Three sitting Saratoga Springs City Council members were sworn in along with two newly elected Democrats on Sunday, Jan. 1 at this year’s inauguration ceremony at the City Center.
At 1 p.m. Judge Jeffrey Wait administered the oath of office to new Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan and Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen. The pair beat incumbents Richard Wirth and Kenneth Ivings Jr. for the positions. Mayor Scott Johnson, a Republican, was also opposed but won the race against Brent Wilkes for a third term in office.
Account Commissioner John Frank and Public Works Commissioner Anthony Scirocco ran unopposed.
“I look forward to working with the new council toward achieving our common goals,” said Johnson. “I congratulate the two new members of the council for a well fought campaign. Even better is their willingness to really dedicate their service to our community.”
About 100 people attended the event with city officials surrounded by friends and family as they were took their oaths of office.
Johnson said he feels the new council can go beyond party lines to get the city’s business in order.
“I think quite honestly there is a great amount of work yet to be done,” he said. “We are facing extreme challenges still with the economy, we have a 2 percent tax cap. We have a lot of things still on the table to solve and the best way we can do that is to put political differences aside, and build a consensus toward the common goal: the betterment of our community.”
Throughout his campaign, Mathiesen ran on a platform of adding police officers and implementing an earlier last call throughout the city. He said the bar issue was one of the first he planned on dealing with, especially after a man was stabbed at 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s morning at a bar on Maple Avenue.
“I will tell you I spent a lot of time talking to a lot of people who are concerned with what occurs at night in the City of Saratoga,” he said. “This is not something that should occur in the city. It’s becoming a dangerous atmosphere.”
Mathiesen said he does not feel 4 a.m. is a viable closing time for the city’s bars and would like to propose an earlier last call, even though a similar proposal did not pass the council last year.
“There are a number of counties and municipalities in the state that close earlier than 4 a.m. and I think that’s the first step,” he said. “I would start with 3 a.m. and I would also turn to the owners of the bars and clubs to see if we can tone things down and have them take more responsibility for what happens in their establishments. If they can’t do that, then we would move it back further to 2 a.m.”
Mathiesen said another important issue was the matter of ambulance service within the city. Saratoga Mercy Corp. is going out of business within the year and a replacement will need to be found as soon as possible. Given the situation, he said the mayor has been talking to for-profit companies and the plan is to talk with the fire chief about his recommendations, and they will eventually be asking for feedback from the public.
Madigan said she plans to make the City’s financial process more understandable for residents.
“I’m hoping to provide very accurate accounting for the citizens of Saratoga Springs. I would like to put more clear and concise information out so they can understand the budget and what we spend our money on,” she said.
Madigan said right now the budget is 250 pages and she is sure it will stay that long, but she would like to have a clear synopsis for the residents to understand where the money goes and provide more of that information online.
The mayor said he is optimistic about the new council and the economy is still the main concern for the city.
“You will always have some difference on any council. We had difference on the other council even though it was a Republican majority, so to me it’s not really an issue of party label, but just dealing with each issue individually,” he said. “With a fresh look from two of the departments, maybe new innovative things can be done to achieve our goals.”