Correcting misstatements

Editor,

As I write this letter we don’t know who will be the next Mayor of Saratoga but felt I needed to respond to Lynda Healy’s letter in the October 31 edition of the Saratoga Sun.

She stated that the previous Mayor (that be me) had entered into a lawsuit with Randy Stevens that even the insurance company would no longer honor. First off, the mayor doesn’t have the authority to enter into a lawsuit without council approval or under the advice of the town’s attorney. Secondly, her claim that the insurance company would no longer honor the litigation is totally false. All litigations including the Randy Stevens litigation are turned over to the Local Government Liability Pool to represent the town and they still are representing the town on the Steven’s litigation today.

She claims that the Current Mayor and Council have faced financial uphill battles they inherited. When I left office there was two million dollars in the reserve account. My reasoning for running for the office of mayor was, at the time, I filed the reserve account was just over six hundred thousand.

The money spent on the 2011 flooding did come out of the reserve account. I addressed this during the candidate forum that, had we not been reimbursed by the Federal Government, we would have been out much more than we were. I also addressed my concerns that we have had two other events that could have cost the town thousands of dollars had the outcome been different and would need the reserve account to help with those types of issues.

She claims that the enterprise funds have dwindled and that water and sewer repairs are needed desperately. I can only say that the one hundred and eighty thousand dollars that was spent on removing gravel was money that had been earmarked for water projects. I might add that the previous administration had nothing to do with that.

She also referred to the recreation department issues and the recreation director hours being cut to half time hours. Again, the previous administration had nothing to do with that. In fact, I was very supportive of the recreation program when I was Mayor.

I am very proud of the Bridge and Hot Pool Project and wouldn’t change that if I could.

Thank you,

John Zeiger, Saratoga