Charter change supporters rude

After attending last night’s charter change debate (Oct. 26), I have some comments. The vote no side was courteous, informed and followed the rules. The vote yes side was just the opposite. Mr. Boyd verbally attacked two of the vote no members. Mr. Fenton spoke long, made remarks while vote no was speaking and made a mockery of the entire process with a sung Victorian ditty at the end that insulted the intelligence of the entire audience.

This “superior to you” seems to be the attitude of the majority of the change committee. Mr. Boyd and Mr. Altamari appeared on Look TV awhile back saying essentially that they did not want to confuse the voting public with too many financial details of charter change. What is this group trying to avoid?

I personally think, and it scares me, that it is the unelected and unsupervised transition team that has the ability to redo or change almost everything is the ultimate goal of the change committee. That is where they can make their personal stamp on the new government, and the voters have no recourse.

Another number that keeps being thrown out by charter change is the biased survey sent to city employees. They keep claiming that 60 percent to 70 percent of city employees want charter change. However they never mention that only 79 of 390 employees, or 20.25 percent, actually returned the survey. And, if you use 70 percent, that means 55 employees are actually advocating change to some degree. Again 55 out of 390, or 14.18 percent. Numbers don’t lie, but liars figure numbers.

Change can be good but only if done properly, and not be this commission which has 11 of 15 members appointed by a mayor in favor of change. Please turn out and vote no.

Mike Stoneback Saratoga Springs