Cooperation: What a concept

Read this piece on the beleaguered Crete Center from Steve Peters, who used to work for the City of Plattsburgh but was fired because reasons.

It contains good some actual facts, like these:

But, determining success by just dollars and cents is not the whole picture. As of 2017, in any given week during the winter, 1500-plus kids and adults would use the indoor field in at least four different sports. Almost all marketable hours were used, and dozens of teams were turned away.

Youth sports clubs have been created and have been hugely successful partly because of the ability to hone skills at the Crete. There have been dozens of high school soccer state final four and championship appearances by local teams. These championships were due to many factors, but certainly one of them is because of access to the indoor youth programs.

And some good ideas, like this:

The lesson for the Crete Center is simple: Don’t judge the value of its programs based on the inadequacies of the facility. With a proper financial structure and physical configuration, we can eliminate the financial burden, enhance our regional fitness and create economic development initiatives all at the same time — but it has to be a regional approach.

In 2017, 60 percent of Crete and Plattsburgh City Beach users were not city residents. These facilities have a positive impact on the quality of life of the entire region. A revitalization of the Crete and the beach can have a substantial impact on our community — it’s a property that has the potential to define everything we are.

Nice to hear from people who don't see things the same way as Mayor Despair and the coterie, who appear intent on quickly selling off the city's public spaces, not necessarily to the highest bidder.

Breaking: Plattsburgh gov't selects official city anthem!

An elected official's thoughts on city workers and the DRI

In an email discussion among City of Plattsburgh Common Council members about the low morale of city employees, who have been quitting at an alarming rate, Ward 2 Councilor Mike Kelly, on his city email account, wrote the following response, which also included his thoughts on the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, or DRI, a $10 million state grant that the city applied for and won in 2016:

I rejoice at low city employee morale, as we will continue to weed out the folks who are "Retired in Place" or otherwise disengaged. I don't really care much about the DRI, either. Throwing $10 million at a city will not help it survive and thrive. Promoting growth that occurs organically and naturally is a better way to go, IMHO. I don't hold much hope that the DRI will do anything except create more divisiveness between interested parties as the money grab commences. I do hope very, very strongly that we don't build a freaking parking garage. That is one more piece of useless infrastructure that the city will not he able to maintain into the future. You can share that with the mayor if you wish. Don't build a freaking parking garage!  

I wanted to verify that this was, in fact, Kelly's writing, so I emailed him, and he sent the following response:

This was in response to a question raised by one of my colleagues regarding whether we should be concerned about employee morale in times of turmoil and scheduling meetings with the mayor to discuss our concerns. The question was also asked about whether or not we should be concerned about the DRI.

The answers sent to you are my honest, heartfelt answers to the above two questions. The day we have a governing body that is more concerned about taxpayer morale (about 8,00 people) than a handful of managers, then we will start to make some real progress in our fair city. Our management packages, and we have more than one, are bloated way out of sustainable control, and the only way to fix that is to either wait for the old-timers to retire or change it. Right now, unfortunately, we don't have the will on the council to do what needs to be done. I do think that will change in time, however.

Luke, I'm assuming that you're still gainfully employed in the private sector, so I would ask you to compare your benefits with those of our city managers. The packages they have would curl your hair. That would be the real story here. I would be happy to sit with you and show you their benefits package if you would like.

Regarding the DRI, I am and will remain very skeptical. Downtown Plattsburgh's progress to date has been pretty good absent any further injection of the people's treasury. I just don't see the need. However, the governing body I represent has spoken out strongly in favor of the DRI, so  I must go along. I do feel very strongly that another piece of infrastructure like a parking garage is the last thing we need. We are struggling currently to maintain the infrastructure we already possess. 

My comments were made in confidence to my colleagues, and I would prefer they stay that way. However, it is a public email account, so I guess you can write anything you want. If you wish to know any more details about what I'm thinking, I'd be happy to supply them.

(He's assuming a lot about my gainful employment--cough, freelance writer, cough--but let's move on...)

These comments should be published, which I told Kelly in a reply email, because they concern city business and are being communicated over city email. Transparency for taxpayers, and all that.

Here's an idea: How about holding these discussions and debates in an open, public forum?

People might disagree about stuff. Some subjects may even be divisive. That's a risk you take when you live in a democracy.

Deep thoughts II

It must be weird to wake up every day as an elected official, in a dump that's not your primary residence, knowing that many of the people working for you don't respect or like you, and would gladly testify against you in a corruption investigation.