Commissioner puts focus in wrong place

In a recent Reader’s View to this newspaper, Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen tried once again to desperately explain his reasoning behind the City’s now infamous and defunct land-swap deal.

Commissioner Mathiesen was told three years ago the idea of swapping a valuable downtown parking lot (the Collamer Lot) for property out Union Avenue for the construction of a future fire/EMS station was fraught with problems and probably not legal.

Even in the face of a stunning defeat by the recent decision by the New York State Attorney General, bringing a halt to the idea of a land swap, Mathiesen continues to defend the indefensible. Just as he has for the past three years, Mathiesen’s latest rant focused his criticism on the lawsuit that was filed by former Commissioners Thomas G. McTygue, Remegia Foy and myself as plaintiffs against the City’s sale of a valuable piece of City real-estate located on Broadway for substantially less than fair market value.

Three years later and perhaps most startling is Commissioner Mathiesen’s admission that he now “completely understands” the Attorney General’s denial of this three-way transaction based on the apparent conflict of interest among the parties involved. Conveniently missing from Mathiesen’s euphony was the fact that, in addition to his failure to identify and ferret out the same legal issues raised in the Attorney General’s decision, he didn’t mention his willingness to sell the City’s Collamer Parking Lot for upwards of $800,000 less than its fair value based on a bona-fide counter offer made to the City Council.

Here’s a fact that Commissioner Mathiesen didn’t want to talk about. When it came to the sale of the Collamer lot Commissioner Mathiesen refused the higher offer and instead clung to the sweetheart deal he engineered in the first place. By proposing to sell the Collamer Lot at bargain-basement pricing while paying the going rate for property out Union Avenue and tying the two transactions together, he set the City up for a colossal failure, lost time and considerable unnecessary expense.

Contrary to Mathiesen’s notion that somehow our lawsuit was “ridiculous” is the fact that our legal argument was ultimately sustained, not by the Court, but by the State Attorney General. The Attorney General’s decision included facts and statements obtained through deposition that was a direct result of the lawsuit brought about by the citizen plaintiffs and former City officials: Watkin, McTygue and Foy. Unlike the Commissioner’s outcome, our action was meant to protect the City and its taxpayers from being fleeced by demanding transparency and accountability in the conduct of City business. Again, unlike the Commissioner, we put up our own money, at considerable personal expense, to make a principled point and from my point of view, we won.

That said, the city is still without a well thought out solution that addresses the need for enhanced fire/ EMS services for the eastern reaches of our community.

And finally, while I may not agree with Commissioner Mathiesen on this particular issue, I totally agree with his recognition and his call for change in our form of government. For the betterment of our community going forward, maybe now we can work together to guarantee an improvement in the way City business is being conducted. — Raymond Watkin

Saratoga Springs The author was mayor of Saratoga Springs from 197380