The Change Express

Buckle up, Democrats, because the Change Express is about to thunder into a neighborhood near you.

For too long, Saratoga Springs has remained under the omnipresent Johnson Administration, which has laid environmental ruin on everything it has touched, has rubber-stamped every large development to come through the city and has embraced a brand of clandestine politics usually reserved for smoky back rooms. Yes, it’s time for change. It’s time for the type of change that puts the ‘d’ in democracy; the type of change that levels the playing field and gives all city democrats a voice. The type of change that puts families first!

Or maybe the type of change that is really a buzz word used to mean a return to the failed progressive movement that held the city hostage for two years under the administration of Valerie Keehn and her merry band of change-o-crats. Yes, the same administration that brought you the failed charter revision push, the overzealous plans for a public safety castle and managed to raise city taxes at an alarming rate is again rearing its ugly head.

Brucie Rosch, who is best described as an avid Keehniac, circulated an e-mail among city Democrats this week, urging them to support change when it comes knocking at the door. The fervent charter revisionist is asking voters to join a new collective called “Democrats for Change” so it can at last take control of the City Democratic Committee.

“The first step in fixing this mess is to take back control of our City Democratic Committee from the small and unrepresentative group of regressive Democrats,” she urged in the bizarre missive mailed out Monday evening.

Fix this mess? Does she mean the mess the mayor and her supporters made of the committee in just two short years? Or maybe she’s thinking about the mess created after the utter squandering of the first consensus of Democrats in City Hall this century lead by the gang of charter revisionists.

Either way, Rosch’s message is unclear. In short, it asks voters not to worry about the details and just sign the dotted line for change; some sort of change. It may not be good change, but it will be change nonetheless.

And if Keehn is an example of the direction Rosch might have in mind for the committee, then this change will certainly be disastrous for the prospect of resurrecting the corpse some still call the city Dems. Since Keehn’s drubbing in November, this sect of so-called progressives has been kept on life support in the city’s Public Safety department under the watchful eye of Eileen Finneran, the former deputy mayor. So their return to the forefront this month comes as no surprise.

The problem is, they really have little to gripe about these days. City Council meetings have gone rather smoothly under Mayor Scott Johnson’s watch and the city doesn’t seem any worse for the wear with the Republicans holding a 3-2 majority. True, he and his party have only been in control for six months, which is hardly enough time to pass judgment on their leadership. But they seem to embrace an overriding concern for the fiscal stability of the city in the face of an uncertain economy. They seem earnest in their desire to put the brakes on any sort of unnecessary spending.

In other words, change is really not what Saratoga Springs needs right now. In fact, the city could use a bit of stability for once under the leadership of a mayor and majority that understand the realities of government.

What the city does not need is a radical splinter faction foisting a bunch of buzz words like ‘green,’ ‘affordable housing’ and ‘open government’ as a governing policy, only to embrace a hyper-political agenda that focuses more on creating problems than solving them. So if the Change Express comes knocking this month, just be sure to have the dead-bolt locked and an overzealous rottweiler tethered outside the door.