Three of the city Deputies, facilitated by their respective bosses, used a poorly defined provision adopted by the Saratoga Springs City Council to feed at the public trough.
- Angella Rella, Deputy Mayor: $5,640.75
- Stacy Connors, Deputy Commissioner of Accounts: $4,136.75
- Heather Crocker, Deputy Commissioner of Finance: $1,128.15
A Proposition Cynically Exploited
In February of 2023, the City Council voted for a major increase in their deputies’ salaries. At the same meeting, prompted by Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub, they added a new perk. All deputies could be paid extra to be “on call”.
As a computer consultant who supports software, I thought I was familiar with the term “on call”. This is the way I have always understood it:
if someone such as a doctor or engineer is on call, they are ready to go and help whenever they are needed as part of their job
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/be-on-call
So, as a computer consultant, I might be required to be on call in case, for instance, a client was installing new software and ran into trouble. This would mean that I would have to agree to be available immediately by phone or perhaps required to be able to be on sight within a certain amount of time to assist the client. On-call doctors, likewise, must be sober and able to respond within minutes should a medical emergency occur while they are on call.
At the time of the vote, I had understood that this provision was crafted as a way to compensate Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neil, whose job really requires that he be on call to deal with emergencies such as broken water pipes or snow storms, which his department would be responsible for.
Joe O’Neil is an outstanding city employee whose job really does subject him to the need to be potentially available twenty-four-seven.
Unfortunately, the language of the resolution was extremely poorly crafted, making it vulnerable to abuse. The problem was compounded due to the failure of Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi to properly monitor and manage this perk. At the time of the meeting, she told her colleagues that she would come up with additional parameters for the new perk and that she would assess the program and report on it quarterly.
In my FOIL request, I sought all documents regarding “on-call.” I received a copy of the resolution establishing on-call along with sheets submitted by the Deputies for payment. My FOIL produced no documents related to Sanghvi’s promises to produce parameters clarifying the new policy nor any documents establishing that she reviewed the program quarterly as she had promised at the February meeting.
I emailed her requesting a meeting on the issue.
She responded by directing me to the Human Resources office. I then wrote back to her asking:
- Could she provide me with her quarterly findings?
- Could she provide me with her suggested parameters for “on-call”?
- As the resolution establishing ”on-call” was to go into effect on February 9, 2023, could she explain how Deputy Mayor Angella Rella was paid for being on-call for the month of January and the first week of February?
- As the resolution calls for paying $125.35 a week for being on-call, how was the Finance Department calculating payments if someone was on-call for only a few days?
To date, I have not had a response to these questions from the Commissioner. In our form of government, it is the responsibility of the Commissioner of Finance to establish controls over city spending. These are serious questions that deserve proper answers. To refuse to respond raises grave concerns about what other breakdowns of oversight may be going on in her office.
The Resolution
This is the relevant language from the resolution that included establishing on-call:
Note that this benefit was supposed to only be used by deputies whose department had 24/7 response requirements and involved the necessity of being available to respond to emergency calls. [The final version was amended to remove the phrase “that is not operationally staffed 24/7” thus allowing the Public Safety Deputy to be eligible although Tetu never put in for this pay.]
What Constitutes On Call for a Deputy??
Consider this document from Deputy Mayor Angella Rella seeking payment for being “on-call”:
This is just one of the four pay forms Ms. Rella submitted and that Ron Kim approved to be paid. Three were submitted on November 11, 2023. The fourth was dated December 24. Note the timing of Ms. Rella’s submission of these forms. According to the resolution, this benefit was to be approved and paid on a quarterly basis, but Rella waited until November 11, 2023, to begin to submit her bills. That was just four days following her boss’ defeat in the November 7 election.
The resolution states that the benefit was to go into effect on February 9, 2023 [JK: The date had to be amended because a revised version had to be adopted with a new date of February 21, 2023]. Yet Rella asked for and was paid for the entire month of January and the first week in February. The Finance Department is responsible for making sure claims are legitimate when they do payroll, yet they approved this.
Most startling is that the four documents she billed for claim that she was on call seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, from January 2, 2023, to December 24, 2023.
As readers will observe, the form for reporting includes a column titled “Reason,” which I assume was meant to explain what was going on that required her availability. She didn’t bother to write anything in this column. Instead, she simply pasted into the head of the form that “…she was available for contact by the Mayor’s Department and was responsible for responding to emergency situations, events, and assigning subordinate employee(s) during these week dates.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because she simply took the language from the resolution.
Who Knows What “On Call” Means?
How could this happen?
Missing from the resolution were the following:
- Any definition as to what is construed as being on-call.
- Whether the employee was required to meet sobriety standards while on-call.
- How quickly an employee was required to respond to an on-call demand (would being on a plane or going anywhere where cell service was problematic, disqualify a deputy from this benefit?). Just how available does a person have to be when on-call?
- What constituted the kind of potential emergencies that merited the person being on-call?
- What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Accounts Department to be on-call?
- What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Finance Department to be on-call?
- What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Mayor’s office to be on call (in Rella’s case, 24/7, for a year)?
Granted, the Accounts department is charged with managing the election logistics in the city, so there might be staffing issues or problems with equipment that would merit having the Deputy on call on those specific days. Other than that, the Accounts Department is responsible for doing such city business as issuing licenses, keeping city records, and assessing city properties. It’s hard to imagine what emergency could possibly occur in that Department that would require the Deputy to be paid to be on call. Nothing happens in the Accounts Department after office hours that can be construed as an emergency.
The Finance Department includes the IT department but that department has an internal on-call policy already that was negotiated with the CSEA union. They rotate three IT staff people who are paid not $125.35 like the Deputies, but $75.00 to be on call for the week. They have successfully operated this way for years. So the Finance Department Deputy doesn’t have to manage these people to get them in should there be an IT emergency after office hours. As with the Accounts Department, nothing happens after office hours in Finance that can be construed as an emergency that needs to have anyone ready for a quick response.
Is This Being Confused With Work Outside Of Normal Business Hours?
While Rella and Finance Deputy Heather Crocker simply leave the reason column of the On-Call Pay form blank, consider this document for Deputy Commissioner Of Accounts Stacy Connors which Dillon Moran approved.
It is unclear how to interpret this document. What does being available to respond to an emergency have to do with attending the State of the City event?What does attending a wake have to do with being on-call? What does attending a “special” City Council meeting have to do with being on-call? In her other sheets, she has “CC” in the reason column. Based on the dates, I assume this refers to City Council meetings. What does being on-call have to do with attending a City Council meeting? None of what she lists has anything to do with being “on call,” yet Moran approved this, and the Payroll employee in the Finance Department paid her.
Public Safety Dispatchers Get Nothing For Being On Call
According to past Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino, the Public Safety dispatchers are required to be on call for eight hours before and after their shifts but receive no special compensation for this.
[JK: I have been told that Commissioner Monagnino was misinformed on this.]
Reform?
This mess really needs some sort of action. Commissioner Sanghvi is responsible for monitoring the city’s finances and for ensuring there is no abuse. Her cavalier attitude about this gross waste of city money is most unfortunate. There is no indication she plans to reconsider this, let alone reform it.
The Documents
Stacy Connors (Accounts)
Angela Rella (Mayor)
Heather Crocker (Finance)
Joe O’Neil (Public Works)
Saratoga Springs Politics 
This is beyond the pale. I am stunned and shocked that along with the ridiculous increases in the deputy salaries that were approved by Commissioner’s Moran, Sangvhi, Golub, Montagnino, and former Mayor Kim that began on 1/1/2023 they also gave their deputies on-call pay and that 3 of these deputies (Rella, Crocker, and Connors) thought their normal deputy work outside of business hours constitutes on-call pay. Let’s remember that state legislature staffers do not receive any over-time or on-call pay – and sometimes they are stuck in chambers over-night with short breaks for days on end during legislative session. Deputies are appointed exempt employees who work for a salary – and with the recent increases it’s a pretty big salary too! The residents and taxpayers should be incensed. There is no reason listed in the records obtained by Mr. Kaufmann that should allow for any approved on-call pay for these deputies! Yes, I will say DPW is different and should be dealt with differently. This is an abuse of a loosely defined provision. I will ask the City Council to kindly revise their loose provision that leads to this sort of eating at the public trough. One of the deputies literally put in for extra pay to go to the State of the City – OMG! Am I living in bizzaro world?! Is this bad judgement, and if not, what is it? Am I missing something about working in the public service realm?!
Michele Madigan
Former Commissioner of Finance (2012-2021)
Current County Supervisor, City of Saratoga Springs
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I have calculated Rella and Connors owe the City nearly $600 for “on call pay” claimed before the resolution was passed. I didn’t see retro pay in the resolution. How does the City go about collecting the money owed?
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Thank you for bringing this to light. I’ve taken the liberty of calculating what Angela Rella and Stacy Connors owe the city for “on call pay” claimed before the resolution was even passed. I’m pretty sure my math is correct or within a few dollars. I’m not perfect. This may get complicated. The point is Rella and Connors owe the City money.
The resolution states effective 2/9 once it is passed. There is no retro pay that I can see. They should only get credit from end of meeting 2/9 (3.5 hrs, then full days 2/10, 2/11, 2/12) per the resolution.
The CC meeting on 2/9 ended at around 8:30 ish. Let’s assume they started their “on call for emergencies” immediately after the meeting. I’ve taken the liberty of adding the 3.5 hrs. For 8:30-midnight on 2/9= $2.60. 2/10-2/12 $53.57.
Stacy would owe $571.53
5 full weeks claimed prior to resolution ($125 x 5) $625 -$53.57 (3.5 hours on 2/9, 2/10, 2/11, 2/12 are for the partial week)
Angela would owe the same as Stacy- $571.53
(5 x $125) $625 – $53.57 (actual time week of 2/6)
How will the City collect the $571.53 from both Stacy Connors and Angela Rella?
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“Concerned” You are correct, they owe for the retroactive pay. However, I totally agree with former Commissioner Madigan that this on-call pay should not be allowed for anyone other than Deputy O’Neill. Whoever drew up the resolution should be admonished. Public Works and Public Safety should be the only deputies who would qualify for extra compensation. Shame on Sanghvi and Moran, again.
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Talk about milking, HOLY COW!! The past administration is corrupt beyond pale. My hope is that the new administration will be able to clean up the trash left behind.
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Agree what a mess show Kim and his cronies were for the city.
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Disgraceful…again, or I guess, as usual. Where are the checks and balances? When I was the executive director of an agency, my CFO was held accountable for all of the money leaving the checkbook…and if he pulled a number like this, he knows to this day that I would have escorted him out of the building. As a former executive, I’m appalled that a city could have such poor leadership running it. As a taxpayer, I’m disgusted when people try to rip me off.
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I agree with all the sentiments expressed here, what a disgrace. I am especially disappointed with Deputy Mayor Angela Rella. Her willingness to cosign Ron’s terrible decisions speak volumes about her awful judgement, lack of professionalism and overall incompetence.
These people seem to have no qualms about fleecing the taxpayers out of whatever money they can, whether it’s for pet projects or their own personal gain.
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I was a public safety dispatcher for several years. We were required to be on call without any compensation. We could be called into work 4 hours prior to the shift when people called out. We also had to be available after the shift. I was called back into work on several occasions. Since we were constantly short staffed, this happened with great frequency. The junior person was mandated to come into work if no senior person would take the shift. My last year prior to leaving, I worked 500 hours of overtime. We received no special compensation other than OT.
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First, thanks to John Kaufmann for doing all the research necessary to find out about this misuse of on-call pay. I too remember the discussions on this topic. On-call was supposed to be a way of fairly compensating the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works whose position and responsibilities are starkly different from the other four deputies. Joe O’Neil is literally on-call for after-hours emergencies on a continuous basis. He serves more as the general foreman of Public Works than as a deputy commissioner. He is the only one who is entitled to this additional payment.
Recent Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Jason Tetu should be thanked for not abusing this system. Jason is an honorable guy who understands that, though there are unusual circumstances where both the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety might have to be contacted after hours, the supervisors of their departments are equipped to handle most emergencies in that 24/7 operations department. It is part of their routine.
Unfortunately, three other deputies did not follow Jason’s example. There are no instances where the Deputies of Accounts and Finance and the Deputy Mayor would have to be on call. On call for what? There is no history of such a burden being a part of the job description for those positions in past years. I am not aware of any instance where one of those three positions was so vital that after-hours operations of the City were crippled without them.
The Mayor and the four Commissioners are always on call and certainly should be able to take on after hours responsibilities without activating their deputies (with the obvious exception of Public Works).
Another factor that John touched upon is the salary structure for the deputies. In 2012, deputies were making $66,693. That went up to $70,362 in 2015, $74,664 in 2018, and $77,680 in 2021. The deputies salary for 2023 was originally budgeted at a very fair $80,818. For reasons that I still can’t fathom, the City Council during last year enacted a very generous bump in pay for their deputies. They each made $91,651 in 2023 and now are being paid $95,353. For those very well-paid deputies to submit documents calling for unnecessary on-call pay adds insult to injury for our hard-working taxpayers. Hopefully, the new Council members will have a more sober approach to City expenditures.
Chris Mathiesen
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I have read all of these posts and looked at the exact language of the ‘on call’ resolution and the expressed responsibilities of those to whom this pay applies.
The subject of fair compensation is very sensitive. Wage differentials and living wage standards are not really understood for what they represent. I know enough about the Deputy Commissioners to know that they are receiving fair pay for their positions. $100,000 per year for professionals with advanced degrees and many years of experience may actually be a bargain for the city. Many police officers and fire fighters make more than this with overtime.
In a society like ours, where technical decisions and highly capable individuals are needed to manage our affairs, I think subjecting people to mass ridicule for what is a normal wage is a very low-class thing to do.
By historical standards, we may be undervaluing highly capable people to the detriment of all. In ancient Rome, a Centurion (company commander, Captain) made 15 times as much per year as a foot solider (private) – the Legion Commander (brigade commander, Brigadier General) made over 100 times that of a foot soldier.
The leadership team is being compensated for being available 24/7 to the people of Saratoga Springs for an extra $125 per week. This is totally reasonable.
This criticism is directly pulled from Marx’s manifesto, a man who would simply have the masses capture and force physicists, chemists, lawyers, and others to work for food – a very real risk for our society.
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Sam, It is not reasonable.
Even if they had submitted the expense reports in a timely manner. (like Joe O’Neill’s)
Marx’s manifesto?
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Mr. Brewer-First of all the Deputies are not necessarily “professionals with advanced degrees and many years of experience.” There are no requirements to hold this job nor is there any job description. It is totally up to the Commissioners to pick who they want in this position. They are political appointees.
Having said that, the question is not whether these deputies are fairly compensated with their generous $90,000 plus salaries plus benefits. The issue is that this extra pay was supposed to go to executive employees “working in a department with 24/7 response requirements”. That would be Public Works and Public Safety. Other than IT in the Finance Department which already has on call provisions that does not require the involvement of the Deputy, there are no 24/7 response requirements in any of the other departments thus it was inappropriate for Deputies Rella, Crocker, and Connors to put in for this extra pay and for their bosses -Kim, Sanghvi, and Moran to approve it.
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John,
This is all interesting, certainly creative and, I am sure, will be the cause of much comic relief in the State Comptroller’s auditing division. So it is little wonder that the city’s labor attorney would, as he did according to meeting minutes, advise against it.
Deputy commissioners and the deputy mayor are exempt city employees who serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. Deputies are not encumbered with duty statements or job descriptions. Encumbants or candidates need not have any experience or education relevant to the office they serve or any practical knowledge of local government, city or general municipal law. It has been this way since the city’s incorporation in 1915.
The sole change potentially impacting on the appointment of deputies was made with the adoption of the 2001 City Charter which incorporated the following language:
2.6.1
Deputies. Deputies shall be public officers. Each deputy shall serve at the pleasure of, and not longer than the term of, the Council member making the deputy’s appointment. The Council may establish appropriate qualifications for any deputy.
This change specifically allowed for a city council to adopt specific qualifications for each of he five deputies. No council has thus far elected to so and the only formal requirements for appointment remains those found in the NYS Public Officers Law; i.e., at least eighteen years of age, a US citizen and a resident of the city.
Perhaps the then council missed an opportunity to establish formal minimum education and experience requirements, a job description and duty statement for each deputy as a prelude to its February 9, 2023, award of salary increases, adoption of a salary scale and creation of an “On Call” stipend for so-called “Executive Employees.”
The resolution adopted at the February 9, 2023, meeting, while running a lengthly seven pages, only touches briefly (one paragraph) on “On Call” status and its application to newly termed “Executive Employees.”
The resolution does not, as would normally be expected, included a “Whereas” stating the need or rational for the stipend. Neither “Executive Employee” nor “On Call” is defined but the plan language allows any “Executive Employee” to claim an “On Call” stipend if “ … working in a department with 24/7 response requirements that is not operationally staffed 24/7. The EXECUTIVE EMPLOYEE must be responsible for responding to emergency calls and assigning subordinate EXECUTIVE EMPLOYEEs duties. This EXECUTIVE EMPLOYEE must remain available for contact by their Department to be eligible for the on call payment of One Hundred and Twenty-Five dollars and Thirty-Five cents ($125.35) per week.”
But the resolution fails to identify which departments have 24/7 response requirements or what constitutes an “emergency.” The failure to address such questions then or subsequently have resulted in four of the five previous deputies claiming to function in an environment almost constantly under threat of some “emergency.” Some claim “on call” pay week after week as if constantly on guard. This, of course, only serves to make trivial real emergencies which require an immediate response by Public Safety and Public Works.
And failing to discipline how this new accrues seems to have been most liberally and wrongly applied. Surely being “on call” to and compensated for attending city council meetings, workshops, certain public events, etc. cannot be supported in reason. Such duties are and always have been part and parcel of a deputy’s duties even in the absence of a duty statement and job description. Such are not additional to the norm but are essential to what it means to be a deputy commissioner or deputy mayor.
How can deputies be “on call” to attend a night meeting that is essential to the office they hold? The fact that deputies as public officers are not entitled to overtime compensation makes the concept of being paid for simply being available to the telephone or computer after normal office hours is beyond belief.
Deputies are salaried, exempt, non-competitive public officers They are required to work a minimum 40 hour week. The nature of their jobs often require working beyond the normal work day, more than 40 hours per week or, god forbid, on weekends or an occasional holiday. They are not eligible for overtime compensation.
The salient point here is the simple fact that there are still no requirements or qualifications (other than age, citizenship and residence) for appointment. Deputies are political appointees and serve at the sole discretion of the appointing council member.
None of this is to suggest that deputies now or in the past have not served well or have come to the office with little or no experience in government or management skills. Many have been well qualified and served long and well through a succession of administrations.
Deputies, unlike most city employees, are, as the Charter makes clear, public officers. As such their employment is, in part, influenced by the NYS Public Officers Law. It must be assumed that all city public officers are familiar with the requirements o the Public Officers Law.
The NYS Department of State has spent considerable effort detailing the fundamental differences between local public employees and local public officers. Chief among them are:
• The public officer must take and file the constitutional oath.• The officer carries out a statutorily defined duty or duties.• The duties are part of the sovereign power of the governmental entity. • The duties may involve the exercise of discretion. • The officer exercises a high degree of initiative and independent judgment.• The position, if elected or appointed, usually has a fixed or definite term.• The compensation does not depend on the number of hours worked.
If the deputy current salaries are still deemed inadequate or inequitable then adjust them accordingly but using gimmicks such as this one only insults the public and demeans the deputies themselves. You really can’t have it both ways.
Actions such as these only invite ridicule, adverse audit findings, demean the deputies and the anger the rank and file employees who do the heavy lifting. Amend the resolution and, finally, make it whole by adopting duty statement.
Lew Benton
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John,
A post script to the above that those who read “Saratoga Politics” may find interesting.
At the very first meeting (June 22, 1915) of the newly formed City government the council appointed a slate of officials.
The Finance Commissioner, William Waterbury, named George O’Brian deputy at an annual salary of $1,400. The Deputy Commissioner of Public Works was Albert Kay, appointed by Commissioner N. R. Thompson at a annual salary of $1,500, and the the Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, Thomas Gorman and my wife’s maternal grandfather, was named by Public Safety Commissioner William Milliman and salaried at $1,200 yearly.
No deputy of Accounts was named and there was no deputy mayor. My paternal grandfather, Lewis J. Benton, was named the first City Stenographer at the princely annual salary of $720.
Finally, I do hope that the City Council will consider preparing and adopting a job description and duty statement for each deputy and abandon the so-called “on Call” stipend gifted last year. It only puts the deputies and the council members in an awkward spot that they should avoid. If salary differentials are warranted because of each deputy’s duty requirements then, as apparently the very first council did, adopt a salary scale mirroring the differences.
And by the way, the mayor and each commissioner were each awarded the same annual salary, $500.
Lew
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Sounds like a great class action lawsuit on behalf of the SS tax payers against the former administration for an aggressive young attorney…the tax payers/residents should be absolutely furious…oh by the way, the Kim truck route reversal was just called illegal by DOT…you can’t make it up, what a setback for the proud city of Saratoga Springs…I bet Jim Tedisco is shaking in his boots
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