Wednesday, July 18, 2012
City Council supports NYCB and our very own deranged Public Safety Commissioner Chris “Toothy”Mathiesen has his 5 minutes of fame.UPDATED
SPAC ALERT. Do to the wonderful management of SPAC, their phone lines have been down all day. Their antiquated computer system crashed and their website is "unstable" today. Way to run a"World Class" arts venue Marcia. I'm sure they will cut your check by hand.
Just a quick update. The City Council met last night and while I was there for the first 15 minutes since two public hearing that had been scheduled for only ten minutes each were going to take over 30 minutes each I had to leave to attend the ballet. I understand many people did speak in the public comment period to support the ballet and the resolution passed 5 to zip it says
WHEREAS, in 1966 the New York City Ballet Company and its Board of Directors elected to inaugurate and maintain a “Summer Home” in the City of Saratoga Springs at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and
WHEREAS, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center has become a significant component of the cultural, social and economic foundation of the City of Saratoga Springs, and
WHEREAS, the New York City Ballet Company has provided 46 years of artistic excellence, cultural distinction, entertainment and joy for the Citizens of Saratoga Springs,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Saratoga Springs City Council hereby expresses its strong support for collaboration and cooperation between the Designated Representatives of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the New York City Ballet Company, a reaffirmation of their close ties, and the endorsement of a two week minimum Summer Residency for the New York City Ballet Company at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
I was going to say in the public comment period
Total payments made to SPAC under Live Nation Contact
- 2008 = $1,064,383 (old contract)
- 2009 = $1,192,200 (old contract)
- 2010 = $968,904
- 2011 = $834,583
Former SPAC president Herb Chesbrough and his wife, the previous director of development, were paid $370,000 total for managing the organization in 2004. In 2010, SPAC President Marcia White earned $281,111, and CFO/COO Richard Geary made $141,737.
With no end in sight to six-figure salaries, lackluster fundraising efforts and a propensity for commercialism, SPAC continues to make the same errors in judgment. Perhaps the Attorney General Charities Bureau can assist further by completing another audit and taking a closer look at finances and operations beneath the facade at SPAC.
Earlier in the day while half the city was in a blackout our very own deranged Public Safety Commissioner Chris “Toothy’”Mathiesen went knocking on the door of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors to describe the state of mayhem and anarchy on Caroline St.
They were not impressed. Five local bar owners and business leaders spoke against the dentist. New Saratoga Springs Democratic committee chairman Charlie Brown { I am not making it up that is his real name} looking dapper in beret and pony tail backed the dentist to the wall.
I guess it’s safe to say the Democrats in Saratoga Springs clearly stand for a police state and no fun.
Stay cool Saratogians…
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14 comments:
No arrests again for another 24 hour period. I thought the commish said it was toxic in Saratoga?
Wish I could have heard the "speech" the doctor gave to the supervisors. Must have been very entertaining for them to hear the great stutterer trying to make his point. Fifteen minutes of drivel.
You can see the Doc's entire speech at the Saratogian website where you'll learn about "A general state of mayhem" and how "the situation is out of control." The only thing "out of control" is a stammering jabbering amateur politico with a creepy obsession. With no professional credentials, he fails to understand limitations on City Lawmaking, has no grasp of the SLA, nor was he able to access and understand the County Board's agenda for the earlier meeting when the matter was voted down.
An un-named Supervisor stated that the subject was "deader than Hell." Perhaps the same can be said for our antiquated system of government by the 730-day wackjobs.
It's a positive sign that there are some very distinguished and civic- minded people coming forward to accomplish an unselfish goal. I wish them success.
I don't see why the head of SPAC still has her job. She failed. Step aside and let someone with fresh ideas have a chance. IMO, we all should have seen this coming. How about opening up that job to the general public, get some resumes, do some interviews. For that kind of money you could get somebody good, not some inexperienced hack with delusions of adequacy. Give the ballet a real chance as that is the raison d'etre of SPAC, not all this nonsense of supporting someone's protegee in the style to which she has become accustomed.
Or, you could just hand the reins to any random person and they could do a mediocre job a lot more inexpensively.
Kyle,not only is the issue deader than hell, it is deader than Kelso's balls.
Who gives a shit about the Ballet! They donate a nickel of my tax dllars I will shut this town down! Fuck the Ballet!
Take your meds!
Any idea on Madigan's plan on what she's gonna do with the $500K we earned in the tax auction over the weekend? Since, as she pointed out so many times, those properties have been off the tax rolls for years, shouldn't it go right back to the tax payers as a refund, since they are the ones who had to foot the bill for those deadbeats?
If she has the nerve to bring up a new "pig pen" for public safety, Ballet supporter or not, I hope she gets she gets hit by a junkie driven fire truck and ambulance.
Just be glad, Kyle, that you won't have to pay to buy out a contract to get rid of the Commish--that's IF you could convince the 4 year staggered term council to fire him/her--and that could take years. Much simpler to vote someone you don't like out next year. Crazy to change the whole government because you don't like particular people in office. NEWS FLASH--that could happen no matter what the form!
How about the city giving $500,000 to support nycballet in saratoga? Really show good faith that saratoga loves them.
9:38
I like your thinking. But a refund to taxpayers would be unprecedented.
Print up the new signs "NO NEW PIG PEN", beat them to the punch.
A property tax refund would be ill-advised, since we have this pesky little tax cap to deal with (not to mention an expensive administrative nightmare - good luck figuring out which property owners get the money: only those who live here? those who owned the property between day X and day Y? etc. this isn't income tax we are talking about here), and we have been putting off a lot of necesary things for a variety of reasons, AND we are facing big increases in the city's pension costs and and and...
Maybe skoopy can go to AC moore and get some fake flowers,that would save some overtime money at the DPW
The SPAC website may have been unstable for a while but it's shitty all the time. No indication on how to contact them that I could find--no phone number, no box office hours, no send us your comments/questions here's how to email us. And you can't get a look at the whole ballet schedule. They've got this stupid pop up feature so you can only look at one day at a time not get an overview of the schedule. And what happened to printing the schedule in the Saratogian? Did the Saratogian stop doing this or did Marcia? Also some great pre-ballet talks but no publicity. Why no press release from SPAC about these? And who knew you could get $5 off a ticket with a Price Chopper Advantage card. There's mention of it on the poorly designed SPAC website but I haven't seen it mentioned any place else including in Price Chopper. You'd think after Price Chopper screwed around with the gasoline benefit they would be eager to advertise what else their Advantage card could be good for.
Am I correct that the orchestra costs as much as the ballet? If so, why are they 3 weeks while the ballet is the one that is constantly cut. If they can only really afford a month now of the ballet and orchestra total instead of one month of each as we used to have, and if they cost the same, why not have 2 weeks of ballet and 2 weeks of orchestra? Or better yet, sell Marcia's Manhatten apartment and BMW and give her a salary cut and let's have both back to the original schedule. SPAC was established for the ballet and orchestra, not as a cash cow for Live Nation and Joe Bruno's babe.
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