On September 2, 2026, I met with Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Public Works BK Keramati to discuss a document regarding what appeared to be excessive overtime accrued by one of his employees during the second quarter of this year. The document was from a FOIL request. What was deeply disturbing was that it became apparent during the meeting that the Commissioner had not bothered to read the document beforehand, let alone familiarize himself with the issues it raised. As it turned out, his lack of knowledge about his department did not end there.
Context
As has become clear, gross mismanagement during the four-year tenure of Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi squandered the city’s financial resources and left us in dire circumstances.
To begin addressing this crisis, Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan asked her colleagues on the Council to prepare presentations documenting the causes of each department’s past overtime use and the actions each Commissioner had taken to minimize it.
The presentations were done at the pre-agenda on 07/20/2026 in great detail and again at the Council meeting on 07/21/2026. As noted in a previous post, only one Commissioner failed to prepare for the meeting: the Commissioner of Public Works, BK Keramati.
At the time, Kiernan observed that one of Keramati’s employees had generated 189 hours of overtime during the second quarter. Keramati was unable to explain to Kiernan the specific circumstances behind the large amount of overtime accrued by this employee. He ruminated on the many possibilities and then agreed to get back to her about the employee.
Blogger FOILs For Documents
I inquired with contacts at City Hall, and the response was consistent. 189 hours of overtime was a lot of overtime to accumulate, particularly in the second quarter of the year when winter storms would not be being dealt with. So I Foiled for any documents related to the Department of Public Works (DPW) employee who was granted all that overtime during the second quarter of 2026.
Apparently, DPW tried to deny me the records. I was initially contacted by the city’s FOIL officer, who told me she had been informed by DPW that no employee had received 189 hours of overtime. She told me that she was aware of the exchange between Kiernan and Keramati at the meeting and would pursue the issue further. As it turned out, the employee referred to in the meeting had racked up 190.25 hours of overtime, not 189.
On August 26, 2026, I received a response to my FOIL. This was the document.
Now, the first thing a keen observer will notice is that the first two pages do not match the second two pages. They have different font sizes. The two pages with large type lack dates or other information that would allow their data to be logically linked to the other two pages. It makes it impossible to read the reports properly.
The next thing that leaps out at the reader is that an alarm was triggered 16 times, warning (“Mahoney Call, Reset Compressor”) that the compressor that makes the ice for the city rink needed to be reset outside regular hours. This required someone to go to the rink and address the malfunctioning machine.
The union contract requires that the city pay an employee who works overtime at least 1.5 times their regular pay for a minimum of two hours, no matter how brief the call is. This seems reasonable. If you are going to get someone up in the middle of the night, they should be compensated for the inconvenience. In this case, the employee is a supervisor and is paid at least $128.68 for the call.
According to the records released under this FOIL, the DPW has spent at least $2,058.88 on resetting this malfunctioning compressor. Bear in mind that we only have the records for the second quarter. The city may have spent even more during the period before and after the second quarter.
The Meeting
I contacted Commissioner Keramati and asked to meet with him to discuss these records and his department’s overtime. On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, I met with Commissioner Keramati in his office. I was surprised that he was alone. I expected a posse.
I asked Keramati if I could record our conversation for accuracy, and he told me, “Absolutely not.”
Before I could ask anything further, Keramati wanted to know why I was focusing on this one individual in his department for overtime when employees in all the other departments were also generating overtime.
Trying to be diplomatic, I offered that I had looked into overtime issues across all departments. What I didn’t say to him was that Kiernan had asked all the departments to provide an analysis of their overtime and that with the exception of himself, at both a public pre-agenda meeting and full Council meeting, there had been extensive discussions, including charts and graphs from his other colleagues on the Council documenting which positions were generating overtime, why they were generating overtime, and what possible steps might be taken to reduce it. He was the only one on the Council who had not prepared for these meetings.
I broached the issue of the inconsistencies between the pages I received in the FOIL. Keramati then began an extended speculation as to what relationship the pages might have. I thought at this point he might bring someone into the meeting who was familiar with the report, but he didn’t. Eventually I observed, “BK, you don’t know,” and he good-naturedly agreed.
I asked him whether, putting aside the snow-plowing season, an employee in DPW generating 190.25 hours of overtime in a quarter was an anomaly. He again speculated about all the crises that can hit DPW and generate overtime. I offered, “Then you don’t know.” He admitted he was merely speculating.
Given that Commissioner Kiernan had asked him to provide her with a report analyzing overtime in his department, his apparent failure to do so was troubling, and his lack of knowledge of the report that was the purpose of our meeting seemed very odd.
I asked him whether the problem compressor had been properly repaired or replaced. He acknowledged that there had been problems with the compressor at the ice rink but didn’t know its status. As it is now September and the city spent over $2,000 in the second quarter (which ended in June), it would seem to this blogger that the head of DPW should know the status of this critical piece of equipment.
A Troubling Experience
Commissioner Keramati seemed strangely removed from the fiscal crisis the city faces in general but, more particularly, uninterested and uninformed about overtime in his own department.
I was struck by how uninterested he was in the report on the individual’s 190.25 hours of overtime, as it was clear he had not studied it before our meeting. It was also disturbing that he seemed unconcerned regarding the status of the compressor that might be bleeding the city money.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
While I agree that the City finds itself in dire circumstances and I appreciate Commissioner Kiernan’s transparent approach to bring about a professional analysis of our current shaky financial status and to take corrective measures, I disagree that these problems were caused solely by gross mismanagement of former Finance Commissioner Sanghvi.
The 2022-23 City Council was unique. When DPW Commissioner Scirocco was unable to serve due to his illness and his sad death in early 2022, we ended up with a Council made up of five individuals who had never served in their newly elected or appointed positions. Commissioner Sanghvi had credentials that would seem to have made her the most qualified Finance Commissioner ever to serve. Unfortunately, without the perspective of the experienced Finance Department staff personnel who had served under Michele Madigan and while serving on a Council of ‘newbies’ who were unable to help set reasonable spending guidelines, Commissioner Sanghvi and that entire Council made a number of very questionable fiscal decisions that set us up for today’s economic calamity. It was a Council of chaos made up of five individuals who ‘did not know what they did not know’. No one person deserves all the blame.
I applaud John Kaufmann’s efforts to get more information on the 189 (or 190.25) hours of overtime paid out to one DPW employee during the second quarter of 2026. That comes out to nearly 15 hours of overtime per week. Commissioner Keramati is new to his position and it is entirely possible that he might not know how this happened, if this is common or what was the overtime expense for DPW employees with that job title in previous years. However, there are people in the DPW offices who could provide this information. I would suggest that John Kaufmann ask for another meeting which would include seasoned DPW management officials.
I don’t understand why Commissioner Keramati refused to be recorded during the John Kaufmann meeting. In fact, why not break out his own recording device. My sense is that Commissioner Keramati does not trust John Kaufmann and John Kaufmann does not trust Commissioner Keramati. Dual recordings would seem to be the logical solution.
Unless the City has been agreeing to some ridiculously generous labor contracts, the rate of pay for overtime should be 1.5 times their regular rate, not 2.5 times. The 2.5 rate sounds to me more like a pay scale for after- hours on-call time. On-call time rates would be paid as compensation for employees who have been designated as ‘on call’ for a designated period of after-hours time. They have to clear their personal schedules while ‘on call’ so that, if they are called in, they must respond immediately. It would be important to determine how much of the 189 (or 190.25) hours is for regular overtime (1.5) and how much is from on call time (2.5). Hopefully, Commissioner Keramati has given all this information to Finance and a much clearer analysis can be provided to John Kaufmann at his next DPW meeting.
Chris Mathiesen
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Thanks for your non-partisan take; truly rare for this blog/blog audience. Though the fire chief was suspended on allegations in February, 2023 of taking his city salary while also getting paid by the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control, I don’t recall sustained criticism of the DPS department in this blog.
Anyway, DPS is where the budget busting overtime is happening. Maybe it’s legitimate, maybe the rates are skewed unfairly for SS taxpayers as you suggest; it would be great for Mr. Kaufmann to take a deep dive into this issue.
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At the start of the 2025 campaign season, I invited BK into the DPW office in an honest attempt at ensuring the campaign would be based on issues. I provided BK with an opportunity to meet with senior staff, and tours of both the water treatment plant and the DPW garage. I voluntarily extended those courtesies because A. I had nothing to hide, and B. because, again, I wanted the campaign to be centered around facts on the ground.
In August, he emailed me requesting a public report, which I immediately sent him. No one has to go back very far in Saratoga’s recent history, to find instances of elected officials compelling citizens, taxpayers, voters and the media, to formally FOIL public documents. I didn’t do that, although I could have, and potentially significantly delayed the release of that document. But that’s not how I operate.
Then, along with Gordon Boyd, (who I had considered a family friend for 20+ years), they appeared before the October council meeting, along with a doctor, whom up until that evening, had never called, Emailed, or made an in-person visit to City Hall, to express any concern about his drinking water, to indicate I was derelict in my duty for allowing people to drink from a “poisoned mud puddle.” Ironically, within a week of taking office, perhaps through an Act of God, the water was “perfectly safe” despite no change in policy by the newly elected Commissioner (which can be backed up by FOIL response).
In the later part of 2025, Mr. Keramati fell and hit his head. This injury caused sustained damage well into 2026; one of the results was that he had to miss time away from City Hall, including missing a meeting with NYS and Saratoga County Departments of Health regarding a subsequent water threshold exceedance. When I asked him via email why the notification wasn’t posted to the website or DPW’s Facebook page, he told me “people would find out in their bills” which failed to take into account renters amongst others. One can only speculate whether he had attended the DOH meeting, if he would have taken their guidance on notifications to the public, as I had. And for someone who, with others, dramatically discredited my transparency, clearly there are communications that the public should be aware of, that he hasn’t shared.
Most recently I had a similar experience with another member of the Democratic Committee who shared an email I sent them, with the Times Union. Whether their intention was to discredit me, the amendments, or both, my intention and motivation in sending that Email, was to help a friend who sought to understand a process I’m familiar with.
After what could only be described as an attempted media “hit job”, this person shared a health concern via social media. Rather than be angry for their deliberate attempt at drawing me into the controversy despite the fact I have no official city capacity, I dropped off flowers and a card to them offering my family’s support and willingness to help during what could be a rough journey ahead.
People over differing political viewpoints. Personal relationships over differing public policy positions. That’s how we used to operate in America.
My hope is that sensationalism will be removed from our politics and “gotcha-ism” will stop being rewarded, and we can return to a time where differing opinions doesn’t lead to targeted personal discredation. We are communities of people before politics/policies, and our best outcomes are achieved by respectfully hashing out differing views that lead to compromises.
Even if I had known in advance, the outcomes in both situations, I still wouldn’t have handled them any differently, because I remain optimistic that the better angels will prevail. But people shouldn’t mistake my kindness for weakness.
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Clearly our current commissioner of Public Works is not qualified for the position and doesn’t seem to care. It’s incumbent on the voters of Saratoga Springs to be more diligent about only electing qualified individuals for commissioner positions. BK must go.
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