Saratoga News
News
City is bringing back citizen bodies
By Chris Vongsarath
The Saratoga Parks and Recreation Commission is back up and running again in what is the city's first step in bringing back its commissions.
The city was forced to cut or suspend a number of its commissions due to budget cuts in 2005.
But discussion on bringing back the commissions surfaced at last year's city council retreat, with council members agreeing that the parks and recreation commission should be the primary focus. The other commissions considered were the arts, finance, library and public safety commissions.
Subsequently, last summer, the council budgeted the commissions to return, one by one, in the coming years.
Three new commissioners, Kathy Forte, Lerry Wilson and former commissioner Denise Goldberg, will join Vita Bruno and Tom Soukup to complete the parks and recreation commission.
At the Feb. 20 council meeting, Forte was sworn in by city clerk Cathleen Boyer. Wilson and Goldberg were on vacation and will be sworn in by Boyer before their first commission meeting.
Forte said the community has been looking for a place to go to address problems with the city's parks, and she is happy to be the one to listen.
"It's going to help for people to come to talk about these things with us first because it builds community," she said. "We're going to do it in a responsible and civilized manner."
Soukup, who worked with Goldberg on the commission before it was suspended, said he has not met the other two commissioners. However, he added he is excited to get going again after a two-year hiatus.
"I understand the scope of what the city council expects of the parks and recreation commission is changing, and I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I know we're willing go through all that," he said.
One of the roles the commission will play is with the city's recently approved naming policy. The city set forth criteria to be met in order for a public facility or park to be named or renamed.
The commission can now look at applications for naming or renaming a city recreational land or building, without having the council visit the application first.
Restoring the commission gives the city council another tool and more time to make decisions, said Mayor Ann Waltonsmith.
"The council functions better when we have the eyes and ears of the commission," she said. "It always helps us knowing the commission is meeting on something, instead of it being put right before us, needing a decision right there."
One such example was the community debate about the development of Kevin Moran Park in 2006, when the commission was suspended.
Instead of having a specific body to address the issue, Waltonsmith said the council had to provide an ad-hoc committee to do it. An ad-hoc committee of council members is usually the only viable option when an issue does not fall under a specific commission's responsibility.
In addition to the parks and recreation commission, the city has its sights on restructuring and restoring its arts commission, Waltonsmith said.
Because it still does not have the money to fund an arts commission, the city is searching for an alternative way to promote art in Saratoga.
Currently, the city is looking for nonprofit organizations that will work with the city and serve a dual role as the city's arts council. The organization would work as a stand-alone to the city and would not have to assume the same responsibilities of a city commission.
Waltonsmith said the city has begun talks with the Montalvo Arts Center, but nothing has developed yet. In the meantime, the city will do what it can while it continues to bring back the commissions.
"We want to be really active and do projects, " she said. "Even though we don't have the money, we want to be supportive of that."