Month: December 2024

There is simply no gentle way of putting it. Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi has grossly mismanaged the city’s Finance Department for the past three years that she has been in office. Most people are unaware of it because Sanghvi has managed so far to avoid serious scrutiny.

In many ways, the Commissioner of Finance is the most demanding elected office in city government. The difficult truth is that the current Commissioner, Minita Sanghvi, has been unwilling to devote the time required to fulfill her responsibility as the city’s chief financial officer and the head of a department that includes IT. As we shall see, her inability to keep the IT Department properly staffed and supervised has had a problematic ripple effect on the ability of other departments in city hall to carry out their responsibilities and on the ability of the public to have the required access to government information. Those who closely observe her actions have found that she is drawn to the drama and celebrity of public office while she appears to be uninterested in the tough challenges of managing the city’s finances and her department.

In addition Commissioner Sanghvi’s rude and arrogant behavior at the Council table (routinely in support of her ally, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran) contributes to the poisonous atmosphere that continues to invade city deliberations.

The Issues

The most unambiguous expression of her mismanagement was seen in her handling of the on-call fiasco of 2023. As the city’s chief fiscal officer, it is her job to scrutinize all payment requests. In the case of on-call pay, she not only allowed inappropriate payments for deputies, but worse, she indulged her own deputy with a payment. The details of this oversight failure were published in an earlier post. Her refusal to take responsibility for her role in that mess has been most galling. When pressed by the media, she has dismissed the blatant corruption by either belittling it or denying that anything untoward occurred. At the time of this post, the New York State Police are investigating these payments.

It has come as no surprise then that there is an extensive history of this maladministration which this post will explore in depth.

Issues include:

• A budget that fails to provide the resources for essential city needs
• An intemperate attack in the media on her colleagues on the Council
• An inability to adequately staff the city’s IT department with problematic ripple effects on other key city operations and expenditures
• Her role in the city’s crisis in dealing with FOIL requests
• Expensive and essential software allowed to languish unused while the city continues to pay for this
• A cynical and cruel abuse of a city employee to hide her own failures
• A flawed city website that compromises the ability of citizens to navigate it
• Audits that revealed failures in the city’s fiscal management (This will be explored in more depth in a coming post)

An Imperious Sanghvi Simply Ignores The Problems With Her Budget For 2025

In a previous post, I documented that her proposed 2025 budget was thrown together with very little in the way of research and analysis of the city departments. Cuts in spending she proposed had to be restored because they would have violated existing contracts and state laws. Her final budget denies funding to critical needs that will hamper the ability of the city to effectively carry out essential responsibilities. Rather than seriously engage in defending her cuts, she routinely imperiously dismissed concerns raised to her, reminiscent of the Queen of Hearts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Sanghvi’s final 2025 budget is notable for the money she obstinately cut for critical needs in the Public Safety and Mayor’s Department (coincidentally headed by the two people on the Council endorsed by the Republican party).

The following are a few of the budget requests from Safford and Coll that she refused to fund.

A SECOND RECORDS CLERK FOR THE POLICE DEPARTMENT

“Discovery” is a term that describes the responsibility of the city’s police department to provide persons charged with crimes with all relevant documents associated with their cases. Failure to do so can be grounds for dismissing the charges. After the state passed bail reform, the number of days to provide the documents was reduced to fifteen.

The Public Safety Department has had two “records clerks” responsible for this critical activity. One of the employees retired. Given the small window for discovery, only having one employee threatens the city’s ability to prosecute criminals effectively.

CERTIFICATION FOR CODE ENFORCERS

Code enforcement staff must attend training sessions to maintain their required certification. Sanghvi zeroed out the money for this and refused to restore it.

FIRE TRUCK MAINTENANCE

Sanghvi cut maintenance for the city’s fire engines from $160,000.00 to $60,000.00. According to the acting Fire Chief, this will not cover anticipated repairs.

POLICE CAR

The Police Department staggers the replacements for its twenty-five cars. Public Safety did not receive money to replace any vehicles this year; there is no money for next year. Sanghvi told Coll to take the money needed out of overtime. When she originally approved the overtime budget for 2025, she acknowledged the amount as appropriate given the plans to host the Belmont again, along with other special events in the city. To tell Coll to take money out of overtime now makes no sense.

A FULL-TIME CITY ATTORNEY

The city used to have a full-time and a part-time city attorney. In this litigious age, our legal department must be able to scrutinize contracts, respond to the many legal questions generated by the departments, and oversee the defense of the city when it is sued. Currently, the city has two part-time attorneys. Sanghvi has arrogantly refused to engage in serious discussion about why a full-time attorney is needed. “No” is not an analysis.

REPLACEMENT CAR FOR THE BUILDING INSPECTOR

The building department has a 2007 Impala. It is eighteen years old and, not surprisingly, has many miles on it. Sanghvi refuses to provide funds to replace it.

A MODEST RAISE FOR A LONG-TIME CITY EMPLOYEE

One of the mayor’s office positions is that of a part-time employee who has not had a raise in years. The mayor requested that the employee receive a $1.25 per hour raise, which was denied.

Sanghvi’s New Found Austerity

At a City Council budget discussion, Commissioner Sanghvi imperiously lectured Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and Mayor John Safford, telling them the money was not there to help them and that they should do a better job managing their departments’ budgets. When Coll took the politically difficult position of suggesting she should consider increasing the city’s taxes if necessary to fund these needs, she summarily dismissed the idea.

This was a curious position for her to take as she has raised taxes every year she has been in office. In fact, her 2024 budget illegally exceeded the New York State tax cap due to an error in her calculations. She was required to work with the Comptroller’s Office to resolve the violation.

As Sanghvi has never resisted raising taxes until this most recent budget, I don’t think it is a coincidence that her sudden unexplained turn to austerity occurred while she was engaged in a failed run for the New York State Senate.

Sanghvi Competes With Moran For Toxicity

Commissioner Sanghvi has noted repeatedly that budgets are about priorities and values. This was never more evident than in the conflicts over this year’s budget.

When Sanghvi came into office in 2022, one of the first things she focused on was creating a program called “participatory budgeting.” Citizens submit ideas for community projects to a panel. The city then maintains a web option for people to vote on which ones to fund. After the public votes, the Council approves the funding for the winners. This year, Sanghvi budgeted $100,000 to be spent on these projects.

The many proposals under this program were all laudable, so voting against funding them was politically problematic. The easy way would have been to just vote yes to fund them all.

Both Coll and Safford, though, acting on principle, voted against funding the items in the “participatory budget.”

Commissioner Coll explained his no vote, stating, “In my view, the Department of Public Safety should be the No.1 priority of the city. I believe it was underfunded, so I’m not going to vote for the participatory budget because I think it’s a much, much, much lower priority.” Sanghvi, as stated earlier, spent $100,000 on participatory budgeting. Interestingly, this was the same amount she cut from a request for funds to maintain the city’s fire engines.

Likewise, Mayor Safford explained that he was in the midst of negotiating contracts with the city’s unions. He told his colleagues that it was problematic to say to employees there was not enough money for raises or healthcare benefits they were asking for while spending $100,000.00 for proposals that, while laudable, were not critical to the operation of the city. “One of the first things that (the union) brings up in my meetings is things like the participatory budgeting,” he told the Times Union. Likewise, Safford pointed out that requests from his department for more funding for the legal department, including money for a full-time attorney, had been denied by Sanghvi.

So, for Safford and Coll, it was not a matter of not funding projects such as community composting, a pollinator garden, or an outdoor learning center. The problem was, as Sanghvi herself so imperiously told them, everything can’t be funded, and while Coll had taken the politically risky position of supporting a 2% tax increase that would have gone a long way towards covering many of these competing needs, Sanghvi oddly for the first time since she took office refused to consider this.

Instead, Sanghvi’s response was to go to the media and personally attack her two colleagues. She made the following attacks in an article in the December 19, 2024, Times Union.

“A few days before Christmas, (Commissioner of Public Safety Tim) Coll and (Mayor John) Safford have shown us their true values,” Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi said. “Adults who were upset that we had to have a level-funded budget and couldn’t fund every single thing on their wish list, decided to take that out on our children. … It’s cruelty for cruelty’s sake.”

Times Union December 19, 2024

“We can’t fund everything,” Sanghvi said. “In an ideal world, everyone would get a car. … But I wonder what kind of angry adult takes out their frustration with the budget on children a week before Christmas.”

What an incredible set of character attacks! How cavalierly Sanghvi accused Safford and Coll of being guilty of “…cruelty for cruelty’s sake” or that these two men had taken “out their frustration with the budget on children a week before Christmas.” Unfortunately, this kind of intemperate attack by her is all too common.

Sanghvi had a choice. She could have raised taxes to the 2% limit and funded most of the needs. She decided not to, which is her prerogative. It is sad for the city that she chose to attack fellow Council members in the media rather than simply acknowledge that they indeed had different priorities.

Sanghvi is fortunate that Safford and Coll demonstrated their professionalism and character by putting the need for tempered behavior to serve the city before responding to her in kind and descending themselves into this kind of shrill attack.

Sanghvi appears uninterested or oblivious to the problems her poorly crafted budgets have created. She would prefer to focus on her “participatory budgeting.” This is understandable. Its attraction is its simplicity. The proposals for this program are appealing and non-controversial. It is easy to give away money to worthy causes and to associate yourself with this kind of beneficence.

Crafting the city budget is highly complex and challenging. It requires many, many hours of meetings and analysis and involves conflicting demands for finite resources. When it is done right, a well-run city is achieved, but such success does not lend itself to dramatic headlines.

Sanghvi Has Utterly Failed To Properly Manage and Support The City’s IT Department

Besides crafting the city’s budgets, the Finance Commissioner is also responsible for running the Finance Department, which includes IT. Needless to say, how well the IT department is staffed and runs has a massive impact on the rest of city hall. This city has outstanding staff in our IT department. Jeff Cornick, the director of the IT department, is widely respected, and so are his people.

The problem is that the IT department has been badly understaffed for most of 2024. I understand that there are seven staff members in the department and that there are currently five vacancies.

This is a video of Mr. Cornick from July of this year. Only three positions were filled then, and one had just been hired. Mr. Cornick shares with the Public Service Commission the stress of being understaffed.

With so many vacancies, the city has depended on expensive outside consultants to support Mr. Cornick.

This situation should have been addressed long ago. The responsibility for addressing this crisis lies squarely with Commissioner Sanghvi. A chronic staff shortage in IT is inexcusable and has a profound impact on the ability of employees in other departments to properly do their work.

Sanghvi’s Responsibility for the Chronic Problems with FOIL

The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requires municipalities to provide citizens with the requested documents. Beginning with the Kim administration, the city’s inability to meet this obligation has been chronic. In their defense, the demand for documents has risen exponentially. This has been no secret, yet the problems have been allowed to mushroom for the three years that Sanghvi has been the city’s Finance Director.

Under Sanghvi’s budgets, the city has had only one staff member, Robin McFee, buried beneath a blizzard of FOIL requests.

A number of the FOIL requests are for emails and texts.

The city has functioning software for searching its emails. It does not have a way of effectively capturing and archiving cell phone texts. This means that Ms. McFee has been reduced to requesting city officials and staff to take screenshots of texts on their phones relevant to FOIL requests. McFee cannot digitally search the city’s cell phones’ texts. She has no way of independently confirming that what, if anything, that they give her is accurate.

McFee has had to deal with two significant problems. First, officials and city employees are often slow to respond to her requests. This has necessitated her spending precious time chasing recalcitrant people. Worse, it is an honor system. There is no way to be sure that her requests are honestly handled.

This problem became acutely apparent when the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department charged Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran with falsely signing certifications, claiming there were no texts relevant to a request from McFee.

Under Sanghvi, not only has the need for more staff to deal with FOIL requests not been addressed, but the understaffing in her IT department has made the situation even more acute.

SMARSH to the RESCUE?

For a while, the city appeared to have taken action to facilitate FOIL requests for texts.

On October 18, 2023, Mayor Ron Kim issued a press release announcing that the city had purchased a software service called SMARSH. In cooperation with Verizon, the city’s cell service provider, the software would capture all texts from city cell phones and index them to make them easy to search.

This software service would significantly improve the city’s ability to respond to FOIL requests and address one of the concerns raised in the New York State Attorney General’s report.

The cost to the city for SMARSH for the first year was $12,942.21.

Under Sanghvi, the IT department was responsible for implementing the program. In an interview on WRGB in February 2024, Sanghvi told the reporter that the city was implementing the program.

At a City Council meeting on September 3, 2024, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran told the Council that Sanghvi had implemented SMARSH. Sanghvi was sitting next to him and said nothing to contradict him.

As of the date of this blog, December 28, 2024, over a year later, I have confirmed that SMARSH has never been implemented. That is over a year after the city purchased SMARSH. Sanghvi and Moran’s cavalier lying is stunning. They assume that no one will fact-check them, I guess.

The city paid $12,942.21 for the first of the software’s annual costs. SMARSH has virtually sat on the shelf unused, which is $12,942.21, thrown away uselessly. We are now into the second year during which the city is paying for SMARSH, which is still not operational.

In the meantime, the number of FOIL requests has continued to escalate.

When Guilty, Go On The Offensive

So, how has Sanghvi addressed the ongoing FOIL problem? By joining Dillon Moran in attacking Robin McFee, the person struggling to deal with the mess and provide the public with documents as best she can.

In the City Council video below, Mayor Safford attempts to get Sanghvi to come to his office to discuss her concerns about FOIL handling rather than carry on at the public meeting. He is trying to protect Ms. McFee from Sanghvi’s public attacks. Sanghvi will have none of it. Instead, to add to the theatrics, she warns the Mayor that she will audit the FOIL office if he refuses to discuss the issue publicly at the meeting. I find her behavior particularly disingenuous when Sanghvi goes on about the public importance of FOIL when she bears much of the responsibility for the problems.

The Loss Of Robin McFee

I cannot express enough my respect for Robin McFee. She is the city’s only employee who screens and responds to FOIL requests. She has soldiered through a challenging situation. The number of FOIL requests has been overwhelming. Each document must be reviewed to determine if it contains text exempt from the requirements of FOIL, and if so, it must be redacted. Some requests she has received were extensive and involved hundreds of documents.

This problem has been no secret. Past Mayor Ron Kim acknowledged the issue on numerous occasions. Despite Ms. McFee’s best efforts, it has been impossible to comply with the required response dates. I can speak from experience about delays. I always did my best to limit my requests as much as possible, and I always knew that Ms. McFee was doing her best.

As demonstrated by Dillon Moran in the following video of the Council meeting, some frustrated people seeking FOILs have not been as patient. Mayor Safford references Moran’s abusive behavior in the video clip. There was an incident in a corridor in city hall where Moran accosted Ms. McFee over a late FOIL.

I will admit to the readers of this blog the fury I have felt listening to Sanghvi and Moran publicly attack McFee’s work. The lack of respect and courtesy is terrible, but knowing that Sanghvi has failed to get SMARSH up or provide additional help for Ms. McFee makes Sanghvi’s attacks incredibly cynical and cruel.

When viewing this video, remember Sanghvi’s failure to implement SMARSH and her indifference to the staff shortage to meet the city’s FOIL obligations.

The stress on Ms. McFee was exacerbated by the cruel behavior of both Dillon Moran and Minita Sanghvi. Moran used the platform of City Council meetings to accuse Ms. McFee of incompetence and even implied political interference. Sanghvi piled on to support Moran and his narrative. When Mayor Safford intervened, suggesting that Moran and Sanghvi should not be attacking a city employee during the City Council meeting and that this discussion would best be carried out in his office, Sanghvi upped the ante. She told the Mayor that if he refused to discuss the issue at the Council table, she would use her authority to audit McFee’s work. It should be no surprise to readers then that Sanghvi did not bring this resolution forward at the next meeting. It’s all about theater.

Given the long history of the lack of resources in that department, this call for an audit has more to do with public relations than a genuine interest in the problem. This cynicism is best revealed by the fact that Sanghvi has never spoken to McFee in the three years she has been Commissioner. If she had, she would have known that Ms. McFee had kept extensive detailed documentation of the FOIL requests received and when and how they were answered. But Commissioner Sanghvi preferred to engage in public theatrics at Ms. McFee’s expense.

This feels like the lynching Marilyn Rivers, the previous director of Risk and Safety, was subjected to. It then came as no surprise to learn last week that Ms. McFee has resigned, effective December 31, 2024. This city will again have lost an extraordinarily valuable employee, leaving it with no dedicated staff to handle FOILs.

Now, another vital employee has joined Marilyn Rivers, Tina Carton, Vince DeLeonardis, and Lisa Ribis, among others, in the exodus from our city that began with the Ron Kim administration, two of whom from that unfortunate period still remain on the Council-Moran and Sanghvi.

More Mismanagement by Sanghvi

The city’s website is supposed to provide the public with easy access to records. Readers following this blog will be aware that I write software and that during the previous administration, I repeatedly wrote to Commissioner Sanghvi that there were significant flaws in the design of the city’s website. These problems have continued into her second term in office.

For the last three years, I have received emails and calls from people asking for help, for instance, in finding past Council meeting records. Four places on the site supposedly have links to the city’s Council meeting archives.

The following is just one of the four pages on the city’s website that are all supposed to take you to the archive. In this case, here is the page where the link is supposed to be.

Here is the page it brings you to. Notice that this page has no links to city council meetings after June 2024.

This is symptomatic of her “management.” She is simply uninterested in the unsexy aspects of being the Commissioner of Finance. How else can one explain how this fault has been allowed to exist during her tenure without correction?

The Future for Sanghvi

Sources tell us that, fortunately, Sanghvi may not run again for Finance Commissioner but instead turn her attention to a run for County Supervisor. If that proves to be the case, there will be one of two outcomes: she loses and no longer holds a public office, or she wins and becomes the county’s problem. In the meantime, the city must endure another year of her mismanagement.

Cassie Bagramian, the Democratic Commissioner of the Saratoga County Board of Elections, and Joe Suhrada, the Republican Commissioner, have both signed off on the ballot for a special election to be held on January 28, 2025, to fill the Saratoga Springs Department of Public Works Commissioner vacancy created when Jason Golub resigned. The ballot will only have Republican Charles “Chuck” Marshall on it.

If they were capable of it, Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee chair Otis Maxwell and Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran should feel embarrassed.

Maxwell has accused Judge Walsh, who issued the decision that the special election must go forward, of ignoring the facts and of partisanship.

We are disappointed but not surprised by Judge Walsh’s ruling. The statement that a calendar for a DPW special election had been “published” is factually incorrect and should be basis for appeal. In the meantime, Saratogians can be confident this important city department is in good hands with the incumbent commissioner, Hank Kuczynski.

Saratoga Springs Facebook Page Edited By Maxwell

In an earlier post, I documented Moran’s claims that there had never been a calendar published and that this meant there would be no special election.

They Never Stop

It is worth noting that 1, state municipal law does not require a calendar because all the dates are set based on the date the election was “proclaimed,” and 2, the city charter placed the responsibility to publish the calendar in the hands of the Commissioner of Accounts. So, if it had been required and had not been drafted, it would have been Moran who failed in his duties.

The following is taken from the city’s charter.

12.3.1 Publication of election timetable. The Commissioner of Accounts shall cause to be published a timetable indicating times when each step shall be taken to designate, nominate, and submit petitions for partisan and independent candidates under the New York State Election Law. Such timetable shall be published first in the City’s official newspaper or newspapers no later than two weeks after the issuance of the official political calendar of the New York State Board of Elections, and a copy shall be placed on file at the City Clerk’s office. There shall be a second publication of the timetable no later than the first day for circulation of partisan petitions.

Even more bizarre, notwithstanding Maxwell and Moran’s claim that it was not crafted and submitted, here it is:

As if all this were not enough, the fact that Commissioner Bagramian has declined to appeal the judge’s decision and has certified the ballot should prove that Moran and Maxwell were putting out a blizzard of disinformation.

How much longer will the Democratic Committee put up with these two being the face of the party?

Today, December 13, 2024, New York State Supreme Court Justice James Walsh ruled that the Saratoga County Board of Elections must proceed with the special election to fill the Commissioner of Public Works position in Saratoga Springs. The position became vacant last August when Jason Golub resigned. The position has been temporarily filled by the City Council appointment of Hank Kuczynski. Since the Democrats failed to file appropriate papers for their candidate, only one candidate will be on the ballot for the January 28, 2025, special election. That candidate will be Republican Chuck Marshall.

In an earlier post (see below), I documented the maneuvering by Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran to block the special election and extend Kuczynski’s temporary appointment until the end of 2025. The earlier post has a more extended clip during which Moran excoriated those whom he falsely claimed had previously blocked his attempts for an election. Here is a brief clip from the November 6, 2024, City Council meeting that provides a flavor of Moran’s performance.

Commissioners Moran and Kuczynski Attempt To Cancel Special Election

Press Release On Court Ruling From Saratoga Springs Republican Chair Mike Brandi

The Saratoga Springs Republican Committee celebrates the Supreme Court’s ruling today, which ensures the special election for Commissioner of Public Works will proceed as scheduled on January 28, 2025. The decision comes after SSGOP Chairman Mike Brandi and candidate Chuck Marshall filed suit to compel the Saratoga County Board of Elections to approve the ballot in accordance with election law. The lawsuit was prompted by opposition from the Democrat commissioner of the board who opposed the lawsuit.

Candidate Chuck Marshall: “This court ruling is a victory for all the voters of Saratoga Springs. It reaffirms that if everyone plays by the rules, there are legitimate outcomes.”

“This ruling protects the integrity of the electoral process” said Mike Brandi, SSGOP Chairman. “The people of Saratoga Springs deserve fair elections in accordance with the law free from partisan obstruction.”

Chris Obstarczyk, attorney for Brandi and Marshall, added: “The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for democracy and a strong message that election law must be upheld.”

Decision is attached.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mike Brandi 

The Court’s Decision

The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee is a profoundly troubled organization that produces truly problematic candidates and, worse, engages in corrosive campaigns that offend rather than educate.

Why Should Saratogians Care about This?

As of the last count, there were 9523 (41%) registered Democrats compared to 6578 (28%) registered Republicans in Saratoga Springs. There are also 7164 (31%) who are not registered with any party. There are 237 registered Conservatives and 82 registered in the Working Families Party.

This gives the Democrats a decisive edge in local elections. Regrettably, and this is true for the Republicans as well, many voters are too busy with family and work to follow politics very closely, and they simply vote for all the candidates of their party’s line on the ballot.

In the last local election in 2023, the appearance of One Saratoga as a political option shook this process up. Many people, unhappy with partisan politics, took refuge in One Saratoga. This was the first time One Saratoga had a line on the ballot and three of their four candidates won-two registered Democrats, and one registered Republican . Democrat Chris Mathiesen ran on the One Saratoga line after the Democratic Committee refused to endorse him or even allow him to address the full committee. While he did not win, he drew enough votes on the line so that Republican candidate John Safford defeated Democrat Ron Kim.

In spite of the inroads One Saratoga has made, the bottom line is still that whoever gets the Democratic line has a distinct advantage to win city elections.

This means having a functional and thoughtful Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee is essential because they select the candidates (unless there is a primary) who will have the strongest chance of governing Saratoga Springs

This city needs a thoughtful Democratic Committee if we, the voters, are to be provided with credible candidates. We also need a thoughtful Democratic Committee if issues are to be addressed in campaigns in a way that serves the public.

Problematic Party Leadership

The Leader of an organization is a statement by the organization as to who they are.

Otis Maxwell is the chair of the city Democratic Committee. He recently sent an email to his committee (reprinted below). The email explicitly warned against sharing it with the blogger. There was good reason for this caution because the email demonstrates the need for the committee to reform itself.

Unfortunately for Mr. Maxwell, it found its way to me. The following are highlights from it.

Chairman Maxwell’s Email

A Potluck dinner?

Maxwell has been trying to organize a potluck dinner for the committee. Apparently, his invitation to the event has drawn very little interest. Maxwell wrote: “…we need a critical mass of folks to respond, and so far we have very few.” This would suggest that the rumors of a disaffected and divided committee may be true.

Baseless Attacks?

Maxwell asserts in his email that “…baseless attacks by our MAGA opponents on our current elected officials are having the desired effect of discouraging people from coming forward.”

It is true that City Council members endorsed by his committee have been the subject of frequent criticisms. It is extraordinary that Maxwell simply dismisses these criticisms wholesale as though they are meritless. He does so by throwing red meat at the committee members by simply attributing the criticisms to”MAGA opponents.” He conveniently conflates being a Republican with being an adherent to MAGA. While some of the critics may very well support MAGA, most of his critics (myself among them) are not supporters of MAGA, and many of them, like myself, are Democrats.

I have emailed him asking which “attacks” are baseless. I don’t expect a response, which again demonstrates what is wrong with Maxwell and the committee that selected him as their chair.

Here is a sample of some of the “attacks” he dismisses.

• The On-Call Scandal
• The bullying of former Director of Risk and Safety Marilyn Rivers, whose resignation resulted in the city’s insurance carrier dropping the city. The replacement carrier now costs the city an additional million dollars a year.
• The belligerent and crude behavior of past Mayor Ron Kim was documented to the entire region in an epithet-laden rant that appeared on the TV nightly news.
• The continuing toxic behavior of the endorsed Democrats on the City Council.
• The wrongful denial of FOIL requests and the allegedly false certifications submitted by Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran.
• The poorly crafted and arbitrary budget that was crafted by Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi.
• The alleged use of city employees to perform work at the private home of former Public Safety Commissioner Jason Golub.

The Committee Chair’s inability to acknowledge any culpability for elected officials endorsed by his Committee dooms the city to continual scandal. The Democratic endorsed Candidates have made Saratoga Springs the laughingstock of the capital district.

The Very Worst

In his email, Maxwell writes, “I feel somewhat muzzled by the resolution that was passed at our last meeting but among friends (and please don’t leak this to our pals at Moving Saratoga Forward and Saratoga Springs Politics)…”

In a previous post, I discussed a resolution adopted by the Democratic Committee. Simply put, it disavowed public officials’ use of public employees for their personal benefit and asserted that people charged with a crime should be considered innocent until proven guilty. My understanding was this resolution was prompted by the attempts of Maxwell and Dillon Moran to dismiss the validity of the charges against Jason Golub and Joe O’Neill by attributing them to an array of conspirators.

While Maxwell claims he feels muzzled by the bland, apple pie, resolution passed by his committee, he nevertheless is fearless in continuing to diminish the seriousness of charges made by law enforcement against Democratic endorsed Council members. Here, he dismisses the abuse of FOIL and the signing of false certifications by Dillon Moran by attacking the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department for charging Dillon Moran with subverting the city’s FOIL process. I assume that he is not concerned about any pushback from his committee.

It is hard to believe that in this day and age, the chair of a Democratic Committee would defend the blatant abuse of FOIL. One would think that the blistering criticism in the Daily Gazette editorial on this issue might have penetrated Maxwell’s consciousness. More centrally, you would think that there was some vestige of integrity in his committee to take him to task.

[JK: Correction. I spoke to Cassie Bagamian, the Saratoga County Democratic Election Commissioner. Cassie asked me to correct the blog. She indicated that she opposed certifying the ballot for the commissioner of public works election not because there was no Democrat on the ballot but because “there needs to be equal access opportunities for all parties.”]

On Friday, December 6, 2024, the Saratoga County Board of Elections (SCBOE) failed to certify the ballot for the January 28, 2025, special election established by the Saratoga Springs City Council to fill the vacancy created when then Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub resigned last August. Today, Monday, December 9, Chris Obstarczyk, representing Saratoga Springs Republican Chair Mike Brandi, has brought an Article 78 action in Saratoga County Supreme Court to compel the County to proceed with certifying the ballot and to proceed with the election.

New York State Election law requires the Board of Elections to finalize the candidates and prepare the ballot 53 days before an election. That deadline was December 6.

“The Board of Elections cannot simply ignore deadlines set by the legislature,” Obstarczyk said in a press release.

In earlier posts, I reported that Cassy Bagramian, the Democratic Commissioner of Elections, had announced she would not allow the special election to proceed because no Democrat would be on the ballot. “There needs to be equal ballot access opportunities for all parties.“

Unfortunately, for Commissioner Bagramian, there is no statute requiring that a Democrat be on the ballot, and the Democratic City Committee failed to submit the required documents to get a candidate on the ballot.

Lest there be any confusion, the City Council unanimously adopted a resolution requiring a special election be held on January 28, 2025. Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran, a Democrat, sponsored the resolution. Here is the resolution.

What Happens Next

Because the legal action concerns an election, the court is required to rule expeditiously. We will know the results soon.

[JK: This editorial speaks for itself]

Here is the link.

We know Saratoga Springs is world famous for its water. But we’re starting to wonder what’s in it, at least at City Hall, given the latest rash of unethical, criminal and outright baffling behavior of some city officials.

Last month, it was two city officials charged with misdemeanors in connection with allegations they had city employees come to their homes or the homes of a relative to do some plumbing work. Drano was apparently involved.

Rather than just admit they did wrong, one of the officials’ lawyers is trying to shift the blame for the alleged theft of public services to those who had the temerity to bring the matter to the attention of the public and authorities.

Now we’re reporting that Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran has been charged with three non-criminal counts of unlawful prevention of public access to records for allegedly lying about the existence of public records in response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from a private citizen.

He apparently didn’t want the records to be made public, so in response to the FOIL request, he said he conducted a diligent search but couldn’t produce the records the person was seeking.

Keeping secrets is, effectively, lying by omission. But if this allegation is true, this was outright deliberate lying to deny a member of the public records to which they are — by law — legally entitled to have.

That’s why we have a Freedom of Information Law – because public officials like to keep things from the public in order to avoid embarrassment or public disclosure of nefarious or incompetent conduct.

The public in many ways might never learn of this conduct without the laws that are in place.

This latest case highlights a couple of things — one of which is that something is clearly making public officials in Saratoga Springs act screwy, in defiance of the law and in direct opposition to their oath to serve the public. Maybe it’s the city water. Somebody in that city voted for these guys.

The other point this highlights is that the state’s toothless Freedom of Information Law needs to be strengthened. Moran is charged essentially as an individual with falsifying a document.

The Freedom of Information Law itself needs to give judges more legal authority and discretion to punish public officials and their governments with fines and awarding of legal fees whenever they fail to honor legitimate requests for information or when they impose unnecessary delays on the release of information.

Whatever the reason(s) for what’s going on in Saratoga Springs, it has to stop.

Public officials owe their constituents honesty and integrity. Those are traits that seem to be seriously lacking these days.

Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran has been charged with “Unlawful Prevention of Public Access to Records” according to a press release issued by Mike Brandi, chair of the Saratoga Springs Republican Committee. Moran has been ordered to appear before Judge Jeffrey Wait in City Court on December 19, 2024.

According to the release:

“Moran issued three separate [false] certifications swearing under penalty of perjury that he conducted a diligent search of his records and had no responsive records in relation to Brandi’s requests.”

This Blogger’s Experience

In past posts on this blog, I have reported that Moran claimed to have no documents responsive to my requests when common sense would have dictated that there should have been documents. For example, this blogger had asked for documents that would have recorded how he arrived at the charges for restaurants’ and bars’ use of public property. I was told that no such documents existed. I attributed the lack of documents to Moran picking the numbers out of the air, but Brandi’s disclosure suggests otherwise.

The Brandi Press Release

Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran Charged with Three Violations of NY Penal Law §240.65 – Unlawful Prevention of Public Access to Records.

After an investigation by the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, Dillon Moran, Commissioner of Accounts for the City of Saratoga Springs, has been charged with three counts of violating NYS Penal Law §240.65 (Unlawful Prevention of Public Access to Records). These charges stem from Moran’s issuance of three allegedly false sworn certifications, which appear to have been made with the intent to conceal public records and obstruct the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) process. Moran is set to be arraigned in Saratoga Springs City Court at 9AM on December 19, 2024. The case is pending under case number CR-04322-24.

The violations were uncovered after three FOIL requests submitted by local resident Mike Brandi in 2024. In response to those requests, Moran issued three separate certifications swearing under penalty of perjury that he conducted a diligent search of his records and had no responsive records in relation to Brandi’s requests. These statements were proven untrue by subsequent disclosures. Notably, one such instance revealed a text message in which Moran advised a third party to use his personal phone in an effort to avoid FOIL disclosures, stating, “[t]his is the non foilable personal phone. Feel free to use it.”

“I just want to be able to exercise my rights under FOIL without fear or favor. This should not be a big ask, but a foundational right of any citizen.” Brandi said.

The New York State Committee on Open Government (COOG), is clear that communications regarding government business on personal devices are subject to FOIL and the fact that a public official may use a personal cell does not shield records from transparency laws.

Legal Background

The Committee on Open Government, in Opinion FOIL-AO-f14692 advised:

“§89(8) of the Freedom of Information Law and §240.35 of the Penal Law concern the “unlawful prevention of public access to records. The latter states that: ‘A person is guilty of unlawful prevention of public access to records when, with intent to prevent the public inspection of a record pursuant to article six of the public officers law, he willfully conceals or destroys any such record.’

From my perspective, the preceding may be applicable in two circumstances: first, when an agency employee receives a request for a record and indicates that the agency does not maintain the record even though he or she knows that the agency does maintain the record; or second, when an agency employee destroys a record following a request for that record in order to prevent public disclosure of the record.”

Moran has been charged with three counts of violating §240.65. Unlawful prevention of public access to records is a violation meaning each count is punishable by a maximum of 15 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $250.

In an earlier post, I wrote about a resolution adopted by the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee that appeared to backtrack from a defense of the indefensible. The full resolution is on the earlier post, but briefly, it acknowledged that the use of city employees for the personal service of city officials is wrong, but that the person charged should be considered innocent until proven otherwise. This was in relation to the charges against former Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub and current Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neill.

One would have thought that such a statement was axiomatic and unnecessary, but prior to the adoption of this resolution, the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee Facebook page and newsletter, In The Loop, had refused to acknowledge that any use of city government employees for the private benefit of public officials was totally unacceptable. Instead, the Facebook page and newsletter attempted to obscure the gravity of what Jason Golub and Joe O’Neill were accused of by perpetuating the allegations that the entire affair was cooked up by unnamed conspirators motivated by some unnamed grudge and implied racism. Both the Facebook page and the newsletter used public, toxic statements by Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran to support this narrative.

City Democratic Committee Chair Otis Maxwell Heedlessly Carries On Further Damaging His Committee

It has been several weeks since the Committee’s resolution. Maxwell has had plenty of time to remove the sleazy attacks from past Facebook pages and publish the resolution in their newsletters, but he has not. All the ugly stuff is still up.

Sanghvi’s Tone Deaf Continuation

It’s not only the Democratic Committee Chair and Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran who have continued to try to minimize and excuse the charges against Golub.

Weeks after the Democratic Committee’s resolution was adopted, Sanghvi, apparently unmoved, piled on. She directly accused Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll of being motivated by racism and orchestrating the persecution of Golub.

Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi, who has served with both (commissioners) Golub and Coll, commented on the matter and the history between the two men, making a nod to the report from the Attorney General, which found that the city had previously violated protesters’ First Amendment rights.

“As we’ve learned from the AG’s investigation, the position of Public Safety Commissioner shouldn’t be used for targeting people. Especially people of color in our city.”

Saratogian

This blogger would observe that this kind of cavalier and reckless attack trivializes the real and pernicious evil of racism. It also undermines her credibility and the credibility of the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.

In a sign of how closely the citizens of our city follow politics, in the last election, former Finance Commissioner and current County Supervisor Michele Madigan received many more votes in Saratoga Springs than Minita Sanghvi. Sanghvi’s toxic comments at both the Council table and to the press have undoubtedly contributed to her unpopularity.

You would think that after the recent Daily Gazette editorial that rightfully denounced both Golub’s alleged abuse and the grotesque attempt to dismiss the seriousness of the criminal charges, the Democratic Committee and the two City Council members they support would clean up their social media by removing their embarrassing posts. Apparently, they live in a toxic bubble in which they assume that citizens of our city will either not see what they are doing or will not care.