Insurgents Sweep Saratoga Springs Elections

John Safford defeated Ron Kim in mayoral race.

Tim Coll defeated James Montagnino and Kristen Dart in the Public Safety Commissioner race.

Michele Madigan and Matt Veitch prevailed in the County Supervisor race.

18 thoughts on “Insurgents Sweep Saratoga Springs Elections”

    1. Nonsense! The election process worked, but it had nothing to do with the form of government. Elected officials are routinely voted out of office, regardless of their position and form of government body.

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      1. Please be reminded that a city manager, who is not elected but appointed under the city manager form of government, cannot be voted out. There is no election process for the person running the city in the city manager form of government.

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    2. Re: your comment below, a city manager, appointed by the city council, could also be removed by the council for various reasons, as outlined in their contract. We knew from his first week in office that Kim was incompetent when he violated the city charter by firing the city attorneys and assuming their roles for himself. It only got worse from there and it took two years to get rid of him. Kim was not the only council member who should have been booted early. Thomas Curley and Tom McTygue come to mind, as well.

      I’m not in favor of either a city manager or a strong mayor and would like to see a strong, diverse city council whose job is legislative only. That includes hiring qualified people to run the various departments. Under the current system, we’re still stuck with Moran and Sanghvi for another two years, along with the various deputies who are political appointees, some of whom are well qualified and some of whom are not. What we have now is five competing fiefdoms that function as they want for two years at a time.

      The arguments for reform have merit, but the revised charters, as pushed by Prof. Bob Turner, lacked imagination and were rightfully rejected.

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  2. Thank you John for all your work and reporting on the mess in city hall.
    Hopefully Saratoga can heal and get back to being a fantastic place for raising a family.
    Your work helped in getting Kim exposed and removed.

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      2. Is it considered a hit piece (or peice?) if Kim and Montagnino were objectively terrible at their jobs? Just about every action they took with city personnel, policies, finances, and legal issues was a total failure. Good riddance.

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  8. Good job, Saratoga Springs voters! Removing Kim and Montagnino subtracts two toxic ingredients from the City Council. If Safford and Coll just act like grown-ups, the council will look a whole lot better.

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  9. The interesting figure is the number of “undercounts” or votes that were not cast, even though a ballot was submitted. For example, for Finance Commissioner, there were a total of 8,443 ballots cast. Of those ballots, there were 5,248 votes for Sanghvi (who ran unopposed) and 2,938 blanks, which could be interpreted as “none of the above.”

    The fact that there was no opposition meant that voters who, for example, don’t read this blog, were unaware of her mismanagement and fiscal blunders. I’m surprised that One Saratoga or even the Republican Party couldn’t find candidates for the three council seats where there was only a single candidate. [As an aside, in some states, like Nevada, “None of the Above” actually appears on the ballot.] This is the problem with a city council that has part-time commissioners who have to both legislate and run departments for a pittance of compensation. Part-time legislators and full-time department heads, appointed by the council as a whole and based on their qualifications, would encourage more people to run for the council. That’s why the commission system is obsolete.

    Next year, it’s time for registered Democrats to run for the City Democratic Committee so Sanghvi and Moran could be dumped from the 2025 ticket. Golub’s main problem is that he seems to go along with the others in order to preserve his self-interest in being a party player.

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  10. The election results were ideal. Ron Kim will go elsewhere and do something else. Tim Coll, a Democrat endorsed by the Republican Party will provide a steady hand and keep order and ensure laws are enforced fairly. Michelle Madigan wins her sixth election without the party endorsement to represent Saratoga Springs at the County – a very good role for her high energy persona.

    The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee made some serious mistakes this past year with improper process in meetings (excluding Registered Democrats from meetings in violation of the State Charter) as well as not providing endorsements or support to highly qualified candidates.

    I think with Ron Kim gone; the council may be able to get some good work done these next two years. Kim and Montagnino were so strongly disliked by different elements of the party that their prospects were deliberately scuttled by viable third option candidates.

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