Losing deputies will isolate city hall
As a former deputy commissioner, I am disappointed that the Saratoga Springs Charter Commission has chosen to denigrate the role we play in city government in order to sell their charter change proposal.
This is particularly upsetting since the commission never interviewed any of us to ask us what credentials or experience we brought to our jobs or what work we do on a daily basis.
I served as deputy commissioner of accounts from 2006 to 2010. I came to this job after managing international distributor services for Frenchspeaking business markets for GE and after working in both project management and finance for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with Palio. I have a bachelor of science degree in international business.
I am not atypical of the kind of individuals who have and do serve as deputy commissioners. And while particular responsibilities will vary from department to department we all spend many hours managing, the varied work of our departments and acting as liaisons between the city’s citizens and their elected officials.
It is this role of connecting citizens with those who govern them that I think is one of the most important roles that will be lost if we switch to a city manager form of government. The elected commissioners are part time. It is the deputies who are in the offices full time. It is the deputies who are available daily to hear constituents’ concerns and communicate these to the commissioners and help problem solve.
Who will do this under the proposed charter? Not the mayor or city council members, who must deal with all city employees only through the city manager. How easy will it be to access the city manager who will work not for us but for the city council who hires and fires them? And unlike the deputies, the city manger doesn’t even have to live in Saratoga Springs, thus insulating him/her further from the consequences of his/her actions. And given that the mayor and council will have four year not the two year terms we have now, how responsive will they be to the citizens of Saratoga?
Before dismissing us as “political hacks” and deciding that the role and work of the four full time deputies can easily be absorbed by one city manager, charter commission members should have paid us the courtesy of spending some time with us first.
If the proposed charter is approved we will not only be faced with how to deal with the managerial work the deputies do but we will have a city government that is much more isolated from and less accountable to its citizens. This would be a shame. Michele Boxley Saratoga Springs The author is a former Saratoga Springs deputy commissioner of accounts