Plenty of reasons to reject charter change

Every so often the people of Saratoga Springs are asked to vote yes or no on a truly lifechanging question. This is one of those times. And because it’s not the first time we’ve been asked to embrace a dramatic change in how our city affairs are managed, we might assume that others will vote No again and that your and my vote really doesn’t matter. To adapt Edmund Burke’s famous quote -- The only thing necessary for destructive ideas to be implemented in our city is for good men and women to stay home and do nothing.

Our city is in good shape and in fact the envy of many, so why do they want to change it? Well thanks to the Charter Commission’s report -- here are several proposed reasons why I must “vote no.”

Currently our commissioners are involved with the day to day operations of their elected positions and they serve as voting equals given their equally important legislative responsibilities. As a result they know what’s really going on, our real needs , they openly argue for their needs, hear the needs of the other commissioners, openly debate and disagree. Frankly, that’s exactly what I prefer compared to the separation of legislative and administrative responsibilities being proposed.

I certainly don’t want a city council that is relegated to legislative and oversight authorities and must, per the proposed “Interference with Administration” clause, deal solely through the city manager versus having direct contact with those doing the hands on work for our city.

Really? Are they serious? Do we really need more reasons to vote no?

Many have expressed disbelief that the one proposed city manager is able perform the work currently accomplished by five department deputies and rightly concluded that the $568,000 of the “estimated future savings” was purposefully misleading. In fairness it’s important to note that the review commission’s proposal later provides for the addition of numerous positions and says that it really doesn’t know many or what the city manager will decide he or she needs.

We’ve all got to get out and vote no on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Here’s the math: That $391,000 inflated savings is less than 1 percent of our 2018 proposed $46,128,422 budget.

Given our population estimate of 27,763, that $391,000 “savings” equals $.27 cents/ week/person. Tom McQueeney Saratoga Springs