Mayor’s Priorities Questioned

February 19, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT RON KIM (518) 879-9994

Saratoga Springs – Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner Ronald Kim today questioned the priorities of the City’s Mayor, Scott Johnson and stated: “160 days and $250,000 later, the Police, Fire and Dispatch Departments still do not have a new telephone system installed, despite all other City Agencies receiving new telephones over two months ago.” Kim continued, “Unbelievably, the most important departments in the City have yet to receive the new telephone system---this delay by the Mayor’s office is dangerous and is another example of the Mayor’s upside-down priorities.” Kim observed, “While the Mayor seems to be aware of his fiduciary responsibility when it comes to recreation, he seems incredibly inept when it comes to the most basic municipal responsibility---the safety of our citizens. Clearly, the Mayor has failed---I just hope he is not playing politics with public safety. I have been an outspoken critic of his irresponsible plan to build a recreation center while the Police Station crumbles before our very eyes, and worked with citizens on the Eastern plateau to advocate for a new Eastside Fire station, and I cannot help but wonder if this is why he has delayed the installation of the new telephone system in the Police, Dispatch and Fire Departments, while implementing it throughout City Hall..”

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Saratoga Springs Police, Fire and Dispatch Departments Denied New Telephone System by Mayor Johnson

Commissioner of Public Safety, Ron Kim, Questions Mayoral Priorities

The new City Hall telephone system, currently out of order, was approved in the 2009 Capital budget on September 12, 2008, and became operational on December 18, 2008 in all City Hall departments except the Police, Fire and Dispatch Departments. The Police Department was previously told by the Mayor’s Office that their phones would be updated and live on February 5, 2009, but as yet no firm date for the installation and full operation of the new telephone system for Police, Fire and Dispatch has been announced by the Mayor’s office. Emergency Dispatch is housed within the Police Department. Calls from land telephone lines within the City come to the City’s 911 System; cell phone calls from within the City go to the County’s 911 System.

Problems with the telephones in the Police Department surfaced in July 2007 and then again in September and November 2007. These problems prompted Commissioner Kim and the Department of Public Safety to investigate alternatives for a new telephone system at that time. Kim and the Department of Public Safety were at the brink of a solution that would have saved approximately $100 per month over the existing telephone system, when the incoming Johnson administration scrapped the plans in favor of a “more comprehensive solution for all of City Hall.” For approximately a year, the Johnson administration studied the problem, meanwhile in February 2008, the Police Department’s phones, including the 911 service completely failed for approximately 15 minutes in the midst of the evacuation of the Saratoga Hilton because of a suspected structural fire. In December 2008, the Mayor’s office began implementing their chosen solution. “My priority is the safety of our citizens. I invite the Mayor to at least add it to his list of priorities," Kim concluded.