Ballston Spa mayor not to run again
Romano won’t seek re-election after critical state audit
Mayor John Romano is calling its quits.
The top executive in the village for 24 years, who served an additional four years as a village trustee, announced on Monday night that he will not be running in the March 19 village election.
“At the end of this term, I will be 74 years old,” Romano said after the meeting. “I am a survivor of a major heart attack. What quality of life I have left, I’m going, for the first time, to be thinking about myself. It’s been an honor and a privilege, it’s beyond my wildest dreams, to be the mayor of my hometown.”
The announcement comes in the wake a critical audit from the state Office of the Comptroller that blamed, in large part, Romano and the village’s two other Republicans, Stuart Hodsell and Robert Cavanaugh, for the village’s fiscal mess that led to a 17.5 percent property tax increase and a $600,000 emergency loan to get the village through the end of the fiscal year. The report, released in October, said the three did not take any action to correct the village’s faulty accounting, even though they were aware of it since a 2012 state audit report.
Cavanaugh, who has been a trustee for 24 years — he was sworn in a minute after Romano became mayor — also said he’s not running. It is unclear if Hodsell, a 23-year trustee, will depart as well.
Village caucuses for the Republican and Democratic parties take place on Jan. 24. At that time, it will become clear who will be running for the vacant seats. Currently, the Republican committee has the commitment of three unnamed candidates.
Two village residents, Liz Kormos and Christine Fitzpatrick, are collecting signatures to form a third party — A Better Bspa. Kormos said that she and Fitzpatrick are running for trustee. Democratic Committee Chair Ellie Dillon said that Kormos and Fitzpatrick also will be looking to secure the Democratic endorsement.
After years of Republican rule, village residents voted in two Democrats, Shawn Raymond and Noah Shaw, in 2017.