Writing letters

What could be more fun than using Ron Kim’s city e-mail address to sign him up for every known pornography and spam site on the world-wide Web? Well, writing the city’s Public Safety commissioner a letter explaining why many rational thinkers among the public aren’t behind his ill-fated push for a new, monolithic police station.

Earlier this month, Kim implored residents to chime in with their thoughts about the police station, in a move that could have initially been viewed as an uncharacteristic moment of consensus building for the shoot-first-ask-questions-later brand of politics he typically enjoys.

So this humble scribe took some time this week to shoot the good commissioner a message of explanation for why the general public isn’t on board with his new public safety facility. Maybe seeing it in words might give him an idea why many view his politically motivated project as a looming disaster for taxpayers:

“As you may or may not know, we’ve never really seen eye-to-eye, absent several uncomfortable run-ins on the street. So I’ll be short and to the point in this missive: Saratoga Springs does not need 45,000-square-feet of law enforcement building. Even the entire goddamn expanse of Saratoga County doesn’t need this much space to ensure their ability to protect the public’s safety. This is why I and many of other residents will vociferously fight any proposal of this magnitude –even if it only costs a pair of surplus cop cruisers and a free ride on the police horse.

“Let’s break it down: 30,000-square-feet of police station will more than quadruple the space the cops use now. Such a station will be on the size and magnitude of one now in use by the Schenectady City Police; perhaps even larger. Having this much space seems a bit superfluous unless you, as the czar of our city’s public safety, are envisioning Schenectady-like crime in the coming year. I’m thinking that you don’t, or aren’t saying so publically at this point.

“Next we have 15,000-square-feet for the city’s court administration, another remarkably large jump in space. While you may dupe some voters into thinking this is the only court our miscreants appear in, I’m not nearly as gullible. Most significant felonies are transferred to the county level, meaning the space you propose to build will go toward arraigning drunks, parking offenders, a growing number of family court cases and other lesser crimes appearing before a city magistrate.

"Expanding the halls of justice to prepare for more of these cases insinuates the anticipation that more of these so-called crimes will soon be finding their way into the third floor of city hall, possibly due to an expanding and more militant police force hitting the streets. I am extremely uncomfortable with this notion. Let's also not forget the cost of maintaining a structure that dwarfs the larger houses of worship around the city. Ask some of the local clergy what it costs to heat and power some of these structures and you'll understand why they're passing around the collection tin a bit more often these days. And think: they don't have a bunch of rowdy miscreants and coffee-swilling cops rolling through their halls on a daily basis. The cost of repairs alone on such a structure could rise into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“The bottom line, Mr. Kim, is that we do not live in New York City, nor Schenectady or Albany for that matter. While there is certainly crime in the Spa City –something that is inevitable in any population –there isn’t nearly enough to precipitate the dreadfully oversized public safety facility you propose to build. Maybe if you tried simply doubling the size of the station, I and other voters of my ilk would be a bit more interested in hearing your case. But your undying insistence that the city build a justice center the size of a Wal-Mart supercenter really makes me wonder what city you live in and where you find the justification for saddling such a fiscal burden on the middle and lower class taxpayers.

“Politics is a nasty game, Mr. Kim, especially when it puts the desires of the politically motivated before the needs of the voters. I don’t claim to know all the inner workings of city government, but I do know this goddamn public safety building has nothing to do with providing sanctity for the residents you purportedly serve. This is about a vote grab among the city’s Police Benevolent Association, which wants far more station than the community needs. After all, their endorsement makes a mighty nice feather in the cap of someone running for re-election or dare I say higher office.

“So do the working class a favor and come back with something realistic. It’s not only cost that is a concern. It’s the size and what you’re already-too-large department plans on doing with the added space. For once in your career, do what is right for the city, not your political cronies. Come back with a new station that suits everyone properly. I eagerly await your response.”

Naturally, there has been no response either from Kim or Mayor Scott Johnson, who was the other government official contacted via e-mail. No surprises there. But what is a surprise is the fact that the City Council appears to be moving forward towards Kim’s endgame without acknowledging any of the aforementioned concerns. In fact, they’ve recently postured to issue a ‘request for proposal’ from private developers, asking for plans to build the 30,000-square-foot station and adjoining 15,000-square-foot courthouse. They also unanimously included a “token” $3 million line-item in the capital budget as a good faith measure for the project moving forward. Yikes.

Still no answer about what the council will do with the old police station. Still no answer about the estimated impact of adding 45,000-square-feet of public building space to the city’s load of tax-funded facilities. Still no answer about how big they plan to grow the police department once the mighty castle is built. Some might say answering these questions now would be putting the cart before the horse. Others might find a bit of solace in know exactly the debacle the council is arranging here to appeal to a small, but powerful city union.