The first of the items—reorganization of city commissions and the amount of resources allocated to them—came up for discussion at a council meeting on Feb. 16.

At the discussion, the city council decided to form an ad-hoc committee to look into the workings of various commissions and suggest changes. In the meantime, city staff members will continue to work with various commissions as time is available. Those groups mandated by the federal and state laws will continue to meet as usual.

At the meeting, speaker after speaker chided the council for even thinking about trying to reorganize the commissions or do away with them.

"I do not wish to be abrasive but I need to be blunt," said Bob Ray, who is a member of the arts commission. "I am ashamed to be here tonight."

Ray said that the commissions represent the biggest bang for the buck that the city could get. "Everyone here volunteered their services," Ray said. "There is no salary, no benefits and no workers compensation involved."

Several young people also spoke at the meeting and urged the council not to do away with the youth commission. They talked about how their work was beneficial to the youth in Saratoga.

Planning Commissioner Jill Hunter said that she had recently read in a The New York Times article that people no longer volunteer in communities. She said that she quickly wrote to the newspaper to point out the large number of people in Saratoga who volunteer for commissions and other community activities. She urged the city council not to throw the baby out of the bath water.

Norm Koepernick, a former heritage preservation commissioner, suggested that the council should ask volunteers to find out how they could make money for the city.

Vice Mayor Norman Kline said that he saw definite problems in the structure of the commissions. "We should form a committee that will set some guidelines for how they should function," he said.

Councilwoman Aileen Kao asked the assembled commissioners to treat the discussion as the first in a series of public meetings. "All of us are doing the same thing. We are volunteering our time for the community," she said.

"We do not have a lot of room to play with. Arnold [Schwarzenegger] has not written us any checks yet," Councilman Nick Streit said.

He indicated that the more city staff members got involved with commissions, the less time they had for their regular work.

"I know that the situation is not going to be any better in the next four or five years," added Mayor Kathleen King. She said that city employees were over-extended because of the significant number of people who had left employment in the last year.

"I'm crying for my city tonight," said Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith. She suggested that the council should look at some ways to preserve the various volunteer groups.