[Thank you to the people who expressed concern over Jane and my recently infrequent posts. Jane and I spent two fun weeks in London visiting friends and going to the theater and museums. There were lots of chores to catch up on upon our return.
The more serious source of the lack of blogs has been that the most toxic and incompetent Commissioners on the City Council are finally gone. The last four years were extremely demanding. The worst of the group that I call the White Walkers has now been defeated.
Their inappropriate, poorly considered actions and crude, toxic behavior happened so frequently that it was hard to keep up reporting on them. More seriously, I feared all the damage their incompetence would wreak on our poor city.
The new Commissioners of Finance and Accounts are trying to bring order to the mess left by their predecessors. I will be writing more on this in the future, but I expect to do less work because we finally have a competent Council that I have confidence in.]
The Missing Bill
Although now, thankfully, out of office, the ghost of former Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran still haunts City Hall. Moran and the unfortunate OnCall pay debacle have recently resurfaced in connection with an unpaid bill Moran left behind.
Garnet River is a software company that provides technical support to the city’s information technology (IT) department.
Recently, Garnet River contacted the Department of Finance over an outstanding invoice. The city has owed Garnet Hill $3,600 since October, 2024. That is almost a year and a half ago.
Apparently, Dillon Moran engaged Garnet River to work with Moran’s New York City Law Firm to scrutinize the city’s server for something related to the On-Call scandal. We know very little about the details at this point. We have an invoice from 2024 and a time sheet from the lawyer indicating billing for conversations with Garnet River.
It is not surprising that, after the terrible media coverage of Moran hiring a $1,250.00-per-hour lawyer, he was uneasy about what the Council might do when asked to pay this bill. Bear in mind that the city was being asked to pay two ways. They would be paying the lawyer for his firm’s time while paying the software company for its time.
Apparently, Moran’s solution was to leave the bill from Garnet River resting in a drawer in his desk, never bringing it before the City Council for the approval necessary to pay it. One has to wonder what went on here. I feel a little sorry for Garnet River. Having dealt with Moran, I can only imagine the telephone conversations he must have put Garnet River through, explaining for a year why they weren’t being paid. Did Garnet River go to the Department of Finance then as they have now, and if so, what kind of response did they get, if any?
So now the city is faced with at least one obligation incurred by Moran to a vendor for which there was neither a contract nor City Council approval.
This only came to light because Garnet River, which often does work for the city, contacted the city’s Department of Finance. I am not being rhetorical when I ask what other bills are sitting in drawers?
The Video and Documents
Garnet River Invoice
Escerpt From Lawyer’s Billing
Saratoga Springs Politics 