Minita Sanghvi’s Shameless, Ageist, and False Attack On Mayor Safford

In the December 17, 2025, edition of the Daily Gazette, Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi falsely claimed that Mayor John Safford was suffering from some sort of dementia. Making her comments particularly icky was her casting her remarks as somehow sympathetic to his alleged decline.

“It was a transparent process. [Safford] voted for it,” Sanghvi said. “And I don’t know what to think about, except that, you know, I have sympathies for cognitive declines with age.”

Her shameless slur was all the more vile because it was included in a particularly ugly attack on Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and Public Works Commissioner Chuck Marshall, along with Safford, for their “heartlessness” in refusing to fund the designated recipients of Sanghvi’s Participatory Budgeting (PB) proposals.

Dear readers, there is nothing wrong with Mayor Safford, and in fact, when it comes to her dubious budgets, the Mayor has a better memory than Commissioner Sanghvi.

A credulous and ignorant press promoted Sanghvi’s narrative, ignoring some embarrassing facts.

As documented in earlier blogs, I reported that Sanghvi had not only recommended removing support for PB from the city budget, but also for cutting the funding for homeless services, such as the RISE shelter and crossing guards for schoolchildren. At the time, attempts by Safford, Coll, and Marshall to raise taxes to address the city’s growing deficits and fund these programs were dismissed by Sanghvi.

Bear in mind that her refusal to raise taxes occurred while she was campaigning for County Supervisor. In October, she acknowledged in an email to her colleagues at the table that the city was currently running a deficit of over $3,600,000.00.

This is from her email.

So not only was her cruel attack on the Mayor revolting, but her attack on Safford, Marshall, and Coll for heartlessly refusing to fund this year’s PB awards was the height of hypocrisy, since she herself had previously felt justified to call for defunding PB.

A gullible press and disappointed applicants for PB ignored her earlier effort to defund PB, amplifying her self-promotion and her attack on her colleagues.

Was Sangvi’s self-righteous attack on her colleagues a reflection of her extraordinary delusion regarding her own role in budget cuts or cynical politicking?

Her ageist attack on the Mayor is particularly galling as she has a history of acting in a self-appointed role of policing anything she suspects is discriminatory.

Pardon the mixed metaphor, but Commissioner Sangvhi “(physician) heal thyself.” Publicly apologize to Mayor Safford.