Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim’s behavior at his last regularly scheduled City Council meeting (the voters resoundingly defeated him in November) was the perfect ugly coda to his term in office. Unhappy with the message that former Public Safety Commissioner and County Planner Lew Benton was delivering during the public comment period, he interrupted Lew, and when Lew attempted to finish his remarks, Kim banged the gavel and temporarily shut the meeting down to silence Lew.
This was especially disturbing because Kim routinely has allowed speakers who are friendly to him to go on with no limit. In fact, earlier this year, he had announced that the four-minute limit was simply a suggestion. Since then, he has routinely opened the public comment period by stating that people should just try to limit their remarks to four minutes as a courtesy to others who might wish to speak. Apparently, Kim’s generosity did not include extending this flexibility to Lew Benton.
Violating State Authority-Who Cares?
Lew Benton braved the cold and took the time to come to a City Council meeting to advise the Council that they had lacked the authority to limit truck traffic on Van Dam Street as they voted to do at a previous Council meeting. He explained to the Council that he had contacted the New York State Department of Transportation, and they had confirmed his understanding. Lew was attempting to explain the law and what the city’s options were when Kim cut him off.
Now a naive reader might have expected someone from the Council to have insisted not only that Lew be allowed to finish but also that the Council should follow up on what Lew was telling them and reconsider their action. Surely, the homeowners on Van Dam Street deserve a full review. After all, the Council had led them to believe that their truck traffic problems were over. Instead, Kim’s colleagues, like him, cruised along as though unaware of the very large gorilla present in the room-the inconvenient truth that they had overreached their authority.
[More on all the other mischief at the December 19, 2023 Council meeting in a later post]
Saratoga Springs Politics 
I was appalled for the reasons you state yet further as Lew Benton is a venerated member of the Saratoga Springs community who has served well for many years. He is an elder who deserves to be indulged and allowed to finish his thoughts. His aversion to perceived criticism was enough reason for his disrespect and irrational reaction. So glad he will be gone. SHAME ON HIM!
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In contrast, Mayor Kim allowed Bill McTygue to speak for well over 5 minutes at the previous city council meeting… surprise, surprise.
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Did he ever gavel any of the true disrupters???
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Once again, the council is showing us how ineffective and unprofessional they are. Kim is a sore loser that doesn’t care what he does before his term is up. The other council members are following. It appears they are afraid of speaking up. It’s interesting to see who is behind all of this besides Kim. How sad!
Voters will remember next election.
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Little Ronny with a matching intellect…
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Those seeking elective office should be subject to a multi-stage psychological evaluation to weed out those with personality disorders. Those elected who simply prove insufficiently competent can be forgiven, hopefully work to achieve competency during their terms, and otherwise voted out at the next election. But those who have serious disorders should never appear on ballot. Law enforcement officers are subject to such evaluation, so why not those seeking power over constituents’ daily lives?
I realize those who are thus rejected for candidacy will, individually or through their committees, sue for inclusion, but in the long run the mere fact they were rejected for candidacy will help reduce the likelihood destructive people don’t win office.
I also fault the Saratoga Springs Democrat Committee for promoting and defending people who are simply awful occupants of office. The current SSDC cares only about orthodoxy and winning and power, and doesn’t much care for our community’s well-being. More the shame on them.
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Craftsman:
I wonder if Donald J. Trump would pass your psych test? You brought up an interesting subject.
“But those who have serious disorders should never appear on ballot. Law enforcement officers are subject to such evaluation, so why not those seeking power over constituents’ daily lives?”
I agree.
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