Did somebody hear an echo?

Scott Johnson was settling into the third page of his lengthy State of the City address, when a shrill cry echoed from the crowd. To the amazement of the sparse crowd, a machete-wielding Valerie Keehn lunged forward and tackled the surprised mayor.

“We’re taking back this city back for the people,” screamed the former Mayor, thrusting the blade into the air. “Viva la resistance!”

Unfortunately, the events unfolding during Johnson’s speech Sunday weren’t nearly as dramatic. In fact, there was very little meat to be scraped from the bones of his speech. It was almost the rice cake of speeches: Sure your eyes are telling you there’s something there to digest, despite most of your other senses disagreeing.

Not that anyone would have noticed if he did say something of note. After arriving a fashionably late, Johnson spoke to a vastly empty room at the City Center. Unofficial tallies suggest the bulk of the audience were either politicians or political advisers of some ilk. Perhaps the lacking attendance was a factor of the pre-Super Bowl booze-a-thon unfolding everywhere in the city proper or perhaps residents have grown wise to the lacking nature of these speeches; perhaps people simply don’t care.

True, there’s usually not much of anything to be gleaned from any State of the City address in recent memory. Keehn, the only former mayor in attendance Sunday, used the speech in 2007 to show off her ineptitude speaker and to throw as much mud as humanly possible on a pair of commissioners she always seemed at odds with.

Johnson, on the other hand, didn’t seem to say a great deal. He certainly didn’t say anything that could be distinguished as a dig at his fellow party members, much less anyone on the council. The tone of the speech itself seemed somewhat conciliatory. Then again, Johnson hasn’t had much more than a month to marinate in the brine of city politics

Much of the mayor’s speech was devoted to preaching fiscal restraint and for the city’s government to end the “tax and spend” policies embraced by previous administrations. He also pledged to seek out new revenue sources and to fight for a continuance of the video lottery terminal aid from the state; a line item that accounts for 10 percent of the city’s total budget.

Johnson raised the previously partisan issue of rejoining the county’s sales tax plan. As some may recall, the city was urged out of the county plan under the mayoral administration of Democrat Ken Klotz. Michael Lenz, his Republican predecessor, had made rumbles of rejoining the county formula, but was quieted as a steady procession of scandals rendered the last months of his administration useless.

Johnson touched upon the deeply dividing issues of the new Public Safety building and plans to tap Saratoga Lake as a water source. But in each case, his comments were far from committal. He called for a fiscally sound solution for the Public Safety building and a “fresh eyes” approach to finding a new water source for the city.

Johnson also called for the creation of several committees, a tact which politicians often use to give voters the impression of forward movement when there really is none. In Johnson’s case, the committee button will apparently be used to review the future of the city’s capital projects and to investigate the burden local taxes. He also suggested putting the city’s large capital projects up to a referendum vote.

Though the jury is still out on Johnson, it’s becoming clear his agenda is somewhat aligned with the county party and in the same mix with some of the elephants stomping around in the state capital. One couldn’t ignore Johnson’s intermittent shout-outs to Hollywood Joe Bruno, the grand puba of state Republicans and obstructionist blocking a deal to keep state thoroughbred racing under the auspices of the embattled New York Racing Association.

On the other hand, hearing the mayor words in favor of fiscal restraint and the crippling tax burden facing residents was refreshing. But it’s a lot easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk.