Pay closer attention to charter proposal details

The Charter Review Commission paints a rosy financial picture in support of charter change, at least until you look carefully at the details. Its report just mailed to city residents shows a savings to the city of almost $400,000 due entirely to eliminating the positions of five deputies, who currently run dayto-day operations of their respective departments. The review commission contends that one city manager and one assistant, with no director level personnel, can perform the work of fvie deputies and four commissioners and therefore omits costs for people who will actually do the work.

CRC’s own “particularly relevant” example of Watertown illustrates the fallacy of their claims. Watertown has nine director-level positions reporting to their city manager, while none are listed for Saratoga Springs when calculating “savings” in the economic impact section of the report.

The CRC chair, Professor [Bob] Turner, made matters worse by not giving a clear answer when asked recently who would be running the city departments’ day-to-day operations and whether new hires would be needed. Residents should question what else is missing from the disclosure and what hidden costs may be in store for us.

Our city has prospered with our current form of government above and beyond the cities the CRC would us like to emulate. Vote no on charter change.

David Koss Saratoga Springs