Commissioners display disturbing behavior
Commissioners Franck, Madigan and Scirocco displayed disturbing behavior at the September 19 and October 3 City Council meetings: disrespect of the Charter Commission’s independence and a contempt for the citizens these Commissioners were elected to serve.
By current Charter rules, the Charter Review process must remain independent of any sitting Commissioner’s influence. How else can citizens get an objective review and recommendation? Nonetheless Commissioner Franck demands that the financial data in Charter Commission’s report should be verified against his data. This makes no sense, as it will taint data independently collected during the review process. City attorney Tony Izzo persistently, and correctly, advised the Commissioners to not influence the Charter review process, yet these three Commissioners continue to ignore his counsel.
In addition, Commissioner’s Franck, Madigan and Scirocco falsely imply they can review the report before it is sent to city voters. The Commissioner’s only right, like that of other voters, is to cast their one vote on November 7 – nothing more. Why do they think their constituents are not capable of coming to their own conclusions without undue influence by their politics?
Now Commissioner Franck has refused to pay the legitimate cost of mailing the revised Charter to voters. Voters are taxpayers and they have a right to access, and adequate time to review, the revised Charter prior to voting this November. The Commissioner’s obstructionist behavior is further proof that politics must be removed from the City’s operations. Patricia Robertson
Saratoga Springs Letters to the editor should be e-mailed to letters@saratogian.com. Letters should be around 400 words long and must include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification purposes. The deadline for letters related to the Nov. 7 general election, including the proposed charter change in Saratoga Springs, is 5 p.m. Oct. 27. No election letters will be accepted after that time. Letters will be published in the order they are received. If space in the print edition of The Saratogian, additional letters will be published online at Saratogian.com.