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Announcement: City Hall Bureau AND Council notes
In an effort to improve my coverage of city government and politics, The Saratogian has decided to establish a City Hall bureau.
The bureau will be located in the City Council room, and I will man it from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. The new location will solve two important problems that I face in coverage of city politics and government: 1) City officials failing to promptly return my phone calls will now be unable to avoid me standing outside their office doors. 2) I will no longer have to endure the pain of a City Council or Planning Board meeting while sitting on an uncomfortable pew, as the bureau will be equipped with a comfy, swiveling office chair. This has the added advantage of giving me a leg-up on other reporters covering the city beat, who will not have good chairs.
Although the proposal was initially criticized by management because my old desk was already only a stone's throw from City Hall, I convinced them that being under the same roof as officials would give us an important advantage in this competitive news market.
City officials declined to comment on the new bureau, but if we can infer anything from the raised eyebrows, the new bureau might be a little to close for comfort... just where we want to be! Unfortunately, we did have to remove one of the council room's pews to accommodate my desk, which decreased the room's seating capacity, but surely citizens will appreciate the increased coverage, and will be willing to make the sacrifice.
The new bureau will open for the first time tomorrow morning. You can still reach me at my old number, 583-8729, x219, as our maintenance engineers are, at this moment, stretching a telephone chord across Lake Avenue to the council room's window. I'm looking forward to setting up the new shop, and I hope all my readers will come by and check out the new digs.
I also wanted to mention that at tonight's City Council meeting, Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim pulled from his agenda a vote on $64,012 in overtime funding for police officers working at the Racino in the absence of state troopers. Instead, Kim discussed how overtime is assigned based on seniority, and that the dollar figure was calculated after discussions with the state police, and with in the SSPD's investigative unit. Kim said the discussion would be ongoing, and that the Council could be asked to vote on the funding at a later day.
The bureau will be located in the City Council room, and I will man it from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. The new location will solve two important problems that I face in coverage of city politics and government: 1) City officials failing to promptly return my phone calls will now be unable to avoid me standing outside their office doors. 2) I will no longer have to endure the pain of a City Council or Planning Board meeting while sitting on an uncomfortable pew, as the bureau will be equipped with a comfy, swiveling office chair. This has the added advantage of giving me a leg-up on other reporters covering the city beat, who will not have good chairs.
Although the proposal was initially criticized by management because my old desk was already only a stone's throw from City Hall, I convinced them that being under the same roof as officials would give us an important advantage in this competitive news market.
City officials declined to comment on the new bureau, but if we can infer anything from the raised eyebrows, the new bureau might be a little to close for comfort... just where we want to be! Unfortunately, we did have to remove one of the council room's pews to accommodate my desk, which decreased the room's seating capacity, but surely citizens will appreciate the increased coverage, and will be willing to make the sacrifice.
The new bureau will open for the first time tomorrow morning. You can still reach me at my old number, 583-8729, x219, as our maintenance engineers are, at this moment, stretching a telephone chord across Lake Avenue to the council room's window. I'm looking forward to setting up the new shop, and I hope all my readers will come by and check out the new digs.
I also wanted to mention that at tonight's City Council meeting, Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim pulled from his agenda a vote on $64,012 in overtime funding for police officers working at the Racino in the absence of state troopers. Instead, Kim discussed how overtime is assigned based on seniority, and that the dollar figure was calculated after discussions with the state police, and with in the SSPD's investigative unit. Kim said the discussion would be ongoing, and that the Council could be asked to vote on the funding at a later day.
posted by The Saratogian City Desk at
9:49 PM
2 Comments:
If Saratogian didn't want to go through the expense of using a telephone cord - We have extra string and two tin cans that could be of use....and we promise that there would never be phone service interruption.
- NY State Police, formerly
of the Racino
First City Hall was going to take property owned by The Saratogian. Now The Saratogian is going to take over City Hall. Nice.
Hey, if there's room for another desk there, I'll join you. But not for that many hours a day, ya workaholic.
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