The city of Saratoga Springs is in a serious fiscal crisis. Four years of fantasy budgets by the previous Commissioner of Finance, Minita Sanghvi, have continuously underestimated expenditures and overestimated revenues while drawing down the city’s reserves to cover the deficits her budgets created. Sanghvi repeatedly voted for labor contracts, grants, and dubious vanity projects, proposed by predecessors to the current members of our Council, without any plan for how the city was going to cover the costs incurred by these votes along with the other predictable budget increases in insurance, etc.
Incoming Commissioner of Finance JoAnne Kiernan inherited a total financial mess. As reported previously in this blog, the city’s outside auditor found the books in such disarray that he could not perform his audit. Commissioner Kiernan and her crew faced the task of straightening out the records from 2025 so they could be audited while trying to manage her department’s regular record-keeping and begin the planning for 2027, the first budget she would be responsible for.
Kiernan realized that, in addition to fixing the previous mess and maintaining regular operations, something needed to be done as soon as possible to get control of the city’s deficit spending.
To that end, she asked each of her colleagues on the Council to prepare an analysis of the size of their overtime to date and a further analysis regarding why the overtime was required. She asked that they present their findings at the pre-agenda meeting on July 20.
As the videos below will document, each of the departments complied with her request with the exception of the Commissioner of the Department of Public Works, BK Keramati, who never submitted any report prior to the meeting and came completely unprepared.
Most blog readers may not want to get so deep in the weeds, but I have provided videos of three of the Council members’ detailed presentations of how overtime has been used in their departments.
As the Public Safety Department has the most staff and must function 24/7, its presentation by Assistant Police Chief Frederick Warfield (Chief McIntosh is on military leave) was extensive, including detailed spreadsheets drilling down on who gets overtime and why. Warfield also explained steps his department has taken to reduce overtime. Similarly, Fire Chief Joe Dolan gave a detailed report on overtime in his department.
As the Finance and Accounts departments are relatively small, their presentations were briefer but highly informative.
In contrast, Department of Public Works Commissioner BK Keramati had not prepared, as is apparent in the short video below. When Kiernan asked him about employees who had huge overtime for the second quarter of this year, including someone with 189 hours in overtime (that calculates to almost five weeks out of eight for the quarter), he failed to answer.
The Silent BK Keramati
As readers may recall, the previous month, Keramati denounced the charter changes proposed by Mayor Safford’s Charter Commission, then turned around and voted for all of them. At the time, I emailed Commissioner Keramati several times and attended a Council meeting asking the Commissioner to share with the public why he had suddenly changed his position on the charter proposals. He never answered.
At the pre-agenda meeting, Commissioner Kiernan asked Keramati to explain what appeared to be extreme cases of overtime in his department, including an employee who had earned 189 hours during the second quarter (almost five weeks of overtime over eight weeks and outside of snow season). He said he did not know.
Keramati’s lack of a response prompted me to once again attend a regular Council meeting the following evening. As Keramati had previously been asked about the 189 hours of overtime, I courteously asked him during public comment if he could explain this.
As with the previous question about his changed vote, he declined to answer.
Readers may recall that Keramati’s campaign focused on his opponent’s alleged failure to be transparent to the public.
Commissioner Keramati reminds me very much of former Finance Commissioner Sanghvi, who also simply ignored questions that she did not like while routinely claiming her commitment to transparency.
As will become increasingly clear to the public, the city is facing a large deficit. It requires not only good management within the Commissioners’ departments but a willingness to engage publicly and candidly about their departments’ expenses.
Keramati’s behavior is extremely disturbing. It is the kind of unwillingness to engage in difficult discussions that brought us to the current crisis. Commissioner Keramati needs to rise to the occasion and be open to the public about his actions.
An Unprepared Keramati
Commissioner Kiernan Introduces Discussion and Documents The Use Of Overtime In Her Office
In her presentation, Kiernan displays a chart documenting that Sanghvi’s budget arbitrarily set overtime without considering the pattern of need during the previous three years. Kiernan goes on to detail overtime in her own department.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
Honest question as I am not a finance person and don’t understand something. It seems from what I’ve read and heard at the council table, there is a significant fund balance, more than required and more that is usual. If this is the case, can someone explain why I keep hearing what a financial crisis the city is in?
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Mrs Gayle L: it is a legit and good question.
The City’s Reserved Funds Balance (the $ of which i do not have in front of me) has both a Restricted and an Unrestricted portion: approx 1/3 vs 2/3.
The problem is that the city has too often/too long dipped into it to cover annual operating deficits, which are mostly personnel-related and (in my opinion) reflective of an overpaid-overstaffed-unionized workforce due to past Councils feeling they are prisoners to their demands. That reserve Fund has therefore been decreasing in recent years.
I believe NYS dictates how “big” it can be (puts a limit). We apparently are not at their max allowable number any longer (as we were many moons ago, if I recall).
The current operating deficit looks to be in the $5m + ball park. That is a significant figure vs the total city budget.
So Yes, we will certainly see this dipping happen again. The Q is whether it will be that full $5+M amount of something a bit less.
Bottom Line: poor fiscal management and horrible union negotiations by past Councils. The bill for that ineptitude has been delivered.
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While it does certainly seem that the administration under Menita was far less than trfiscally accurate I’m wondering why the city keeps using the phrase, financial crisis without more specifics and transparency. What exactly is the fund balance and if 18% is unassigned, how do they plan to use it to ease the “financial crisis”. Has the annual (2025) report been published.
My concern is the use of pejorative terminology without actual figures that the average citizen would understand,
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I would watch the council presentation Tuesday night and it was discussed this morning at pre-agenda as well this morning.
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As said, without having the actual fig’s in front of me, the Reserve Fund is something in the ballpark of $20M. The comprehensive City budget is in the ballpark of $60M, The projected Operating Deficit is $6M. Assuming I am close on those 3 figures, a few followup comments and reactions
The dipping into those reserves usually in the $4M ballpark in recent times has resulted in this fund having decreased from its highs. Yes, the % seems healthy but keep in mind the PURPOSE of this reserve fund is that of a rainy day & disaster strikes nature. It should NOT be used for operating losses — again, except in times of calamities. When it gets “too large”, the proper use of the excess should be capital investments, not covering operating deficits in the name of “look I didn’t raise your property tax!”.
I will point out that the blame game here goes back to Councils and Council member other than just the individual mentioned by another Commentator here. The financial SHELL GAMES of this City are there on the record all to see when armed with the real numbers.
The Summary Analysis is this, a $6M deficit represents 10% of the Budget. That is a Concerning figure or at least it should be one. Think of what happens if & when a business has that type of $ performance. Heads roll.
If the whole $6M is simply grabbed from Reserves, look at the effect there on the Fund balance going from $20M-$6M=$14M. That’s a big hit.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Put up the photos of the Council members of the past 10 or so years for their identities. Look at the specific matter of the new fire station and of the prior two former Finance Commissioners ignoring the long term, ongoing $$ ramifications of it to the annual operating matters. Next, revisit the union contracts that were rubber stamped.
Long time Financial Mismanagement by City Hall is the culprit; not just by the Finance commissioners over the past decade-plus but across the complete council and the organization. It is as simple as that .
Changing the structure of this City’s form of government will certainly help, of course. But even before that, the very general need of putting competent people into those City Council chairs is Job #1.
That blame falls on the voters. For they need to wake up and stop using a report card of who stands where on national matters.
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Real Deal is accurate with this comment:
“The problem is that the city has too often/too long dipped into it to cover annual operating deficits, which are mostly personnel-related and (in my opinion) reflective of an overpaid-overstaffed-unionized workforce due to past Councils feeling they are prisoners to their demands. That reserve Fund has therefore been decreasing in recent years.”
The strong unions use professional negotiators at contract renewal time. The city council members, of the past and present, believe they are competent enough to go it alone. Therefore, we the taxpayers have our feet held to the fire by the unions year after year. In the 1970s and 1980s, public safety used professional negotiators, why not renew that practice?
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There is a danger that the conversation over the city’s financial troubles will devolve into blaming city employees and their contracts for the situation the city is now in. While it is the job of unions to try to get the best salary and benefits for their members, none of this happens unless the employer agrees to those proposals, and then it is the employer’s responsibility to have a plan on how to fund what they have agreed to. In our form of government the responsibility for a plan can be clearly traced to the Commissioner of Finance, Minita Sanghvi, who for four years consistently created budgets that did not cover the rising costs of contracts and other responsibilities the city incurred with her approval. Now the proverbial chickens have come home. Let’s just not blame the current Finance Commissioner, JoAnne Kiernan, when she has to deliver the inevitable bad news of what it is going to take to repair the damage Sanghvi and previous Councils have done to the city’s finances.
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Madigan is not off the hook here, neither.
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Want to elaborate on this or do you just like to throw out accusations with nothing?
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You might want to read John’s most recent post where he stated (with facts)
“It is important to note that in the first column for the year 2022, the budget was prepared not by Commissioner Sanghvi but by her predecessor, Michele Madigan. Not coincidentally, that (the green column in the lower left) was the only year that the city actually operated within its budget, leaving a fund balance (reserve) for Commissioner Sanghvi of a whopping seventeen million dollars which Sanghvi has recklessly squandered.”
Now, whoever you are, you might want to apologize though I doubt that will happen when one makes an unfounded, not supported by facts, snide (likely with a personal agenda) comment.
SHAME ON YOU!
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Just guessing. Is the person with the 189 hours of overtime within three years of retirement? It could provide a significant boost to his pension for the rest of his or her life. On top of that, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, he or she will not have to pay additional federal income tax on those pay checks. What a deal for him or for her.
There is a report in the news today about Todd Shimkus providing information concerning the windfall that the City and the County received over the past three ‘Belmont in Saratoga’ summers. We should be rolling in dough! It should be interesting to see how the City manages to meet all its obligations through 2027 with the Belmont back in New York.
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you are assuming the weasel Shimkus is telling the truth. good luck there.
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I’ll repeat myself. When a Commissioner of Public Safety asks his Fire Chief. “how many fire fighters will you need for future Station #3?”, he can expect to get the “pie in the sky” answer. I believe the answer was inflated, asking for 16 new fire fighters. Really hoping the Commissioner would reply “how about 9 new fire fighters.”
The mistake was made, the sell to the taxpayer was the fact that a grant would cover the cost. But the reality was, it was covered for a very limited time. Question: How many calls for service has there been for station #3?
I am definitely not against fire fighters. Better oversight by the Commissioner(s) would be appreciated.
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