One way or another, says Public Safety Commissioner Ron Kim, the city of Saratoga Springs will have a new public safety facility.
Unfortunately, I think that what we’re going to need is a change in the City Council to get this through, said the commissioner in a Friday, Oct. 5, interview. `All I need is another vote.`
Kim said he’s confident that the upcoming general elections will show that the people of the Spa City want his plan for a new police station and court facility. He accuses fellow council members John Franck, Matthew McCabe and Thomas McTygue of delay tactics and `myth mongering` in their opposition to his proposed $17 million public safety facility.
At the Tuesday, Oct. 2, meeting of the City Council, Kim pressed a vote on a proposal to have BBL Corp. construct a public safety building on a Woodlawn Avenue lot. The lot would also include a parking garage with approximately 300 parking spaces and subdivisions for private business. The facility would have been paid for over 30 years at $1.4 million a year through lease buyback financing.
It was defeated 3-to-2, with Kim and Mayor Valerie Keehn voting for the lease-buyback proposal.
The defeat prompted Kim and about half the assembled public to walk out of the meeting.
`To me, I think the City Council walked away from a very favorable proposition,` he said later.
According to McCabe, the city’s commissioner of finance, the resulting tax increase, if the proposal should go through, would be devastating to taxpayers.
He estimated that a homeowner with a home assessed at $250,000 can expect to pay $200 more next year in taxes if the city goes forward with the proposed capital budget, including operating costs for a new public safety building and an increase in the general fund budget. In 2009, McCabe said, that same resident would pay $100 more.
Kim said he questions McCabe’s numbers and said he will have a financial presentation at the Tuesday, Oct. 16, meeting of the City Council.
McTygue proposed building an annex to the existing facilities in City Hall directly behind the building, and connecting the two with a bridge that would span above traffic.
Kim said it’s not as easy as just throwing locations out for discussion. He points to years of studies on the subject and state-dictated size requirements for the courtroom facilities.
`These suddenly easy solutions that Commissioner McTygue wants to spew are not so easy,` said Kim. `We’ve been held to a very high standard on this process. We’re not even sure if the old building [City Hall] would be able to support a bridge.`
Bridges may be what Kim is burning, within his own political party and without.
Kim’s challenger in November’s election, Republican Richard Wirth, took the opportunity to make some political hay out of Kim’s leaving the City Council meeting.
`Instead of working to come to a solution that would please all members of the City Council and benefit the city, Commissioner Kim gave up. The citizens of Saratoga Springs deserve better from their elected officials,` Wirth said in a written statement. `There is no place in Saratoga Springs for childish grudges that hold the city back. I am committed to working together with members of the City Council and residents alike, to create solutions that are best for the city.`
McTygue, a fellow Democrat, took time out of his Oct. 2 agenda to comment on Kim’s walkout.
`You know, I’ve been on this City Council for over 30 years, and I’ve had some pretty sour votes, but I’ve never just gotten up and walked out,` he said. `You stay at the table and you work things out.`
Kim said he’s willing to do just that.
`I’m certainly open to the dialogue, I’ll continue to do that, but we will move forward one way or the other with this because I feel that I have to,` said Kim.
He said he didn’t think the dialogue would be harder to come by because of his walking out of the last meeting.
`I’ve heard people say that I haven’t fully represented the people, but I totally reject that. I have represented the people — based on the calls I get from residents, the e-mails I get from residents and the fact that people walked out with me,` he said. `The fact remains that there was nothing more to say about this issue and that this is the most important issue the city will face in this election and the next few years. Period. End of story.“