Saratoga News Erna Jackman Nick Streit Evan Baker Gillian Moran Council candidates get a second chance at forum Creek, traffic library, winery top questions By Sarah Lombardo Questions posed to Saratoga City Council hopefuls at a Saratoga News-sponsored forum Oct. 15 ran the gamut from traffic, finances and the overcrowded Saratoga Library to proposed expansion at the Mountain Winery. Saratoga Creek's future and its current litigation also played a prominent role in the forum, being mentioned in several candidates' opening statements to voters. With less than three weeks left to campaign, responses from council incumbent Gillian Moran and candidates Evan Baker, Nick Streit and Erna Jackman included not only jabs at other candidates but also specific proposal ideas. Candidate John Mehaffey was ill and had to miss the event. The forum, attended by about 60 people, gave candidates a second chance to win over voters and express opinions on local issues such as the following: * Saratoga Creek. Baker and Jackman--in addition to Mehaffey--have teamed up during campaigning, and have been vocal about their desire to settle in the lawsuit against the city over the condition of the creek should they be elected. At the forum, they reiterated their hopes to settle the lawsuit and work on cleaning the creek. All candidates expressed a desire to find the source of coliform bacteria and clean the creek. Only Streit questioned where such money would come from in his opening statements, adding under direct questions that he would, if elected, seek to get help cleaning creek from those found to be polluting it. * The Saratoga Community Library. All four candidates expressed concern over the increasing problems of overcrowding at the library. Streit, Jackman and Moran advocated the idea of a future bond issue to help pay for an expansion of the 20-year-old facility. "I think it's time we as citizens step up to the plate and expand the library," Streit said. Jackman agreed. "I think within the next four years, we're going to have to try to get the citizens to support a bond," she said. Moran also said she'd back plans to educate the public about ongoing space problems at the library to make them aware of the facility's needs. * Park land in Saratoga. The candidates were unanimous in their opinion that more park land is needed in Saratoga, but some also said the cost of land in the city--and just the sheer lack of space left--could make it hard for Saratoga to add to its parks. "My view is that we need to take good care of the parks, the few parks, we have and then enter into a more cooperative agreement with the various school districts in Saratoga for the school property," Baker said. Moran said she'd be interested in looking into the chance of purchasing smaller lots to create parks all over the city. "We have just spent $2 million from our general fund over the past several years paying back the debt on City Hall," Moran said. "So we are now in a better position to borrow money if park land comes available." * The city's finances. Moran, Jackman and Baker have previously stated publicly that the city's finances appear to be in shape. But the city's future played a role in the discussion, and both Jackman and Baker left the door open to possibly bringing another utility tax to voters should the need arise. Moran reminded voters that as a councilmember she voted to have the city's Finance Commission undertake a five-year plan to address the city's financial future. When the report is ready in January, Moran said, she'd propose holding town hall meetings with residents to discuss where to go from there. "We have to decide whether or not the service cuts we made two years ago are ones we can live with," she said. Only Streit, the city's current Finance Commission chairman, didn't paint a rosy picture of the city's finances. Streit said that the city should seek to have more than the current $2 million in reserves in case of emergencies and to prepare the city for a deficit in the budget to hit at the end of fiscal year 1999. The forum was the second public forum held in the city for council candidates. Members of the city's Youth Commission had originally proposed the forum, but the City Council nixed the plan saying it posed the appearance of a conflict of interest. The Saratoga News offered to sponsor the event, but the young people did the organizing and were much in evidence collecting question cards from the audience and submitting them to representatives of the League of Women Voters who sorted through them and handed them on to moderator Dan Pulcrano, executive editor the Saratoga News. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.