Saratoga Springs committee to finalize participatory budgeting ballot Monday

SARATOGA SPPRINGS – A committee of seven Saratoga Springs city residents will meet Monday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. to discuss the final eight to 10 projects to appear on the ballot this December as part of the city’s first year of participatory budgeting.

The 2022 participatory budgeting pilot program offers residents the chance to propose projects, with total funding for all projects making up less than 1% of the city’s budget, or around $100,000. Once final projects are placed on the ballot, city residents 18 and older will be able to vote online or in-person on the ones they’d like to fund.

Voting will take place from Dec. 3 to Dec. 11, said Heather Crocker, the deputy commissioner of finance. 

“You do not need to be a registered voter,” Crocker said. 

An online platform created by Stanford University will be used for casting ballots online, but committee Chairwoman Mary Estelle Ryckman said they also plan to have paper ballots at the open meetings the committee plans to hold during the voting period. She also said she believes there will be some at the finance office. 

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“Any spending on projects has to be approved by the city council,” Crocker said. 

Ryckman said the committee received around 20 projects. Over the summer, the group worked to whittle down the number of projects to look at putting on the ballot by determining such matters as whether the project scope cost beyond what money was available, or if the project was already completed. Such was the case with rehabilitating the Spring Run Trail off of Excelsior Springs Avenue. 

Ryckman said while some of the projects were outside the scope of the process, it’s still good to hear all the ideas residents want to see happen in the community. By having that interaction she said the committee can still relay those ideas to the city to look at for possible future funding or planning. 

Some of the submitted project ideas include creating a community garden near the farmers market, adding a fountain to the Saratoga Spa State Dog Park, encouraging more curling and replacing the city’s flowers with perennials instead of annuals. 

“We think once we get through this year we’ll have the process really down and next year more ideas will come in,” she said.

Ryckman said the process has had many positive comments not only from departments within the city but community members. She said department heads have been happy to hear that some of the ideas they were thinking of doing were ones the community really wanted to see too. 

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Ryckman also said community members have told her the participatory budgeting makes them feel included, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were feeling cut off. 

Details on the projects that will be included on the ballot will be available prior to voting, Ryckman said. 

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