Well the numbers are in and serious crime is down in all categories except felony larceny. Many are asking what constitutes felony larceny? Well I’ll tell you. Most cases are either E Felony for theft of over $1000, or D Felony for over $3000. The rise comes from employee theft and may be a product of our piss poor economic condition. Almost all of these cases are nonviolent
Contrary to what Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen would like you to believe violent crime in the City was down, led by felony assaults which fell to 15 in 2011. Down 5 from the previous year’s 20, which I feel is still low considering the amount of bars and tourists in the city. Looking at these figures I have no idea what kind of mayhem he is talking about on Caroline St.
The entire report is HERE
Mathiesen continues to lament the drop in DWI arrests in the city, claiming that drunk drivers are getting a free pass in the city do to a lack of DWI patrols.
I say bullshit. Drunk driving is down across the state HERE. Face it Mathiesen fewer people drive drunk, tell me is the rate of DWI accidents up in the city? I didn’t think so, but that doesn’t fit into your agenda of scaring the citizens into accepting higher taxes for more cops and fireman.
Statistics in New York State are even better than national trends. According to Newsday, New York State had 832 deaths caused by drunk driving accidents in 1982, in sharp contrast to the 320 such fatalities in 2009. So get with the program Chris. We need less DWI patrols not more
Speaking of the Firehouse. Am I the only one who noticed in this report that we have 12 supervisors for 43 firemen? That just seems a little high to me. All of this for 26 structure fires in 2011. I wonder how many of those were little kitchen fires.
Keep all this bullshit in mind over the next few months as Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen and his deputy “finger” Finneran start their campaign of fear in the next few months.
On to the Housing Authority
The TU is reporting HERE
Spa mayor pushed on housing authority by Dennis Yusko.
That the Mayor is coming under tremendous pressure to do more to reign in the culture of fear and corruption in the cities housing authority. I too hope the Mayor moves quickly to define the cities role in the authority.
The Housing Authority elections would be a good start.
The elections take place March 14 for the resident commissioners for the board. In the past office staff have counted the ballots in secret away from the prying eyes of neutral onlookers, all but assuring that Ed Spychalski's toadies won the election{yes Ed that is an accusation}.
I hear crumblings from residents that despite assurances from the board the counting of ballots will again take place behind closed doors. I of course can not attend the election because I will be arrested by Ed’s private militia, oh I’m sorry I meant the Saratoga Springs Police force if I set foot on the property.
Next its imperative that board Chairman Dennis Brunelle is NOT reappointed to the board on April 1
Finally we have some comic relief in one Thilo Ullmann, chairman of the city's Democratic Committee.
The Tu is reporting that Thilo “blasted Johnson's handling of bedbugs and the SSHA. "Where has his oversight been for the past four years?”
Funny shit Thilo.Where have you and the committee been the last 8 years?
Let’s see it was your hero Mayor Valarie Keehn {also a NXIVM supporter} who wrote in 2007 “that residents had contacted her, asking for her to support the promotion of Spychalski to executive director which she did. She said “Spychalski was the best candidate because he listened to residents' problems and addressed them.” HERE
The Housing Authority board had claimed they would conduct a search. Spychalsk who was hired by the Housing Authority in 1997 in maintenance would have his job in less than a month.
Then board chairman Lee Weiser said. "We had to run a search." But the search was just a sham as Weiser added "We knew from the beginning that we had the strongest candidate in Ed,” Mayor Valerie Keehn said she had heard concerns from several residents who want to keep politics out of the decision. She kept the position exempt from Civil Service law, which meant Ed never took a civil service test for his 152k a year job.
Then she put Dennis Brunelle her close friend on the board.
Keehn expressed confidence that Brunelle will bring with him knowledge and contacts that will help the housing authority fulfill its mission. Mayor Valerie Keehn, who appointed Brunelle to the authority's board of directors, said that she feels partially responsible for his selection as chairman
"They are doing some really wonderful things, and I'm so pleased for Dennis and the Housing Authority," said Keehn adding . "I'm very pleased because I appointed him to that board, and he's been a great member," HERE
Then we have that other piece of shit Eric Weller. Thilo knows Weller an old comrade from the democratic committee. But now he’s “blasting” the Housing Authority and the mayor
Reminds me a bit of Captain Renault in Casablanca: “ I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
20 comments:
You bring up some really good points. These people were all Keene appointees (gotta love the NXIVM connection-wasn't she a coach or something). Anyway whoever is to blame these folks must go. If Scott reappoints Brunnell he'll own the problem.
Scott already owns the problem..all he does is lawyer hasn't got a clue as what it would take to govern...he alone is the problem in city hall he and his full time deputy who by the way is NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER IS THERE!
news to Ed, bedbugs are still in the building, many tenats have reported the bedbugs are back...that's a fact...we even have a report coming from the ninth floor where tenants said there never was any to begin with. They have spread like we said....the whole building needs to be sprayed, all the tenants will have to move out for a week or two.....lets all move to Ed's place, he has the room.
michelle, STOP kissing Ed's ass...you have no idea about law as you claim, your the one that said "there are no bedbugs and if there was, it's not Ed's responsibility...it's a federal building"....we proved you and Ed wrond didn't we.....VOTE NO for MICHELLE
Mayor Johnson illegally reappointed that piece of shit Eric Weller,Johnson reappointed Weller to a third term which IS TOTALLY AGAINIST THEIR OWN BY_LAWS.
If you retards are going to comment at least learn how to spell! Who cares who runs the building. It's full of people who are on welfare! Here's an idea. Get a job and quit sponging off the government.
Scott Johnson does own the problem & I agree he also does NOT govern. All he does is hire more & more lawyers.
His full time deputy is too busy causing all kinds of personnel problems within city hall and throwing out threats!!! Believe me she's evil!
Yea the Doc just wants to hire more cops which will cost us even more.
So let's start with the myth that less cops equals more over time. Go to the following link and open the .pdf and look at page 6 and 7.
http://www.saratoga-springs.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=67&func=startdown&id=2606
You will see that Rick Wirth kept police overtime and comp time at the same level (or less) than Ron Kim when Ron had a lot more cops on the pay roll.
So we have less crime, less cops and less over time. It is about leadership and management. Maybe our current Commish needs to take some notes.
Lastly if our city is so safe because of this police force, why is it that over half of our officers live outside of the city? Just saying.
They should erect a statue to Johnson just for driving Keehn out of office. Here we are four years since she’s been out of office and are still paying for her mistakes. Now they want to run Joanne “cupcake” Yepsen against Johnson. The women never saw an idea she didn’t want to take credit for
at 8:46PM....wow , you have issues. Why don't you stand in front of our building with a sign saying what you've said. If you have the guts, which in all honesty, I don't think you have a backbone.
3PM trip to Fred's. Three cars in apropos lot on side of building. Another car pulled in front of clubhouse stopped for about a minute then slowly drove around to back. No idea if another NX member or a concerned citizen.
JT
Did you merge two topics, or what?
Regarding the crime rate/cops/public safety, hoping John can get us a few more answers.For starters, you've got remember that all these numbers are only for ARRESTS. Those numbers don't even show us how many crimes were committed in this city, they only show us how many crimes people were charged with. This time next year, they'll give us another report, and John's "trespassing" incident will be part of those numbers.
I numbers we need to see, to even BEGIN to get a picture of the "crime" in our area is how many of each of those crimes were PROSECUTED, how many of those prosecutions led to CONVICTIONS, and how many of those charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence or prosecuted and the suspect was found innocent.
To get a REAL clear picture, I think it would also be good to see how many of these charges the DA offered plea bargains too that resulted in "merging" of charges to a lesser charge, or other tricks that allow them duck out cases they can't win, but still save face on paper regarding their conviction rate.
I think it would be particularly interesting, in light of the recent rash of "officer assaults" to find out what happened with the other two "officer assault" charges in the last year. Last March, and officer claimed he was assaulted by a suspect in a Caroline St fight, but we never heard anything about convictions in that case. We also have only heard about 1 arrest for the "Caroline Street Riot" that took the world by storm last summer. I believe that the SSPD told us 5 officers were injured there. The one conviction was for 6 months in county I believe, and there was no mention of the the city receiving any restitution.
That brings me to my last question I'm hoping John can find the answer too. Exactly how does our PS disability system work? When an officer or fireman say they are injured, who makes the determination. Do they go to their own doctor? Is there a doctor appointed by the city, or our insurance, who checks the validity of these "injuries" the same way that a professional athlete would be checked by a team physician, or an insurance company would want a valid medical opinion, by their own experts, before paying on a claim?
If cops are being injured by civilians, and charges are filed against these civilians, do we get restitution not only for the medical expenses, but also the expense incurred in paying ANOTHER officer OT to cover a shift, while still paying the officer on injury leave their base pay. Could we pursue this money in civil court if the DA can't get it for us?
What has happened to our insurance in light of all these "attacks", are the cities premiums rising? Will drug testing bring these premiums back down? What other incentives are offered to lower these premiums?
If a fireman gets injured on his day off (or for some reason, on actual duty), limps into the station, then finds a way to say he got injured on the job this is what happens.
He goes out on 207A, which means he immediately collects his full paycheck every week, without any deductions.
Then the city must pay to determine whether or not he is physically fit to return to duty.
If the fireman contests the city doctor's diagnosis, he will be able to go to his own doctor, at no charge to him to get his own diagnosis.
Then the two factions fight it out, sometimes in court.
If the fireman wins his case, he can possibly be paid FOR THE REST of his life full pay.
When he dies, his spouse will collect full pay for the rest of her life.
In the meantime, while the fireman is out on 207A, he will be replaced by another fireman on overtime.
General Municipal Law, 207A for Firefighters
Benefits under the General Municipal Law 207A provide pay equal to your current salary when you are injured while performing the duties of your job. That means that after an injury, the municipality employing you is required to pay out benefits that allow you to earn the value of your salary had you not been injured.
Tier VI Andy Cuomos new proposal: 401 K option, if a city employee is injured no such thing as disability, City owns the employee for lifetime. Lets go everybody keep supporting New Legislation then blame employees for Legisatures screwups. Look it up its true.Same as KENIVENS screw up with 2% tax cap.
Where is kenny anyways?
This FD policy is crazy. The FD has made it clear that that, first and foremost, they are in a business relationship with city hall, and by extension the citizens of Saratoga. They drew the line in the sand when they insisted that drug testing, was a "negotiable item". It's time the city took a stronger stand in "negotiations".
For starters, pull the ambulance until there is drug testing. Simply stop funding it, stop paying the insurance, take it off the road. The firefighters might have the primary contract for the next year, but if they don't have transportation, the calls just bounce to Empire, same as they would have if he we hadn't gotten into this mess to begin with.
Next, if they look at improving the safety of our citizens as a "negotiable item", perhaps we should look at where we can cut the city budget at the expense of the firefighters safety. Do they really NEED fire retardant suits? How much burn cream do we need to have around in case there's an accident at a call? I bet we could dig up some old wooden ladders - a couple screws from Allerdice and they will look like new! Before anyone gets up in arms, we didn't decide to make safety a "negotiable item", we're just playing the Local 343's rules. No is saying the FF's can't wear their own flame retardant suits, or buy their own ladders, out of pocket. Heck, if they're willing to NEGOTIATE on those items, maybe we'll even start picking up the tab again.
Finally, and this is a no brainer, start a commission to look into switching to a volunteer, or mixed volunteer/paid department. I think it's time to re-visit our city's options for fire safety. I've always found it hard to believe that with all the advances in technology, and new space-aged building materials, we not only are still relying on the same antiquated system of fire fighting, but also that this system now requires MORE man power then it did years ago.
Begin offering tax incentives for home's with fire supression systems. Make them mandatory in all new construction. Like Smokey the Bear Says, "Only YOU can prevent fires". Take steps that move the city away from dependence of the "sooth-saying" fire FIGHTING of old, and improve our overall safety by encouraging FIRE PREVENTION.
A SSFD paramedic who gets hurt while doing ambulance work, can go out on 207A. Full pay, no deductions, indefinitely.
An Empire paramedic who gets hurt, takes a sick day, or works through the injury, depending on how severe.
Are you all starting to see the difference now?
To 8:46 p.m.: this is NOT a Welfare building. I, for one, am NOT a Welfare recipient; I just don't have funds being on Disability, to pay rent anywhere! You don't know us; many of us, as the public is finding out, are intelligent beings. We just had some bad breaks and are relegated to living here. Walk a foot in our shoes, your feet will hurt so badly you'd be crying all the way back to your cushy home
"Pull the ambulance" "Take it off the road" Please do, we at ssfd would be for ever greatfull!
I got a better idea. Sell it!
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