firsdt they work for the repubs and are trying to cause the problem so wake up over here

you rich people in eldorado estates will pay for police for the city crime problems.  no more town police who make more than the boys in blue in the city.  it is time the rich pay for the poor and old people in the city.
get used to it cuz the good mayor is going to make it happen with help from cuomo and the nice ladies at the womans voters group  nothing you can do accept pay more taxes cause you have money that we need to help other poeple.

our president says that the economy is better when you spred the wealth around so PAY YOUR TAXES AND STOP COMPLANING.

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EDITORIAL
Sch’dy police consolidation issue not so easily dismissed

    It’s been more than a month now since Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton called for a study — just a study — of the idea of dissolving the city’s trouble-prone police department and creating a countywide force. The Schenectady County Democratic leadership has tried to reject the idea out of hand, but it deserves to be seriously explored. That’s because a countywide department could save all county taxpayers money and improve policing, not just in the city but all over the county.
    Stratton himself made a good case for consolidation, or at the very least a study, with an op-ed column in last Sunday’s Gazette. He was answering his “good friends,” as he called them, county legislative chairwoman Susan Savage and Chris Gardner, who held an extraordinary press conference right after Stratton went public with the consolidation idea, calling it unnecessary and declaring that the city has all the disciplinary authority over the police that it could possibly want or need, if it would but exercise it.
    The problem is that, legally, this authority is no sure thing, as Savage and Gardner suggest. The authority was only recently claimed by the city’s public safety commissioner and rests on an interpretation of the Second Class Cities Law and the city charter that may well not stand up in court. If not, then it would be back to the police contract and binding arbitration in discipline cases — which is to say, back to paralysis.
    After the press conference, both Savage and Gardner followed up with similar arguments in letters to the editor to this newspaper. They were then supported in yet another letter by Niskayuna Supervisor Joe Landry. Landry, who had earlier sounded sympathetic to consolidation in response to a Gazette reporter’s questions about it (“We’ll defer to the county, to whatever the city and the county work out”), now declared, “I believe our residents would not realize any efficiencies, nor any savings, from a countywide police force.” He offered no evidence as to why.
    Gardner, a former labor attorney, also claims that, even with a new department, the old contract would apply, that work and bargaining rules couldn’t change, that Schenectady police would have to be hired based on seniority, etc. Perhaps, but the city’s attorneys think otherwise. How do we know Gardner is right? And why are he and Savage arguing the police union’s case for it? Are they that beholden to the union, which controls the Conservative Party in the county, and whose support the Democrats need to win some seats?
    If consolidation makes sense from a public policy standpoint, as a letter elsewhere on today’s page strongly suggests, then responsible public officials should be pushing it. Let a feasibility study, which the League of Women Voters earlier this week called for, determine if and how it can be done and whether it makes sense. If the unions want to fight it, let them do so themselves.

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00900

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Take it from a cop who’s been there: consolidation works

    As a police officer who [in and around Ottawa, Ont.] went through the type of consolidation being discussed for Schenectady County, I feel I can talk about this to some extent.
    At the time, we officers fought consolidation all the way. We had 700 offi cers before and 1,800 after. We had two towns that fought it very aggressively, mostly because they wanted to have all the say regarding their police.
    I really think they wanted their own little kingdoms.
    I think I can say [consolidation] was the best thing that ever happened. First of all, with detectives in one division in the county, you can have a major crime unit with experienced officers to handle homicide and all other high-profile crime.
    Your identification section (fingerprinting, etc.) can be one unit for the whole county — you don’t have to call in an identification person in on overtime. At night, in most cases two people could handle the whole county.
    The same scenario would apply to the traffic division. If something major happened overnight, you would call many officers to the scene, but no overtime. Dispatching one system countywide was better for the officer’s contact and offered huge savings.
    Buying power for vehicles and equipment were cut by 25 percent in most cases. I could go on, but I think everyone understands my position. It would be better all around, not only for Schenectady city, but all other towns and villages in the county — and save taxpayers money.

    CARMAN HODGINS
    Niskayuna

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00904

sounds like big pants savage and gardiner are gonna loose this battle to the good mayor stratton.  they think that they are queen and king  when are you gonna lern that you cant push mr. stratton around  he is working for whats best for the poeple

besides you rich poeple in eldorado estates can pay for the police in the city.  time for you to pay your country club fees  LOLOLOLOL

Quoted from 335

sounds like big pants savage and gardiner are gonna loose this battle to the good mayor stratton.  they think that they are queen and king  when are you gonna lern that you cant push mr. stratton around  he is working for whats best for the poeple

besides you rich poeple in eldorado estates can pay for the police in the city.  time for you to pay your country club fees  LOLOLOLOL

idiot

Quoted from B GAGE

idiot

Just a sally wannabee

Quoted Text

And why are he and Savage arguing the police union’s case for it? Are they that beholden to the union, which controls the Conservative Party in the county, and whose support the Democrats need to win some seats?

And the answer is...??? I don't think the dems need the cons support for anything. Even if the cons threw their weight to the reps, I don't think it would make a difference. The dems are embedded in everything.To unseat them will take years and years and years.

Quoted Text

City helps county, why not other way around?

    Re the Schenectady Police Department being abolished and shared with the help of the rest of the county: First of all, the city is the seat of county government. You come in from Duanesburg, Princetown, Pattersonville, Glenville, Rotterdam, Scotia and Niskayuna to use myriad services of the Department of Motor Vehicles, sheriff’s department, courts, property deeds and so forth.
    For county Chairwoman Susan Savage to tell the city that it’s our problem to deal with our own police department is a slap in the face to city residents who have put up with many countywide problems.
    For example, when arrests of “johns” are reported, they show that most who are caught up in the prostitution/crack cocaine trade are from everywhere but the city. And what about those who come in from Clifton Park or Saratoga to buy their crack cocaine or heroin? Shouldn’t Schenectady be compensated for their arrests, incarceration and the inevitable black eye that Schenectady is a drug/ prostitute/sex slave market? Perhaps a surcharge on those communities would work?
    When Attorney General Cuomo was at Schenectady County Community College — again a countywide college in the city — he pointed out that there are 10,521 governments in New York state! Savage shared the dais with the attorney general, yet she states that the city is on its own to sort its own problems.
    Yes, the police department is a city law enforcement agency. But Ms. Savage missed the point that the attorney general was making — that shared services is an idea whose time has come.
Her attitude, sadly, grates against common sense. The world is global, and when we do things locally it has a ripple effect. So, why not share policing duties? It’s time for the concept of shared services to work for all, and not the burdensome layers of failed fiefdoms that don’t see the reality of global problems in our front yards.

GERALD PLANTE
Schenectady
The writer is a Democratic committeeman for District 2.     

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar03204

mr plant is right.  you poeple use the city you come to buy your drugs and hookers.  you shoulld have to pay for them and the boys in blue.  the rich poeple in the towns shoud have to pay this surcharge the mr plant proposes.

and bgage, please dont call me a idiot. you are a police who likes things just how they are.  you will have to patrol the city and report to new bosses like the fine mr. stratton.  it WILL happen

Gerald Plante and the Krat run League of Women voters support Police consolidation? Well, then its finished. The Gazetto will not give up on this horrible idea. They all live in Saratoga County so they know what's best for you sheeple. Wonder why their readership is at all time lows? Only a complete moron like LTC would support this in the suburbs.

   Here's a new plan-disband the City! Remove pathetic Son of Sam and his 7 rubber stamps Kratz. Then fire the useless Police "Commiss". That will save two million dollars right there. Let the County Legislature run the City-they couldn't do any worse.

In a way, I agree with Mr. Plante. On a recent trip to DMV, a County run office, who's sitting back reading the newspaper "guarding" the clerks, but an SPD officer (looked like he was dressed for the bike patrol).  Now, I've been in the DMV office when all hell breaks loose - and I'm glad officers are on duty to take care of situations. But it's time for the County to step up and acknowledge that the SPD protects their offices, comings and goings, etc. It's time to work WITH the city and get things back to "safe".

I'm not for consolidation of the police departments - AT ALL - but in the point where SPD patrols and protects County buildings and workers, I agree with him.

The County Sheriff's patrol the County Building/Courthouse and do a great job. First, the County DMV should not be where John Woodward put it. He promised to open offices in Rotterdam and Nisky. The DMV should be moved to Rotterdam and patrolled by the County Sheriff's or RPD. There is plenty of empty space in the Rotterdam Mall. This DMV moved to generate some traffic on lower State St which is a neutron bomb site.

     But let's not kid ourselves that the SPD should be disbanded and suburban officers thrown into Hamilton Hill. Son of Sam continues to offer no solutions to the growing crime and gang problems under his watch. The County Force is a smoke screen for his total failure to lead.

First of all, we pay a ton of taxes to the plex to make downtown 'look' nice. I don't think it is too much to ask for, for the city to keep the buildings we use safe. We don't have a choice but to go to those buidings for business. And after all, it is THEIR buildings in THEIR city.

Second, whether we agree or not, all of these police forces WILL consolidate eventually. But before they do, I would strongly suggest that Stratton clean up his own house first before inviting the rest of us in.