municipal parking structure, subject to Council review and approval;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that, subject to compliance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the City Council intends to proceed with Phase I, including the design and development of the Greenbelt Trail, Downtown Connector, and a municipal parking structure; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council recommends that the Saratoga Springs City Center Authority proceed with initial design proposals for the municipal parking structure, with such proposals to incorporate a reduction in the total number of parking spaces as originally proposed in the Concept Plan, and to present such proposals to the City Council and the public for consideration and review; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council, in conjunction with the previously established Committee, shall further review the components to be included in Phase II, with an effort to increase and reconfigure the public park, green-space and outparcels; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that upon receipt of the design proposals from the City Center and the further recommendations from the Committee, the City Council will schedule a Special Meeting to present the proposals to the public for input and consideration.

Dated: November 20, 2018

 

So many people have had bad experiences with Shakespeare that it is difficult to get them to watch new productions.  I know this was the case with myself.  In my early experiences with Shakespear I found myself unable to understand what the actors were saying.  I might get half and between the frustration and the effort, the impact of the play was lost on me.

The English director Richard Eyre has filmed King Lear in modern dress with a stunning cast of the who’s who of the British theater and television.  In this trailer you will see that done well, the dialogue is accessible.

Here’s the cast:

Anthony Hopkins – Hannible Lector (Silence of the Lambs), The Remains of the Day

Emma Thompson – Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Harry Potter movies

Emily Watson – Gosford Park, The Theory of Everything

Andrew Scott – Played Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes series with Cumberbach as the sleuth on BBC

Tobias Menzies – Played roles of both modern husband and villain Frank and Jack Randall in Outlander.  Also Game of Thrones

Jim Broadbent – Game of Thrones, Harry Potter series (professor Slughorn),  The Iron Lady (Dennis Thatcher), one of England’s greatest actors

Jim Carter – The butler in Downton Abby along with about a thousand other great character roles

The movie is available on Amazon Prime.  Give it a go!

 

 

 

There is no other way to put it.  The proposal to update the current charter was crushed at the polls on November 6th.

The city had to endure another campaign, briefer but just as poisonous as the 2017 “fight.”

Using letters to the editor, social media, and flyers the opponents to this year’s ballot question on the charter issued information that was often inaccurate or badly misleading and always fueled by bitterness.  Most disturbing, in spite of being advised of the inaccuracies, they continued to publish these same statements.

As recently as the Monday before the election someone left this flyer on our doorstep.

Dear reader, at the age of seventy-two and a veteran of many public controversies, this latest conflict was all too familiar.  I have never fully understood the pathology of groups like “Its Time Saratoga” (ITS).  In this case the core of the group that formed during the previous charter campaign adopted a kind of magical thinking.  The passion for their cause combined with the desire to be loyal to each other appeared to take on a cult like form.  Rumors and conjecture among their members were confused with the truth and took on a strange, collective orthodoxy unburdened by the anchor of facts and reality.  As often happens with these types of groups, the targets of their campaign were transformed in their minds into ruthless and cunning enemies.  It all became operatic.  In ITS’s eyes, every action by the members of the charter commission hid an allegedly sinister agenda.  Therefore, any consideration of ITS’s opponents’ arguments could be dismissed by ITS as pointless.  Thus ITS was able to hold on to its narrative because ITS was incapable of considering arguments that might jeopardize the euphoric unity its members were experiencing.

It is also important to note that this pathology was not being exhibited by teenage zealots.  The members of this group include professors, lawyers, and retired business executives.

In their quest to portray the writers of the charter proposal as charlatans, the members of this group circulated statements that were either incorrect or grossly misleading:

“City Council Members given authority to set their own salaries [their emphasis]” [in the flier above]

And “Lifetime [their emphasis] healthcare benefits” [also in flier]

And from a TU article: “Critics of the proposal said it was crafted by City Hall’s most powerful insiders [my emphasis]…”

And in the most recent  classic example of magical thinking, Dr. Robert Turner from a November 7 story on WAMC: “I think what this election showed was a stunning repudiation of the commission form of government.”  [JK: As Shakespeare observed “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”]

Playing To Fear

Pretty much everyone, including myself, is frustrated by our federal government that seems incapable of acting on behalf of its citizens.  An army of lobbyists armed with generous donations to elected officials seems to have, if not hijacked, at least disproportionally taken control of the decisions made allegedly on our behalf.

Is it any wonder then how easy it is to exploit this general disillusionment with government and create suspicion of our own city officials who many do not know?  Ignorant of the details of the charter proposal and assailed by things like the flyer above and a flood of disinformation on social media, is it any wonder that the proposed charter changes were defeated?

In many ways the modest nature of the changes in the charter proposal meant that a logical, rational defense could not compete with the drama offered by its opponents.

To make my point, review the flyer above and then listen to Charter Commission Chair and city attorney, Vince DeLeonardis’ interview following the defeat of the charter.   Cerebral, thoughtful, and measured, it cannot compete with the image the opponents  conjured up of defeating the alleged cabal that operates out of city hall.

DeLeonardis Interview

In the end, the failure of the very modest changes proposed by the commission was a lost opportunity.

Here is a link to an interview with city attorney Vince DeLeonardis on the defeat of the 2018 charter proposal.

This is an article from the Times Union re the defeat of the charter proposal.

The charter was defeated by a wide margin.  It failed 6,537 to 3,188.

Here is a link to the Gazette story.

I will be writing more on this shortly.