Vote yes for council-manager in Saratoga Springs
I’m voting yes on charter change in Saratoga Springs, for one reason: to trade a system in which City Council members are both legislators and administrators, each with separate silos of responsibility, for a structure in which City Council members are policy-makers who hire a city manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of City Hall.
Everything else about the change are just details, though that’s where some say you’ll find the devil.
Changes you’d notice: A council with seven members instead of five, including the mayor; staggered four-year terms, allowing for continuity, instead of everyone up for re-election every two years; and the introduction of term limits. Present council members could run under the new form, and Saratoga Springs would be well-served if some of them did.
If you have a request, complaint or question about the city and its services, you could still contact the specific department, or you could contact the city manager’s office or any City Council member, including the mayor. And the carrying out of City Council directives will no longer depend on council members’ willingness to allow their departments to cooperate.
Other changes optimistically promised by the prochange group include a less expensive City Hall, markedly increased efficiency, less politics in government, and a surge in council candidates. We’ll see.
City residents who, like me, are proud to call this city their home, have raised their families here, and participate in civic life – intelligent, caring people whose opinions I respect – are on both sides of the issue.
A few in the pro-change leadership have been disappointingly condescending about the ability and integrity of those currently running the city. They would have been better advised to follow the lead of levelheaded charter change supporters like former Mayor A.C. Riley, focusing on the advantages of having a professional manager running the city rather than an arcane system where literally no one is really in charge and commissioners are encouraged to be department caretakers rather than pro-active policy-makers.
Both sides include Republicans and Democrats. Among anti-change donors are big-money pro-development Republicans such as Tom Roohan and Bill Dake, as well as some liberal Democrats, like former Mayor Ken Klotz. Meanwhile, among those on the pro-change side are Dake and Riley’s son Gary Dake, the Stewart’s Shops president, land preservation advocate Barbara Glaser, and brothers Bill and Tom McTygue of the former city public works dynasty.
You can find more about charter vote donors on the Saratoga Springs Politics website by John Kaufmann, whose evenhanded blogging I respect even though our charter votes will cancel each other out. You can also learn more on the websites saratogacharter.com, saratogaspringssuccess.org and itstimesaratoga.com.
Issues facing the city will be the same regardless of the form of government, such as: a budget that holds down property taxes by dipping into the city’s rainy-day fund, delaying and likely exacerbating eventual tax increases; disputes over land use and where and how the city should grow; the uncertain future of horse racing as a major driver of the city’s economy; and housing too steep for service industry employees on whom local businesses rely.
That said, this is a thriving, lively city with reasonable taxes, solid business involvement, and community members generous with both their volunteer time and money. The city will likely be OK whatever its form of government. But we have a rare opportunity on Nov. 7 to take an educated leap, to let a fulltime professional run City Hall and expect elected City Council members to steer Saratoga Springs into the future. Saratoga Springs resident Barbara Lombardo is the former executive editor of The Saratogian. Her blog is donewithdeadlines.com.