Saratoga Springs needs two City Attorneys. This city has had two City Attorneys since 1973, with the exception of a period during Mayor Kim’s tenure. By my count, that is fifty years. According to the latest version of Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s budget, Sanghvi has defunded the second attorney.
The defunding of the City Attorney position is part of a more complex deal between Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran, Mayor Ron Kim, and Minita Sanghvi.
Moran is the big winner in all of this. Sanghvi has taken the money that funded the City Attorney position in the Mayor’s office ($105,276.88) and shifted it to the Accounts Department to fund a Risk and Safety position there thus transferring authority over Risk and Safety away from the Mayor and granting it to Moran.
Readers may recall that during his first year in office, Kim, with the support of Public Safety Commissioner Montagnino, and Sanghvi, had Risk and Safety transferred from Moran’s department to the Mayor’s office. Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub abstained. The Mayor was adamant as to how important this reorganization was. He argued that the Risk and Safety Director needed to work more closely with the City Attorney.
Apparently, having lost his election, Kim feels less passionate about the need for Risk and Safety being in his office. He also has offered no pushback about losing the funding for the second City Attorney who works under the Mayor.
Readers also may recall the ever-morphing approach to staffing the City Attorney’s office. When Kim came into office, one of his first acts was to fire both City Attorneys. He saw little urgency in hiring a City Attorney initially, touting his own credentials as well as those of his Deputy, who is also an attorney. After a series of legal debacles, he rehired Tony Izzo. Over time, he hired an additional attorney who was supposed to manage Risk and Safety as well as provide the Council with legal services. We all know how this strategy worked out. For those who may not remember, our insurance carrier refused to continue to underwrite the city. The insurance company cited a dysfunctional Risk and Safety program as the primary reason for their decision.
According to the November 22, 2023 edition of the Times Union:
Kim and Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran also said that the city Risk and Safety program will revert to the Accounts Department on Dec. 1.
TImes Union November 22, 2023
I have learned that the Assistant City Attorney, Michael Phillips, who was supposed to be handling Risk and Safety, is leaving his job on November 30, 2023, so this may explain the date for the reorganization.
Putting aside the inconvenient truth that all this reorganization has been done behind closed doors, it is unclear how, in this year’s budget, this move can happen on December 1. There is currently no money in the 2023 budget in Accounts to pay for a Risk and Safety position for the rest of this year.
Given Moran’s history of indifference to procedure and detail and his abusive and overbearing style of management, I find it more than worrisome that he will oversee Risk and Safety.
It is hard to tell how much of this is Democrat Moran trying to expand his power and how much of this is a partisan move to weaken the new Republican Mayor.
What I do know is that the city needs two attorneys, and it was reckless of Sanghvi to have defunded one. The city also needs a Risk and Safety program that functions effectively. What is going on here is highly controversial and needs to be debated publicly by the Council. Let Mayor Kim explain why suddenly the city no longer needs two attorneys and why, after insisting that his office must oversee Risk and Safety, he is supporting moving it back to Accounts. Let Sanghvi explain why she is supporting this reorganization.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
This is another way this council is showing how dysfunctional the current administration is. It’s about them, power driven and making it obvious the next administration will not have their cooperation. It’s vindictive and very frightening. Commissioner Moran is showing everyone exactly the kind of person he really is. It was evident the night he was elected and how he conducted himself with a reporter. I am sure he will continue to show us how unprofessional and nasty he can be.
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We can ask at the City Council final budget hearing this Tuesday, but will they respond or ignore Saratogian‘s as practiced throughout their term?
Apparently, the City Council autocracy will continue for one more month. As long as Moron and Sanghvi are employed, citizens should garner strength and object as they play with our taxpayers money, leaving our city in an unprecedented risk pool!
Remember folks, this is our money, lives and property being abused.
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I think it’s great that this blogger is willing to take the time to expose the shenanigans of the Democrats in city government. Keep up the great work John !
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The Council can find the funds to hire an outside attorney to investigate Commissioner Montagnino’s remarks about a horse and his wife. While those remarks were in poor taste, it hardly seems like a good use of taxpayer money to investigate comments made by a soon to be replaced Commissioner that only vaguely could be considered as sexual harassment. The Council can find $75,000 to hire a firm the to assess the implementation of the 50 Point Police Reform Task Force Plan, even though an ad hoc committee of Saratogians could do the same without being tainted by concerns about lack of objectivity given the personal relationship between the firm being hired and the author of the 50 POINTS. Yet, the City can’t afford an assistant City attorney, a position that had been an important part of the functioning City government for many years.
It is reassuring to see that the Risk and Safety position funding has re-appeared in the 2024 proposed budget and it has again been included under the Accounts Department. It’s almost as if the ill-advised moves by Ron Kim to undermine Marilyn Rivers never happened. Was it just a bad dream?
It should be noted that the 2022 budget approved by the previous City Council included funding for both the City attorney and the assistant City attorney. For this Council to hamstring our next mayor by failing to fund the assistant City attorney position in 2024 does not reflect well on our current office holders.
Ron Kim’s decision to not fill the two City attorney positions early in his administration should have served as an indication of the various poor decisions to follow. The City Charter (title 8.1) states “There shall be a City Attorney who shall report to the Council regarding all legal matters affecting the City.” Notice the two ‘shalls’ in that statement which apparently meant little to Ron Kim.
Chris Mathiesen
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As I recall Ron Kim was quite incensed when members of the previous administration filled vacancies toward the end of their terms without allowing the incoming office holders to make the appointments. All perfectly legal but according to Kim unprincipaled. Now Kim, on his way out of office is not only filling every vacancy he can find, but more dramatically is rearranging the Mayor’s office in an obvious move to hamstring the incoming Mayor’s authority. Thus the Risk and Safety office that Kim insisted was better suited to be in the Mayor’s office is sent back to Accounts where it will once again be under the abusive supervision of Dillon Moran. Worse Kim has apparently been a player in stripping the city of a second City Attorney. Once again these Council members have put their petty personal vendettas and power moves above the welfare of the city. Shame on them and shame on the Democratic Committee for their role in getting these people in office. BTW what happened to the reasonable Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub who spoke up to voice concerns about how the original transfer of Risk and Safety to the Mayor’s office was conducted? He has since morphed onto a silent go along guy, voting repeatedly for bad legislation without raising any objections. One can only hope these maneuverings are a bridge too far for him, and he will find his voice once again to object to the obvious cynicism of these post election maneuvers.
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