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Group of residents has been backing Saratoga slates for two decades

By Shannon Burkey

The concept of candidates running together as a slate is nothing new. And as Saratoga City Council elections go, slates have been running and getting elected for many years.

But, according to several past Saratoga City Council members and email messages obtained by the Saratoga News, the slates in Saratoga have consistently been run by one particular group of residents, led by Jeff Schwartz, that works behind the scenes to keep Saratoga in tune with their vision.

The group, which refers to itself as SaratogaNN, has been in existence for 20 years and each election chooses a slate to run on the "controlled growth, preserve Saratoga" platform. Candidates who run independently are most often labeled as "pro development" and "pro San Jose" candidates, regardless of their stance on those issues.

"This group has been around for years," said Ann Marie Burger, whose council term was from 1992-96. "Without a doubt they handpick their candidates, and the candidates they do pick have to march in lock step with Schwartz."

Burger likens the group to a cabal, or a shadowy secret organization. Every election year she said she sees the same things happening with the same group of people behind it.

"Their song is an old tune and has been played over and over," Burger said. "They work on the scare-the-voter tactic. They try to convince the voters that everything is broken and their candidates will fix it."

When Burger ran for reelection, she said the group came out strongly against her, telling Saratogans that she planned to "pave Saratoga over."

David Moyles, who served on the council 1982-90, also said the group and the way it operates is nothing new.

"However many open seats there are, they run that many candidates--that is their template," Moyles said. "You will find the same names if you look back at other elections. All these years later, the same people with the same level of interest--I just don't understand it. Change is good. It is time to let things go."

But Schwartz said that the idea of a group working behind the scenes to get slate candidates elected for their own interests is "silly" and there is no group, group name or group membership. He said they are merely just a few concerned residents who share the same interests, working on the campaigns of those they support.

"The idea that there is this group and they are shadowy is crazy," Schwartz said. "And the idea that there is some kind of set group membership is so ridiculous it is funny."

However, in email messages from the group's yahoogroups site obtained by the Saratoga News, the group calls itself SaratogaNN--a name Schwartz claims he has never heard before even though he is listed on the group's list of participants.

Along with Schwartz, some of the people who make up the SaratogaNN group are residents, past council members, current slate candidates Jill Hunter, Marilyn Marchetti and Jim Sorden and current Councilwomen Ann Waltonsmith and Aileen Kao.

When past council member Stan Bogosian ran in '96, he said he was part of the slate that was backed by the group, but during his term the group "turned against him."

"I hadn't realized the consequences of working with a political machine," said Bogosian, who to this day said he is not sure why he fell out of their good graces.

In a meeting held by the Saratoga News, which all of the candidates attended, the slate candidates did not deny the group was backing them when asked, and Hunter said she does not "know how to run a campaign and Jeff Schwartz does."

Marcia Fariss, who is listed as a participant of SaratogaNN, denies there is a formal group with that name backing the slate candidates.

"That is so much baloney it is ridiculous," Fariss said. "There is no political group or power base in the city. Any person who thinks they can control the citizens of Saratoga has another thing coming."

Fariss also denied the group has been around for 20 years working to get their slate candidates elected. But messages on the group's email list server suggest otherwise.

One message that was posted states, "In my opinion, that is one of the reasons why we have consistently won for the last 20 years and they have consistently lost." Another message starts off, "You may be interested to know that in the 20 years that our group has existed ... "

One method the group uses is letter-writing campaigns for letters to the editors of local papers.

Fariss said she writes letters for people "who are not good at it" and lets them sign their names.

In the email messages to the group, Waltonsmith urged others to write letters in support of the three slate candidates. She then gave examples of letters that they could "take and make their own."

Although she is on the current council, one example she wrote said, "As a longtime resident of Saratoga, I have been worried about the direction of the present city council." The next example she wrote said, "Saratoga City Council has lost its way." In both examples she goes on to praise each of the three slate candidates.

Don Wolf was on the council 1994-98 and said the same group of people was trying to control the city then.

"Control, rather than care, is the operative word," Wolf said. "For a small, wonderful town like ours there shouldn't be this type of in-fight from a small group that thinks they can run politics."

Schwartz maintains he is not part of any type of political group working to get the slate candidates elected. But an email message dated Sept. 9 was sent to the group with agenda minutes from a meeting that took place at Schwartz's house and listed him, Marchetti, Hunter, Sorden and Waltonsmith as attending.

"There is no group name, no group membership. We don't even have a secret handshake," Schwartz said.

The group likes to "stir the pot," according to Burger. But she also feels they are irrelevant.

"Bullies will always back up when confronted," she said.