At the June 2 Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting, Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan did a presentation on the city’s finances. People who follow this blog know that I have written extensively, and regrettably, about the utter mismanagement in the Finance Department under former Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi. For four years, Ms. Sanghvi failed to provide accurate and readable financial reports. As her email auto reply continued to affirm during her term in office, she viewed her job as part-time, and the result has been a debacle. She simply failed to devote the time required to both understand and manage the city’s money. Her budgets often had wildly optimistic assumptions about city income and projected expenses that were obviously inadequate given past spending patterns. Now the proverbial chickens have come home to roost.
In a report to the Council, Kiernan, without naming Sanghvi, detailed how the finance office under Sanghvi dangerously squandered the city’s reserves to hide the utter inability of her office to carry out the most basic of fiscal procedures. It has left the city vulnerable by squandering its financial reserves and failing to craft a way by which the city could live within its means.
Sanghvi Systematically Drained The City’s Reserves
Kiernan’s presentation included several charts documenting the city’s financial problems.
The chart below documents how Sanghvi ran continual deficits of increasing size. She balanced the books by drawing on the city’s reserves rather than controlling costs or increasing revenues. The bitter truth was that her budgets documented her utter ignorance of the city’s spending.
The tan/yellow line at the top of this chart shows the city’s actual expenditures each year from 2022. The green line displays how much the city took in as revenue. At the bottom, in blue, is the 2022 surplus (Sanghvi drew on the budget created by former Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan), and in red are the growing annual deficits.
The city is required to maintain a certain percentage in reserve money each year. Sanghvi managed to blow the huge reserve she inherited from Michele Madigan. The city is now just above the city’s minimum surplus required by New York State.
What The Auditor Revealed
Emblematic of the problem was the revelation at the beginning of this year that this city’s accounting firm was unable to audit our books. The firm cited that the city’s books are in disarray.
Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan is a stand-up professional. Note that she never mentions Minita Sanghvi by name, but her presentation was easy to understand, and its implications were devastating.
This city finally has a real professional who does not view her role as “only part-time” as her predecessor did. Kiernan is an accountant by profession, and it shows.
The video is 32 seconds.
Some of the Auditor’s Observations
- Incomplete reconciliations [JK: Absolutely stunning revelation. This is fundamental to any kind of bookkeeping.]
- Insufficient documentation for journal entries
- Failure to use the city’s microfiche software as part of the city’s internal control process
- Misposting of financial information
- Spreadsheets not updated to reflect actual transactions
- Problems with bond payments, postings, and fund transfers “due to and from” accounts
- Required interest payments were not completed
Commissioner Coll and Commissioner Kiernan Discuss Who Was Responsible For The Crisis (2 minutes 17 seconds)
A Great Presentation On The State Of The City’s Finances (5 minutes 27 seconds)
This video is of Commissioner Kiernan’s full presentation on the city’s finances. It’s not long, and it is very well done. You will not need an accounting degree to follow her slides and commentary.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
While Minita may not have much in common with president Trump, here is proof that electing grossly incompetent and unqualified people to important jobs can have dire consequences.
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Combine her with Moran and Madigan and what do you have?
The strange reality of a liberal northeast city with a local Dem party that is more MAGA than the local Rep party.
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There is almost nothing more cowardly than to use an anonymous label and attack other with NO – Absolutley NO facts to support a vapid, snarky, vitriolic comment that is nothing but Bullshit. I have an idea who you are and while I can’t prove it you should hang your head. You have responded exactly a a butt heart Republican would and you have the nerve to cal them MAGA. You sound exactly like Burger sounds – the Democratic trump!
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Hilarious, Gayle, given how you’ve spent the past 2 years attacking people under the fake name of SUSAN ADAMS.
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You are quite funny. IF – big IF, I wrote about anyone anonymously or not, I can back with facts or experience unlike the specious claims made here. And the joke, I know who you are too!
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And yet, Minita gets elected as our Supervisor. !!! Does she attend the City Council meetings, which has been past practice for years. I doubt that you will see her attend many meetings, if at all. Probably too embarrassed.
It is a shame that she ever got elected, and re-elected as Finance Commissioner.
Referencing the remarks by Commissioner Coll, I can tell you that he, or whoever was responsible, for hiring 19 more Fire Fighters, made a terrible mistake. We have 3 fire stations. Minimum shift is 4 fire fighters per station. That is 12 fire fighters per day, a day being 24 hours. There are three shifts. 3 shifts, times 12 fire fighters is 36 total fire fighters. Even if you add 24 more fire fighters (8 more per shift) you get a total of 60 fire fighters. The guys must be bumping into each other in those stations. Sarcasm…… Saratoga Springs currently having 83 fire fighters are the result of a Commissioner asking the Fire Chief, “how many new fire fighters will you need to fill station 3?” A Fire Chief will always exaggerate the need. I don’t believe the proper research was done, but this is just one person’s opinion. I would love it if the Fire Chief would counter my calculations.
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Ron Kim was told by the attorney assisting in negotiations to put a twilight clause into the agreement regarding the requirement to require four firefighters on trucks. Kim whose lack of judgment is only exceeded by his arrogance, refused so now the city is contractually obligated to the huge expense. Firefighters have a strong union.
Sanghvi voted to support Kim and then failed to effectively address the enormous cost in her subsequent budgets.
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And to be fair here, this was more Madigan’s folly than anyone else’s.
Her failue to put $s on the post construction capital expenses and ongoing annual effects on the city budget was a complete dereliction of her duty.
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Come out from under your rock, Sarah. You are the only person who has a demonstrate personal agenda to denigrate Madigan even if you have to lie, make up crap and abandon your own party to do so. Get over the rejection that has rocked your petty little world.
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Aren’t the Public Safety staffing quotas/requirements contractually; i.e., negotiated with the Mayoy’s office, mandated; along with the mandated staffing requirements in order to receive the juicy funding for the multi-branched Station #3 (e.g., FBI, Homeland Security, State Police, et al)? It seems that the city is over the barrel in multiple directions. Just saying that free money comes with a premium.
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It’s scary to think what kind of shape the city would be in had the Democrats managed to elect Shafer Gaston, someone who couldn’t even keep up with his mortgage payments, as our city’s Finance Commissioner. We are most fortunate that Ms. Kiernan won. Elections matter.
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