Charter Commission

City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 December 5, 2016 CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS Charter Review Commission City Council Room – City Hall 7:00 PM CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL SALUTE TO FLAG WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS INTRODUCTORY REMARKS MINUTES COMMITTEE REPORTS ADJOURN 1 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 December 5, 2016 CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS Charter Review Commission City Council Room – City Hall 7:00 PM PRESENT: Jeff Altamari Gordon Boyd Ann Casey Bullock Laura Chodos Elio DelSette Matt Jones Pat Kane BK Keramati Robert Kuczynski Mike Los Minita Sanghvi Robert Turner ABSENT: Devin Dal Pos Barbara Thomas Beth Wurtmann STAFF: Tony Izzo RECORDING OF PROCEEDING The proceedings of this meeting were taped for the benefit of the secretary. Because the minutes are not a verbatim record of the proceedings, the minutes are not a word-for-word transcript. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Robert Turner called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT Bonnie Sellers said the meeting announcement needs to be distributed to the public sooner than it was. She said these are public meetings and they need to be advertised appropriately. 2 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 Jeff Altamari said we need to make every effort to ensure that our meeting notices are appropriately posted and distributed. Robert Turner said he would try to ensure that the agendas are in the right format and posted. Minita Sanghvi said the Outreach Committee could also address this matter. MINUTES It was agreed to hold the November 29 minutes over to the December 13 meeting for approval. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Survey – Civic Leaders Robert Turner said that at this point we have conducted more than 20 interviews. The interviewees have stated that serving as a Council member is: time intensive, a lifestyle choice, that skill/experience is necessary and that in some cases, they must be “rich, retired or crazy”. He said the overriding question is – “how big is the pool of potential candidates?” He said in political science classes they study who runs for office and how potential candidates are identified. Current studies show that generally City Council members are long term residents and are passionate about their community. The Civic Leader survey was sent to members of land use boards, citizen boards, Leadership Saratoga alumni, Saratoga Springs Board of Education current and former members, DBA, Chamber, political party chairs and others. Robert Turner said the survey had 22 questions and should have taken between 5 and 8 minutes to complete. There were 166 responses. He estimated that between 200 and 240 received the survey. There were 90 men and 76 women responding with an average age at 54. They were highly educated with 62 percent holding an advanced degree. They were asked what civic organizations they belonged to. He said that 67 percent were employed full time, 14 percent part time and 14 percent retired. Robert Turner said the questions were drawn from the Women in Politics literature. He said things like personal circumstances play into one’s ability to run. He said that 83 percent run to represent the concerns of their neighbors and community; 73 percent said they have an occupation that would all them time to hold office; 70 percent would seek approval by their spouse or partner, 56 percent believe they could handle any public scrutiny and 54 percent believed that their children were old enough for them to run. When asked how important the salary is, 51 percent said it was moderately important. Research shows that when running for local government, money is not the motivation. People who run for local government predominately run because they care for their community. Robert Turner said there was a brief description of the commission form of government. After the explanation, they were asked if they believed they had the skills, interest and time to run. For the Finance Commissioner position, 33 somewhat agreed they had the skills, 16 strongly agreed that they had the skills; 14 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 11 strongly agreed that they had the time. 21 somewhat agreed that they had the interest and 6 said that the strongly agreed that they had the interest. Only 2 said they were somewhat likely to run and 2 said they were extremely likely to run. Public Works: 31 somewhat agreed they had the skills and 17 strongly agreed they had the skills. 24 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 8 strongly agreed they had the time. 23 3 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 said they somewhat agreed they had the interest and 4 strongly agreed that they had the interest. 7 said they were somewhat likely to run and 2 said they were extremely likely to run. Public Safety: 26 somewhat agreed they had the skills and 12 strongly agreed they had the skills. 24 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 7 strongly agreed they had the time. 23 said they somewhat agreed that they had the interest and 5 strongly agreed that they had the interest. 5 said they were somewhat likely to run and 0 said they were extremely likely to run. Accounts: 19 somewhat agreed they had the skills and 13 strongly agreed they had the skills. 19 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 7 strongly agreed they had the time. 17 said they somewhat agreed they had the interest and 2 strongly agreed that they had the interest. 3 said they were somewhat likely to run and 0 said they were extremely likely to run. Mayor: 24 somewhat agreed they had the skills and 23 strongly agreed they had the skills. 27 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 15 strongly agreed they had the time. 42 said they somewhat agreed they had the interest and 23 strongly agreed that they had the interest. 18 said they were somewhat likely to run and 2 said they were extremely likely to run. Robert Turner said 14.5 percent believed they had the professional skills to run, 8 percent believed they had the time and 4.5 percent said they were likely to run. He noted the drop off though of people who were strongly interested in running. He said campaigning is tough. He reminded everyone that the responses to this survey were from the potential pool of candidates. Matt Jones asked about the pool of candidates and where they come from – specifically whether we knew about those who have served and what boards/civic organizations they might have served on. Robert Turner said often they come from the party leaders identifying someone. They also come from school boards, land use boards and other boards. He said that Skip Scirocco was a Supervisor and Chris Mathiesen came from a land use board. Gordon Boyd said there are also self-starters who are not part of the party organizations who choose to run. Tony Izzo said there were a few third party candidates at one time. Robert Turner said the next set of questions on the survey centered on whether they might run if it was only legislative duties. He said 60 somewhat agreed they had the skills and 80 strongly agreed they had the skills. 59 somewhat agreed that they had the time and 34 strongly agreed they had the time. 37 said they somewhat agreed they had the interest and 13 strongly agreed that they had the interest. There were a total of 50 who believed they would run. Robert Turner said if we are trying to find a larger pool of candidates, the data points to not having administrative duties as part of the responsibilities. Robert Turner said there had been discussion that the commission form of government discriminates again women. In this City, there have been two women Finance Commissioners, One woman Accounts Commissioner and three women as Mayors. He said women don’t feel as though they have the experience or skills to run for public works or public safety. Robert Turner said he was impressed by the dedication, passion and competence that current and former Commissioners have and the time they put into the job. He said this form of government is only as good as the people who are serving it. He said the survey shows that the pool of candidates would vary under different forms of government. The evidence is clear that there are more people who would be interested in serving if it was only legislative. They believe 4 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 they have the skill set as legislators. He said there are a number of talented people in this community who could serve in these positions. Pat Kane said it would be interesting to see how we would respond to the survey. Elio DelSette said it would be interesting to know how many of the Deputy Commissioners had no specific skills for the positions they held. He said they are typically political appointments. Often the Deputies depend on the staff. He also noted that there are Commissioners who are elected “accidentally” – due to outside political issues. Matt Jones said it was interesting to see the number of people who might actually run for office was so small. He also said there are often cases where people run unopposed. Robert Turner said there are also a lot of “repeat” runners. He said the pool of candidates has not expanded. Gordon Boyd said that up until the 1980s there were no political party affiliations to run. People who were interested only had to get petitions signed. He said the nonpartisan system made the possibility of running more accessible for people. Once the parties got involved, it is now an additional hurdle that they must get over. Gordon Boyd said he ran for Mayor and twice for the supervisor position. It was pointed out that during this last election it cost candidates between $85,000 and $112,000 to run for the Mayor’s position. Robert Turner pointed out that there are a number of reasons that people do not run for office. Some of those comments included: lack of collegiality, poisonous Council meetings, people are insanely vicious, lack of respect, etc. He said being in politics is a thankless job. Gordon Boyd said that there is gravy train for government officials with the pension system. Matt Jones said that recently the resolutions for Council members were modified concerning health insurance benefits. Gordon Boyd said there are several local governments that have completely removed the benefits package from the legislators Robert Turner opened the meeting for public comments. Richard Sellers said the last four Mayors would very likely fall outside of the candidate pool. He also questioned that the survey could have been distributed to people who do not live in the City which would skew the results. Robert Turner said if there were some responses by people who did not live in the City, that number would have been small. Richard Sellers questioned how the survey was anonymous. Robert Turner said it is all done electronically with the identifying factors removed. Richard Sellers said when reading the results of the survey he found that there was little difference in the gender for those who might want to run. Gordon Boyd said Valerie Keehn was recruited by the political party. Pat Kane said Scott Johnson carried petitions for the Republican Party. Gordon Boyd reminded everyone that there is zero margin of error for this survey, because people were selected. Robert Turner said it was interesting to see that many of the respondents believe that they could do the job, but did not believe that they had the time to do the job. BK Keramati said this information is illuminating but not surprising. He said this form of government requires too much from people, which limits the pool of candidates. Robert Turner said he was waiting on information from Charlie Brown and John Herrick. He also said that at this point there are about 68 respondents to the survey that went out to City 5 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 employees. He said some employees fear retribution by taking the survey. There is the fear that it is not really anonymous. BK Keramati asked if there was a way to assure the employees that it is really anonymous. After some discussion, Commission members agreed there was not much to do to get them to answer. Gordon Boyd asked if the results of the surveys would be publicized. Minita Sanghvi said yes. Jeff Altamari reminded everyone that the surveys are just one tool in the decision making process. Robert Turner agreed but also noted that the data clearly shows that there are a substantially larger number of people who have the skills, experience, time and desire to run for office if it was not the Commission form. Matt Jones clarified that at the next meeting, this Commission would make a determination on where we are going. Elio DelSette said he did not believe that we had completely vetted the existing charter. He said there are success stories from this charter and we have not heard from the subcommittees. He said we must tell the community of the successes and failures and we need a clear, honest picture of the existing charter. He said statistics alone are not enough. Gordon Boyd said he is not proposing to short-circuit the good things that have come from the existing charter, but there is a pressure for time now. He said we have been studying various forms of government and the existing charter for nearly six months. He said he would make a motion at the next meeting to get this process moving. If we don’t get our act together over the next few weeks we will run out of time to effectuate a new charter in January 2018. He said it is all driven by the election calendar. He said he would bring a motion forward at the next meeting and we can debate it then. He believed that there should be a special election in April, which means that the proposal must be to the Board of Elections by late January or early February. If the proposal is successful in April, then there would be time for people to get petitions signed and presented to the Board of Elections in June. Elio DelSette said we had already decided to have this on the ballot in November 2017. Gordon Boyd said we did not make that decision. He said if it is on the ballot in November, then there is a two year delay for the charter to take effect. Elio DelSette said there is implementation and transition that needs to be considered. Gordon Boyd said he believed that a charter referendum deserved its own spotlight on the ballot and should not be shared with the regular elections in November. Elio DelSette said as a group we need to look at the priorities. He again said we have not vetted the existing charter. He said we need to look at the pros and cons of the charter. He did not believe that we were being fair and honest by only looking at the bad stuff. Robert Turner said that is not true. He said we have heard both positives and negatives on the existing charter. We have heard from the subcommittees. We have interviewed community members and officials from other cities. He said we all live in the City and are aware of what an amazing place this is. He said people choose to come here and make this their home. Minita Sanghvi suggested we go around the table to see what everyone was thinking. Gordon Boyd believed that we have heard from all sides and our process has been exhaustive. He said we are not changing the charter. We will put a referendum on the ballot and the voters 6 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 will determine the future of the City. He said it is our job to figure out if there is something better out there. Ann Bullock said she had hoped the Elio DelSette would have served on the drafting committee or the committee reviewing the current charter. She said we have spoken to dozens of City Hall employees, she has read the charter and she has spoken to several people who work under this charter. Matt Jones said we have heard from Council members as well as the employees who do the regular day to day work. He said the charge to this Commission is to look at areas that we believed could be improved. He said that next week is the fork in the road and he was comfortable in making a decision. Mike Los said we have put a lot of time in over the last six months reviewing and understanding this charter. Laura Chodos, said the information tonight on the amount of people who would be interested in running for office was somewhat bothersome. She said this information has convinced her that it is time to move forward. Jeff Altamari said we have done an adequate job of reviewing all of the information and it is time to make a decision. He did not believe that it was efficient for the entire group to go line by line through the charter. He said we need to take the best of what we have and make something new. He said he is looking 10 or 20 years out on this and how do we want the City to look then. BK Keramati said we have reviewed the existing charter and we know what is good, not so good and what could be better. He said he had visited with Elio DelSette and has had some good conversations with him. It was disappointing to him that Elio DelSette chose not to serve on any of the subcommittees. He said he was interested to hear the results of the survey of the employees. He is comfortable in moving forward, but he was not sure that he was completely comfortable in abandoning the existing charter. Rob Kuczynski said this Commission has been deliberate in their review and discussions. There could be more information out there that could be reviewed, but to what end. The survey of the employees will be valuable information that he would like to see before making a decision. He agreed that the drafting committee had already done a lot of work and it is unfortunate that Elio DelSette seems to think there is something missing from the process. The rest of the members of the Commission believe that it has been a fairly opaque process that will be reported to the full commission as part of the record. He also agreed with Gordon Boyd that we are not making the decision, we are presenting something to the voters and the voters will decide. He said he would like to see another public comment meeting that doesn’t conflict with a City Council meeting and a broader community survey. Minita Sanghvi said we have done our due diligence and she was comfortable in voting next week. Pat Kane said he thought he knew a lot about the charter, however, he still learned a few new things. He said he was comfortable in making a decision next week. 7 City of Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission Meeting Minutes Monday, December 5, 2016 Matthew Jones said that whatever the motion is next week, it would be difficult for the drafting committee. He said he appreciated Gordon Boyd’s comments about an April vote, but he was not convinced that having a vote in April is critical. He was not sure that the April date should drive the decision making process. Elio DelSette presented to the Commission with what he believed should be changed in the charter. He believed this charter should be saved and there should be some minor changes. He also believed there should be a full presentation to the Commission on the positives and negatives of this charter. Tony Izzo reminded everyone that once this Commission comes to a decision, there are three documents that must be presented to the voters – the revised charter, a rationale as to why the changes are being proposed and a financial impact statement. ADJOUIRNMENT Pat Kane moved and Minita Sanghvi seconded to adjourn the meeting at 9:10 p.m. Ayes all. There being no further business, Robert Turner adjourned the meeting at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Katherine A. Moran Clerk Approved 12/13/2016 8