Last minute lies before Tuesday's Village Elections

It's late Sunday morning. As my neighbors' families leave Sunday Mass, there is a small cadre of silver-haired Saugerties Village Police loyalists spreading last minute lies to undermine Tuesday's Elections. 

Who would ever dream that two nice old ladies would be out spreading anonymous leaflets making false statements about fellow Villagers?

The leaflet they are distributing proclaims "Top 10 Reasons to Keep Your Police Department" listing an unbelievable conspiratorial agenda as if to come right from the mouth of Glenn Beck. The allegations includes diversion of NYS grant monies to build a Taj Mahal for Town Supervisor Helsmoortel and accusations of "Power Hungry" conspirators whose plan is to subvert the will of Saugerties Villagers and take over our local government.

The real "reality check" isn't as exciting as this anonymous leaflet. Of all the "behind-closed-doors" accusations that have ever been flung at Saugerties' legislators, the two and a half year process to merge Village and Town Police Departments has been the most transparent I've ever witnessed. The real FACTS are all contained in a detailed $30,000.00 tax-payer funded study performed by Fairweather Consultants on New Paltz, New York. The numbers don't lie and it reads like a huge tax savings for Village property owners.

If only all legislative acts of Saugerties Village government were as open to the public as this one was! The lesson that one should take away from this lame attempt to persuade Villagers, is to VOTE "YES" to Prop. 1 at March 16, 2010 Saugerties Village Elections.

Saving Money is So Boring

Saugerties Police Consolidation - Town of Saugerties Study of Service Configuration Options for the Village...


The first of two [possibly three] public meetings whose focus is Saugerties Police Consolidation took place last night at the Senior Citizen's Center. Admittedly, I entered skeptical of the presentation [given by Tim Weideman of Fairweather Consulting]. However I walked away with the impression there are folks in local government who are working [hard] for the tax payers' best interest. It was apparent that combining services should have happened long ago.
It's hard to argue with the figures. Although terribly boring, the presenter was clear with his findings - there would be no tax increase for Saugerties Town and a huge savings for Saugerties Village. "Playing devil's advocate", Mr. Weidman explained that in the worst senario if cost-savings are not implemented as proposed, Town tax payers would see an increase of 4% in the third year of implementation.

I'll try to simplify this for all concerned; presently Saugerties Village is paying 53% of its $2,000,000.00 general budget to run the Village Police Department. If Village and Town police departments merged into one entity, Village taxes would be decreased by 21% since the cost of police services would be shared equally between the Town and Village. Presently, Village tax payers are responsible for two tax bills [not including school taxes], one for services provided by the Village and the second is for services provided by the Town. Those bills combine equaling an "Effective Tax Rate" of $9.32 per thousand dollars for [accessed value]. Town property owners pay $3.12 per thousand.

The new Town of Saugerties Chief of Police Louis Barbaria presented the savings [and benefits that will be realized by the merger] through shared services, personel, equipment and technologies. If merged, the Village would have two detectives to work crime cases. In addition, the policing technologies that the Village would benefit from [which Town Police presently have] include "GPS, Mobile Data Units, License Plate Readers and MobileCop Technology". Chief Barbaria also presented the discussions that are ongoing to include a cross walking guard [at school crossings] will be hired in order to relieve the patrol officers who presently work in that position.

Working families in Saugerties Village can no longer afford to pay half our total budget to sustain the staus quo. The "Saugerties Public Safety Service Configuration - A Study of Service Configuration Options for the Village and Town Police Departments" is available at Town (246-2800) and Village (246-2321) offices for review or copy.

David Radovanovic
100 Dock Street
Saugerties, NY 12477
saugerties-ny.blogspot.com
(845) 247-0909