Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen doesn't like this blog

In particular, he didn't like this post from last month and he told the City Council (and anyone else watching last night's meeting) during their meeting that he was "surprised and disappointed" by it.

The post was about Mathiesen's campaign against the late-night chaos of Caroline Street, which he argues can be mitigated by rolling back last call to 3 a.m. from 4 a.m.

It was a failed effort and I said so. I don't think that's up for dispute. It barely made it out of the City Council and It didn't make it out of the committee at the county level (where any change to last call would ultimately have to be decided).

As I pointed out in the blog post, I thought Mathiesen's campaign to change last call was over until the March 19 City Council meeting when he brought it up again under an agenda item labeled: "Lawlessness after 4 a.m." 

He called me last week upset about the post. He accused me of being in the pockets of Caroline Street businesses ("I know The Saratogian gets a lot of advertising from Caroline Street") and of constantly criticizing his efforts.

First off, he is just plain wrong about that. I haven't received any direction from the publisher or advertising department. 

He also asked (not rhetorically, he waited for an answer) if I actually believed his efforts were hurting tourism in the city.

I responded that those weren't my words, that criticism came from the top three leaders of the city's tourism industry. My opinion doesn't matter.

Last night I made it to the big leagues. In an agenda item, "Late night arrests," seemingly solely dedicated to refuting my blog post, he let his criticism be known publicly. Pointing to my post (and me by name, though I had already left and was watching the webcast while filing my articles from the office) he said it was "sarcastic" and undermining his efforts.

I didn't find the post (which by now you should realize I've been linking to as frequently as possible) sarcastic and I'm certainly not ignoring his arguments. 

As I pointed out last week, my post summarized all of his efforts and quoted him extensively throughout. I'm just writing down what he's done and said.

Over the weekend, I wrote a story about how bar owners are trying to address some of the issues raised by Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen regarding late night on Caroline Street.

In the course of talking to Mathiesen about some of the ways the bar owners and he have been dealing with last call issues, he brought up an interesting proposal which I had never heard before, though he said it was something he has discussed previously.

He has been looking at some way to have bars and clubs which are open past a certain time pay a fee for the cost to the city of policing the area. Mathiesen said he brought it up to bar and club owners in January.

"We need to look at ways of cutting those costs," he said, citing police overtime expenses and the number of police it takes to handle large crowds late at night.

*The next paragraph is the short update. I neglected to include this to begin with, but it was part of Mathiesen's argument. It seemed to speak to a couple of the comments that came in overnight and this morning. I meant to include it the first time but it slipped my mind. My apologies (And by the way, I don't particularly mind people leaving the same comment five times, but it doesn't mean it will get posted any sooner, I need to review them first and for good reason).

Mathiesen pointed out that special events — such as the Saratoga Race Track, 5k races and other things that require special police details — already have to pay extra fees for emergency services. Last year, for instance, according to Saratoga Assistant Fire Chief Peter Shaw, the around 38 percent of the Fire Department's overtime costs were reimbursed by special contracts. I don't have the figures at this point for how much police overtime was taken care of through reimbursements.

Bar and club owners have said that rolling last call back an hour — which is supposed to be voted on at tomorrow's City Council meeting (though it will then need to go to the county and then the state) — would hurt their bottom dollar significantly.

"If they are making that much money then they can certainly pay the cost for having police downtown," he said. In the past he said it amounted to welfare for the businesses because it costs the city more money for police than they bring in through sales tax.

At least two bar owners, though, have not heard of that plan — at least not substantially.

"It was a brief, couple minute discussion," said Tom Clancy, owner of (surprise, surprise) Clancy's Tavern on Caroline Street. But he said it was dropped after no one could come up with a way to ensure that it went specifically to late-night policing and overtime, not just to the general fund.

John Baker, owner of Gaffney's, remembers things a little differently. As he recalls, the discussion (which he too said was brief and ended with the general fund question) was about having a fee tacked on to cabaret licenses, which are necessary for any business wanting live music, and it was modest (he said $250).

Baker, though, said he wants numbers on how much police overtime is spent late at night and how it correlates to the time of last call.

"As a business person, I'll pay my fair share, but I don't want to be penalized for being legally open," he said.