By Sarah Lombardo
The departures of Saratoga's city manager in March and its community development director in February have done more than leave City Hall staff scrambling to get more done with less help. Saratoga's business community is also feeling the effect of the staffing crunch, so much so that representatives from the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and the City Council discussed consolidating and even disbanding some of the city's business organizations last week.
The move was an attempt to reduce the time obligation of city staffers who routinely attend meetings, sometimes twice a month, to advise and to answer questions. The result of the discussion was that chamber members said they would work on consolidating some groups and cutting down on the number of meetings for the others. The four business organizations currently in Saratoga are the Saratoga Business Development Council, Team Saratoga, Market Days and the Chamber of Commerce.
"We will continue, but probably at a slower pace," said Chamber Executive Director Sheila Arthur. "It just turned out to be too many meetings. ... But the big thing was city staff. Everybody is spread so thin over there. What we are trying to do is spare up the staff time."
The idea was introduced by Vice Mayor Don Wolfe, a strong supporter of business development and former chairman of Team Saratoga.
"With the new streamlined city, it's probably to everyone's advantage timewise if we start [consolidating] some of these meetings," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said he was thinking particularly of Team Saratoga and the SBDC, from which Team Saratoga was formed. "It could be that the SBDC has done its job and it's time to say hasta la bye-bye," he said.
Chamber representatives disagreed, saying that the SBDC was a vital part of Saratoga's business community.
"I think we need the SBDC, and I think a city of this size needs to have a place to come together," said Dick Wood, current chairman of Team Saratoga. I think it's a valuable vehicle. I do believe in this firmly. I think this is the kind of thing that Saratoga needs."
Wood said that because the group's meetings are open, they provide members of the business community with a forum to exchange ideas and talk about just about anything.
Councilman Paul Jacobs suggested to the members that they continue to hold meetings, but that they don't count on having city staff available.
"It seems to me that as long as you have people who want to meet, have meetings," he said.
But members were adamant that city staff presence at the meetings was the driving force behind the business groups' success. "That has been one of the most important things, having staffing," said Chamber President Pat Andreson.
Arthur agreed, saying the staff representative, which used to be either Harry Peacock or Paul Curtis, provided immediate answers to questions and saved the business groups hours of time. "Their expertise has been invaluable," she said.
Interim Community Development Director James Walgren, who has been attending Team Saratoga meetings since Paul Curtis' departure in February, said the meetings are time-consuming, but that the groups seem willing to work around staffing constraints.
"They are understanding of some of the turmoil we are going through right now, and they have postponed some meetings," he said. "But I think the general thought is that with our reduced staffing, maybe [attending business organization meetings] is not the best use of our new staffing time."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 16, 1997.
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