Saratoga Springs residents will decide on new form of government
Posted at: 11/01/2012 5:45 PM
| Updated at: 11/01/2012 6:01 PM
By: Mark Mulholland
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SARATOGA SPRINGS - If you've been to Saratoga Springs lately, you've seen the signs---Vote Yes, or Vote No.
A yes vote means you want to change the city's government from the commissioner form to a city manager form.
"This is really a modernization project. This is the ability for you to stay up with the times, focus on the future, not the past," said Pat Kane, who started the group Saratoga Citizen, an organization dedicated to changing the city's government.
The commission style goes back nearly a century. There are four elected commissioners, each in charge of a department, and a mayor. All five get a seat at the council table and an equal vote on city issues.
But Saratoga Citizen argues that system is outdated and inefficient. Kane says hiring a city manager who answers to an elected council and taxpayers, will save money.
"Over a course of a couple of years, you're going to see a significant amount of savings in city operations," he said.
But Saratogian Elliott Masie, the well-known tech guru and leader of a think tank, disagrees.
"Anybody who says they're going to save money and doesn't give you a budget, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn," jokes Masie.
He's part of a group that says no to the change. The well-known tech guru says the city is doing just fine as it is.
"I don't believe that Saratoga, which is one of the top communities in the world, needs this change. If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Masie.
But Kane argues that any successes enjoyed by the city are because of its people and private industry, not city government.
Kane says 700 cities have switched and none of them went back.
If the charter change passes, the city manager government would take effect on January 1, 2014.
