Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Don Wolfe was named Saratoga's mayor at the council meeting on Dec. 3.

New mayor targets unfunded mandates

By Sarah Lombardo

Newly appointed Mayor Don Wolfe's goals for the next year are simple. Nothing big, really. He just wants to take on the feds, that's all.

Wolfe was appointed to the office of mayor Dec. 3 by a vote of the council upon the expiration of councilmember Gillian Moran's term as mayor. Jim Shaw was named vice-mayor.

Among Wolfe's hopes for trying to maintain Saratoga's quality of life, Wolfe said he also wants to see if he can't take on that thorn in many a politician's side: unfunded mandates.

"It's always been a goal of mine to relieve the city of some of the burden imposed from beyond our city's borders, and that is the mandates," he said.

It's a topic Wolfe has brought up to the council before. Whenever the city is required to turn out its pockets to fund a program created and handed down by Sacramento or Washington, D.C., Wolfe makes a plea for residents to let their state and federal officials know what they think of "some of these laws that 'benefit us not but cost us a lot,' " he said.

But it's also a topic that the Staten Island, N.Y., native said he knows might sound a little too big for a small city like Saratoga to take on.

"It sounds like 'big picture' stuff and biting off more than we can handle, but we are already dealing with more than we can handle today," Wolfe said, referring to Saratoga's tight budget.

It has been during the city's budget hearings that Wolfe has most fervently urged residents to oppose unfunded mandates. And, he said, it was the long and arduous budget hearings--as well as the search for a new city manager, the reorganization of the city staff, the contract negotiations with city employees and the settlement of the city's lawsuit with Green Valley Disposal Company Inc.--that kept the council from addressing the issue. But Wolfe did.

In the past year, the father of three, in his capacity as vice mayor, has written to county, state and federal officials on the matter, stressing that he sees it as a part of his job as an elected official to look out for the interests of residents. With what looks like a quieter period ahead for the council, City Manager Larry Perlin said he expects the council will have the time to take on projects the new mayor may have in mind.

"I can't remember a time, in other cities or in the cities where I have worked, when a city handled so many major, major issues like we did this past year," Perlin said. "I think Don is fortunate to be mayor at a time when things are relatively quiet and settled."

Focusing on the smaller picture, Wolfe said he wants to work as mayor "to keep Saratoga Saratoga, [to help it] remain unspoiled by progress."

To do that, Wolfe said, the city must remember that it was incorporated as a minimal-services municipality. It would also help, he said, if residents understood that the council only has so much say over residential development within its borders.

Wolfe, who ran in an embattled campaign for City Council while a planning commissioner, said he is saddened just like other residents when open space in the city is filled with housing, but property owners have the right to develop their land. Wolfe also pointed out that the city's small tax base doesn't give the city the resources to purchase land strictly for open space.

Wolfe's involvement in local government is not unique in his family; his brother, Doug, is currently vice mayor of Anna Maria, Fla.

"The family has been politically minded for years," Doug said. "[Our father] instilled in us the importance of being involved. ... I am totally local, and I think Donald is pretty much the same way. Home politics is where you get things done."

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]