On the verge of leaving office, defeated Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim seems ready to assist his (at the moment) ally, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran, in Moran’s campaign to expand his power over the city. Moran has two items on his agenda for the December 5, 2023, City Council meeting that, if adopted, will transfer significant power and authority from the Mayor’s Office to Moran’s Accounts Department.
One resolution would move Risk and Safety responsibilities from the Mayor’s office back to Accounts. The other resolution would transfer responsibility for dealing with the New York State Liquor Authority from the Mayor’s office to Moran’s department.
Mayor Kim’s Sudden Conversion Over Who Should Oversee Risk And Safety
Had he not lost the election, Kim would never have allowed Risk and Safety to be moved from his office. Now, as he leaves office, he champions Moran’s cause.
Last year, Kim had doggedly pursued seizing Risk and Safety from the Accounts Department in a campaign that spanned three different Council meetings and hours of bitter argument. Kim finally succeeded in August of 2022. Consider this June 7, 2022, meeting video for a flavor of that bitter campaign (It’s very long).
At the upcoming Council meeting on December 5, 2023, Dillon Moran has a resolution to transfer Risk and Safety back to the Accounts department.
At the November 28, 2023, special Council meeting, Kim asserted that he still believed Risk and Safety should be in his office but oddly claimed that the recent election for Mayor centered around the question of where Risk and Safety should be. According to him, his defeat was a statement by voters that it should be in the Accounts Department. I find this utterly bizarre. While I think the decision by the city’s insurer, Travelers, not to continue to underwrite the city due to the mismanagement of Risk and Safety contributed to Kim’s loss, nowhere during his race did anyone advocate moving Risk and Safety to the Accounts Department.
Kim was caught in a trap of his own making. Having doggedly pursued control over Risk and Safety on the basis that it should be integrated with the City Attorney, he was hard-pressed to come up with a credible argument as to why, organizationally, it should be moved back to Accounts. I guess this explains his bizarre attempt to try to use the election to explain his change of mind.
Moran Can’t Even Craft A Resolution Properly
It is worth looking at Moran’s resolutions. A proper resolution ends with a “resolved” clause indicating the proposed action of the resolution. This follows the “whereas” clauses indicating why the action is taking place.
Consider this resolution on Risk and Safety apparently crafted by Moran.( His resolution regarding who should communicate with the State Liquor Authority has the same problem.)
The resolutions regarding Risk and Safety (actually, there are two on his agenda; who knows what he means to do with the two of them) and the SLA suffer from Moran’s inability to craft a resolution properly. Moran is not an attorney, and the prudent thing for him to have done would have been to consult the City Attorney.
It is absolutely chilling to think that he is going to be responsible for the Office of Risk and Safety.
Moran’s Resolution To Move Communicating with the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) From The Mayor’s Office To His
Moran, who owns a tiny stake in Druthers bar and restaurant and who is a denizen of the downtown bars, has a resolution that places control over the city’s relations with the New York State Liquor Authority in his office. As a liquor license is fundamental to bars and restaurants, this positions him as the czar these businesses must deal with when seeking a new or a renewal of their liquor license.
Last December, the Council passed a resolution that instructed the City Attorney, under the Mayor’s supervision, to write to the SLA when a liquor license was applied for, up for renewal, or modification to ask the SLA to prohibit the sale of alcohol beyond 2 am as a condition for granting the liquor license request. Moran will offer a resolution Tuesday night, nullifying the request for a 2AM closing. In addition, his new resolution gives the City Clerk (Moran is the city clerk), the responsibility of dealing with the SLA in all licensing matters.
WHEREAS, upon due consideration, the Council resolves that the City Clerk shall have authority, in his/her discretion, to promptly respond to the SLA in writing regarding an establishment’s liquor license, renewal of a liquor license, or modification or amendment of a liquor license and waivers of statutory 30-day
Moran motion
advance notices.
There has been a broad consensus to close the bars earlier due to both the cost of police overtime to cover the city’s bar area that late and to spare the police the abuse they must endure during those late-night hours.
I texted Moran asking that he explain why he wants to reverse the city’s efforts to require bars to close earlier than the current 4:00 am time. He responded as follows:
“Can you explain your constant lies? Repeated, constant and willful lies about me?
Dillon Moran text, December 2, 2023, 11:40 am
Saratoga Springs Politics 
Moran was never Kim’s ally. He just let him think he was. And he ended up with exactly the result he wanted.
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The past two years have been both chaotic and sad. The main and pretty much only transparency has been how inept this council has been as well as acting with questionable ethics. Certainly, Moran grabbing control of SLA applications when he owns even a small percentage of a drinking establishment is questionable.
What confounds me with the entire Risk and Safety issue is why, in the first place, the Risk and Safety professional who at the time was Marilyn could not work with the Attorney from Accounts. She had done so efficiently for many years. After all, while appointed by the Mayor, the attorney does not work within the Mayor’s office nor for the Mayor. Rather he is the CITY attorney working for all departments. This seems to have been a – perhaps intentional- misrepresentation since the Yepsen years when she wanted to claim that position as her own. Oh, the messes that made and apparently continued to be made during the Kim administration.
This seems to be a game of checkers (I’d say Chess but I don’t believe they can think at that depth). It is more likely Kim attempts to keep as much out of the hands of Safford who beat him. It would fit his tendency for animus.
I only hope that John Safford along with Tim Coll can bring this council back in line. The City deserves so much better.
Shame on Moran (though not unexpected) for his response to you. Regardless of personal feelings, elected officials need more decorum and professionalism.
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Gayle says: “This seems to be a game of checkers (I’d say Chess but I don’t believe they can think at that depth). It is more likely Kim attempts to keep as much out of the hands of Safford who beat him. It would fit his tendency for animus.”
I admit, I had to chuckle about the checkers vs chess comment. How true. I don’t ever remember seeing such frequent maneuvering between departments. Doesn’t our Charter put limitations on such obvious power grabs?
Mr Dillon exhibits such scurrilous behavior, one can wonder how he behaves when acting as a denizen of the downtown bars.
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Moran is someone who is hungry for power. I question why he wants control over the restaurant and bars. How many of them will go to great lengths to be in his favor? Ahh the “perks” of being in control. He’s showing us who he is, now believe it and remember next election.
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That IS a very long video. It should have been required viewing for all Saratogians. It is an example of just how bizarre many of those Council meetings became over the past two years. In that particular meeting, the Kim/Moran conflict was quite stark with Commissioner Moran coming across as the rational one. What a difference a year made as the odd-man-out transitioned to Commissioner Montagnino in 2023.
Of course the Risk and Safety Officer should transition back to the Accounts Department where the position functioned so well for years. Now all we need is a well-versed Risk and Safety Officer who will stand up to elected officials when necessary as Marilyn was willing to do.
No, Commissioner Moran should not be the person who is designated as the SLA contact in City Hall. When those communications came through the Mayor’s office, the City attorney would circulate the information to the other departments. As Commissioner of Public Safety, I was given the opportunity to recommend closing hours for on-premise sales of alcohol when applications for new or renewed licenses were being considered by the SLA. That system worked well. Don’t change it.
And No, the Council should not reverse their previous recommendation that licenses for future on-premise alcohol sales have a 2 AM limit. The SLA would be very disappointed if the City did not follow through with this measure. Caroline Street is a complete mess between 2 and 4 AM. The state is very aware of the many problems that have been occurring and they consider this gradual limitation on new liquor licenses to be a good start.
Chris Mathiesen
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The parade of personality disorders, incompetence and venality blithely marches on. When I think of Ron Kim and Dillon Moran I’m reminded somewhat of the Granville Sawyer character played by Porter Hall in The Miracle on 34th Street – a petty, self-unreflective little man eager to abuse whatever power he can lord over others.
And Dillon, as for John supposedly telling “[r]epeated, constant and willful lies about [you],” he’s backed up every one of his observations in this blog concerning your behavior with documentation, both video and and otherwise. You’re not helping yourself – but, by accounts I’ve gleaned from other Saratogians, you’ve not been helping yourself for many years.
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“The parade of personality disorders, incompetence and venality blithely marches on.”
Love this! Captures our City Council perfectly!
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Of all the council members to have more power, Moran seems like the one least deserving given the office he overseas and his demeanor. I feel bad for those in the local restaurant business that will have to suck up to him with hopes of being treated fairly by his shoddily designed program.
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