Saratoga County Momentum Builds in 2024

County Board of Supervisors enters 2024 with a busy agenda

The Reorganizational Meeting of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors was held on January 3rd. The annual meeting includes a vote by the Supervisors on their next Chairman and Vice Chairman. Yours truly and Supervisor Matt Veitch were selected by our peers to serve in these positions respectively. The Chairman of the Board appoints the Chair and members of all the Standing Committees and a slew of other appointments. Additionally, the Board votes to appoint other individuals to other important positions, who are placed for consideration by the Chairman. All Chairman’s appointments were released at the end of the Reorganizational Meeting and other appointments were voted on by the Board during the meeting. From the first day of business of 2024 the Board has direction with regard to appointments and a very busy agenda ahead. 

Although I would have preferred to review all County Departments and Initiatives during my remarks yesterday along with the great work performed by many County officials and employees daily, time only allows for a sampling of the many worthy highlights of County operations. 

I want to thank my colleagues for their overwhelming, bipartisan support for me to serve as Chairman of the Board. The weighted vote totals were 221,245 for and 14,264 against. I last served as Chair in 2007. Our society, the job of Chairman of the BOS and the job of leading a municipality have changed drastically in the last five years, never mind a look back to 17 years ago. 

Some of our upcoming agenda items include :

1. The continuation of our build-out of the County’s new Environmental Health Unit.
2. The Facilities Study, which is reviewing all County assets for future planning purposes
3. The $30 million upgrade to the County Airport
4. The growth of our 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga Tourism opportunity
5. Continued addition of strategic resources to battle drug addiction

These are just a few of the important, large-scale initiatives the Board is undertaking through a unified effort to move our County forward in a positive direction. I thank all of my colleagues who have accepted the challenge of their committee assignments with optimism and a sense of commitment to the greater good of the County.

There are always people that will be unhappy and continue to yearn for every situation to be about them first and foremost. And it is inevitable portions of the press will amplify these voices. But, that’s ok. It’s always been part of the deal and I suspect it always will be. In this case the two dissenting votes to my selection as Chair came from Ed Kinowski and Bill Peck. Toward the beginning of my remarks yesterday I identified the seminal moment that began the Small Town/Large Town rift we had experienced on the Board. Mr. Kinowski and Mr. Peck were two of the leaders of causing the initial divide and subsequent votes of the Board have not gone the way they had hoped. When the Supervisor of Day, the smallest municipality in the County, was Chair in 2020, not one larger town Supervisor was named a Chair of any Standing Committee. In 2019 when Supervisor Tollisen of Halfmoon was Chair the appointments were very fair and every municipality was properly represented. In 2020, the unprecedented exclusion of a huge percentage of the County population was established. I called out the ill-advised appointments at the time and cautioned the result would not be good for the County if we could not work together. The fate of the time and a half pay debacle of 2020 cooked up by the leadership was ended and the fate of the ineffectual Saratoga Prosperity Partnership was settled when the Board voted to end the active operations of the organization following millions of dollars spent with no results. At the time I stated publicly the disagreement regarding the future of the Partnership and any future engagement with SEDC was the source of 90% of the contentious nature of the Board’s proceedings. The fate of the Partnership, like some of the other issues, generally fell along the lines of small towns in favor of keeping the Partnership and the pay and large towns against. These issues and others have been settled by the Board and we have moved forward in a positive manner the last couple of years. The appointments this year are fair and equitable and representative of the entire County’s population. Stillwater will be represented on important committees such as Legislative and Government Affairs, Economic Development, Trails and Open Space along with new representation on the Saratoga County Water Authority Board. Councilwoman Jennifer Weaver will represent Stillwater on the Water Authority. Northumberland will be represented on the Veterans’ Affairs and Legislative and Government Committees. 

Any lingering personal feelings from the events of the last few years may be difficult for some to forget. 

The Board has accepted the challenge of several large-scale initiatives important to the County’s future and our focus each day will be producing results for Saratoga County residents. I know our Board of Supervisors is ready for the challenge ahead and we are off to a positive start to the year.