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Three of the city Deputies, facilitated by their respective bosses, used a poorly defined provision adopted by the Saratoga Springs City Council to feed at the public trough.

• Angella Rella, Deputy Mayor: $5,640.75
• Stacy Connors, Deputy Commissioner of Accounts: $4,136.75
• Heather Crocker, Deputy Commissioner of Finance: $1,128.15

A Proposition Cynically Exploited

In February of 2023, the City Council voted for a major increase in their deputies’ salaries. At the same meeting, prompted by Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub, they added a new perk. All deputies could be paid extra to be “on call”.

As a computer consultant who supports software, I thought I was familiar with the term “on call”. This is the way I have always understood it:

if someone such as a doctor or engineer is on call, they are ready to go and help whenever they are needed as part of their job

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/be-on-call

So, as a computer consultant, I might be required to be on call in case, for instance, a client was installing new software and ran into trouble. This would mean that I would have to agree to be available immediately by phone or perhaps required to be able to be on sight within a certain amount of time to assist the client. On-call doctors, likewise, must be sober and able to respond within minutes should a medical emergency occur while they are on call.

At the time of the vote, I had understood that this provision was crafted as a way to compensate Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neil, whose job really requires that he be on call to deal with emergencies such as broken water pipes or snow storms, which his department would be responsible for.

Joe O’Neil is an outstanding city employee whose job really does subject him to the need to be potentially available twenty-four-seven.

Unfortunately, the language of the resolution was extremely poorly crafted, making it vulnerable to abuse. The problem was compounded due to the failure of Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi to properly monitor and manage this perk. At the time of the meeting, she told her colleagues that she would come up with additional parameters for the new perk and that she would assess the program and report on it quarterly. 

In my FOIL request, I sought all documents regarding “on-call.” I received a copy of the resolution establishing on-call along with sheets submitted by the Deputies for payment. My FOIL produced no documents related to Sanghvi’s promises to produce parameters clarifying the new policy nor any documents establishing that she reviewed the program quarterly as she had promised at the February meeting.

I emailed her requesting a meeting on the issue.

She responded by directing me to the Human Resources office. I then wrote back to her asking:

• Could she provide me with her quarterly findings?
• Could she provide me with her suggested parameters for “on-call”?
• As the resolution establishing ”on-call” was to go into effect on February 9, 2023, could she explain how Deputy Mayor Angella Rella was paid for being on-call for the month of January and the first week of February?
• As the resolution calls for paying $125.35 a week for being on-call, how was the Finance Department calculating payments if someone was on-call for only a few days?

To date, I have not had a response to these questions from the Commissioner. In our form of government, it is the responsibility of the Commissioner of Finance to establish controls over city spending. These are serious questions that deserve proper answers. To refuse to respond raises grave concerns about what other breakdowns of oversight may be going on in her office.

The Resolution

This is the relevant language from the resolution that included establishing on-call:

Note that this benefit was supposed to only be used by deputies whose department had 24/7 response requirements and involved the necessity of being available to respond to emergency calls. [The final version was amended to remove the phrase “that is not operationally staffed 24/7” thus allowing the Public Safety Deputy to be eligible although Tetu never put in for this pay.]

What Constitutes On Call for a Deputy??

Consider this document from Deputy Mayor Angella Rella seeking payment for being “on-call”:

This is just one of the four pay forms Ms. Rella submitted and that Ron Kim approved to be paid. Three were submitted on November 11, 2023. The fourth was dated December 24. Note the timing of Ms. Rella’s submission of these forms. According to the resolution, this benefit was to be approved and paid on a quarterly basis, but Rella waited until November 11, 2023, to begin to submit her bills. That was just four days following her boss’ defeat in the November 7 election. 

The resolution states that the benefit was to go into effect on February 9, 2023 [JK: The date had to be amended because a revised version had to be adopted with a new date of February 21, 2023]. Yet Rella asked for and was paid for the entire month of January and the first week in February. The Finance Department is responsible for making sure claims are legitimate when they do payroll, yet they approved this.

Most startling is that the four documents she billed for claim that she was on call seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, from January 2, 2023, to December 24, 2023.

As readers will observe, the form for reporting includes a column titled “Reason,” which I assume was meant to explain what was going on that required her availability. She didn’t bother to write anything in this column. Instead, she simply pasted into the head of the form that “…she was available for contact by the Mayor’s Department and was responsible for responding to emergency situations, events, and assigning subordinate employee(s) during these week dates.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because she simply took the language from the resolution.

Who Knows What “On Call” Means?

How could this happen?

Missing from the resolution were the following:

• Any definition as to what is construed as being on-call.
• Whether the employee was required to meet sobriety standards while on-call.
• How quickly an employee was required to respond to an on-call demand (would being on a plane or going anywhere where cell service was problematic, disqualify a deputy from this benefit?). Just how available does a person have to be when on-call?
• What constituted the kind of potential emergencies that merited the person being on-call?
• What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Accounts Department to be on-call? 
• What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Finance Department to be on-call?
• What kind of potential emergencies constituted the need for someone heading the Mayor’s office to be on call (in Rella’s case, 24/7, for a year)?

Granted, the Accounts department is charged with managing the election logistics in the city, so there might be staffing issues or problems with equipment that would merit having the Deputy on call on those specific days. Other than that, the Accounts Department is responsible for doing such city business as issuing licenses, keeping city records, and assessing city properties. It’s hard to imagine what emergency could possibly occur in that Department that would require the Deputy to be paid to be on call. Nothing happens in the Accounts Department after office hours that can be construed as an emergency. 

The Finance Department includes the IT department but that department has an internal on-call policy already that was negotiated with the CSEA union. They rotate three IT staff people who are paid not $125.35 like the Deputies, but $75.00 to be on call for the week. They have successfully operated this way for years. So the Finance Department Deputy doesn’t have to manage these people to get them in should there be an IT emergency after office hours. As with the Accounts Department, nothing happens after office hours in Finance that can be construed as an emergency that needs to have anyone ready for a quick response.

Is This Being Confused With Work Outside Of Normal Business Hours?

While Rella and Finance Deputy Heather Crocker simply leave the reason column of the On-Call Pay form blank, consider this document for Deputy Commissioner Of Accounts Stacy Connors which Dillon Moran approved.

It is unclear how to interpret this document. What does being available to respond to an emergency have to do with attending the State of the City event?What does attending a wake have to do with being on-call? What does attending a “special” City Council meeting have to do with being on-call? In her other sheets, she has “CC” in the reason column. Based on the dates, I assume this refers to City Council meetings. What does being on-call have to do with attending a City Council meeting? None of what she lists has anything to do with being “on call,” yet Moran approved this, and the Payroll employee in the Finance Department paid her.

Public Safety Dispatchers Get Nothing For Being On Call

According to past Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino, the Public Safety dispatchers are required to be on call for eight hours before and after their shifts but receive no special compensation for this.

[JK: I have been told that Commissioner Monagnino was misinformed on this.]

Reform?

This mess really needs some sort of action. Commissioner Sanghvi is responsible for monitoring the city’s finances and for ensuring there is no abuse. Her cavalier attitude about this gross waste of city money is most unfortunate. There is no indication she plans to reconsider this, let alone reform it.

The Documents

Stacy Connors (Accounts)

Angela Rella (Mayor)

Heather Crocker (Finance)

Joe O’Neil (Public Works)

At the January 2, 2024, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting, newly elected Mayor John Safford introduced a resolution to make a payment required by a court order. This should have been a routine vote to approve the court settlement/but not for Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran.

In 2023, requests by Saratoga Springs Republican Chair Mike Brandi to secure documents from the city under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) were ignored in flagrant violation of the law.

Brandi sued the city, and the court sustained his complaint that the city had violated FOIL and ordered the city to pay his costs ($2,500.00) and to provide him with the documents.

This blog has documented the disintegration of the city’s response to the Freedom of Information Law under the previous City Council. FOIL is at the heart of open government. Months ago, this last Council acknowledged that it was routinely in violation of its obligation to release public documents to citizens in a timely manner but, in spite of this, chose to take no action to address the problem.

The following is a video from the January 2, 2024, Council meeting. As the video documents, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran first pretends he does not know who the litigant was that the city was required to pay. Moran asks Safford, “Who is this check going to?” After Mayor Safford confirms that it is going to Brandi, Moran disingenuously asks whether Brandi is the G.O.P. chair. After Safford confirms that Brandi is the G.O.P. chair, Moran feels “compelled” to ask, “The G.O.P. chair sued the city?” and when Safford confirms, Moran asserts, “It’s not very civil.” The Council then moves to a vote. Moran votes no on complying with the order to pay. He offers no explanation.

Ugly Partisan Behavior by Moran Right Out Of The Gate

As readers may know, all but one of the candidates endorsed by One Saratoga won the seats they ran for in the November election. Their theme was “City before party.” It was hoped by many that that successful message in this last election would result in a Council whose members would avoid cheap partisan attacks and that their votes and actions would reflect a commitment to doing what is best for the city. Apparently, Dillon Moran didn’t get the message.

In this first Council meeting of the New Year, there was nothing even thinly disguised in Moran’s gratuitous, partisan performance. It makes no difference who requests documents from the city. Under New York State Law, all citizens have the right to secure documents under FOIL, and all government bodies in New York State are required to respond in a timely manner or pay the consequences. Dillon Moran does not get to decide any of this.

It is most disturbing that he would vote to ignore the court’s order. Moran now oversees Risk and Safety. Rather than set a standard for rigorously adhering to all city, state, and federal requirements as he had just taken an oath to do when he was sworn into office the day before, he openly flaunted the court’s authority in order to indulge in partisan grandstanding.

Moran’s behavior signals that he, for his part, is not about to leave the acrimony that plagued the last Council behind.

At the special end-of-year Saratoga Springs City Council meeting on December 28, the Council’s deliberations were marked as usual with improper proposals, confusion over resolutions, and, of course, acrimony.

Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s agenda included a proposal to fix what she referred to as the “human error” in the 2024 city budget that resulted in her budget improperly exceeding the New York State Property Tax Cap. Apparently, a miscalculation having to do with a program called “payment in lieu of taxes” (PILOT) was the cause of the problem. The Commissioner did not explain how the error occurred or why she had just noticed that her budget violated the state’s tax cap (this blog indicated the tax cap was an issue weeks ago) and how she planned to avoid such events in the future.

The remedy Sanghvi proposed involved the Council approving changes in the 2024 budget. Kim repeatedly and forcefully stated that amending the 2024 budget in 2023 was in violation of the city charter and that he was “aghast” that she was proposing this.

In the end, no action was taken, and the problem was kicked over to the incoming Council.

At the same meeting, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran offered a resolution to award a bid to a company for, as far as I can tell, setting up a registry for short-term rentals in the city.

Moran acknowledged that his resolution did not include an actual contract with the firm as was usually the case. He told his colleagues that changes in the insurance market had become a barrier to the city’s standard contract. He assured his colleagues he would work things out and that a contract would be ready for action at the next Council meeting. He told his colleagues that rather than use the city’s contract, he would use one from the vendor. This vendor had, apparently, already gotten the city to sign a non-city contract with the firm previously.

The city purchasing policy restricts the use of non-city contracts. Such contracts are only to be used in unusual circumstances and, most importantly, must include all the city’s requirements.

The normal procedure would have been for Moran to present all the items related to an award bundled together for action. These would have included the contract. 

Why Moran could not wait until he had all the documents ready to present this to the Council is unclear, but this is part of an unfortunate pattern. There is, of course, the possibility that the successful bidder could not comply with the city’s policies, so prudence would have had Moran wait on the matter.

This is especially odd because he was introducing his resolution at a special meeting of the Council on December 28, and the new Council would be meeting in only five days. He never explained why there was a rush on the matter nor why he felt the need to bifurcate the process over two meetings.

In fact, the agenda for January 2, 2024, is on the city’s website, and there is no item on his agenda for this proposed agreement.

Pardon the play on words of the title of this post, but hopefully, this new council will combine the fact that it is a new order (group) and hopefully will bring a new discipline (order) in how this city does business.

As far back as I can remember, previous Councils have utilized their City Attorneys to review resolutions to be brought before the Council first to ensure that they met all the legal requirements both of our own charter and of all related other institutions.

Hopefully, on January 2, 2023, when the new Council convenes, Moran’s proposed contract will be tabled if it appears on his agenda and, along with the documents he presented on the 28th, they will be reviewed by the new City Attorney before any further action is taken.

In fact, I am optimistic that the free-for-all of chaotic resolutions submitted, withdrawn, resubmitted, etc., will be history, and the new Council will move forward with a more disciplined and deliberative approach to legislation, and it will indeed be a Happy New Year for the city.

Some years ago, New York State adopted a tax cap for municipalities and school districts. It required that these institutions limit their tax levy increase to 2% or inflation, whichever is lower. In the case of municipalities, they can override the tax cap, but there are strict rules on how this is to be done. Saratoga Springs Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s 2024 budget adopted by the Council, Sanghvi now admits, exceeded the state’s tax cap without adhering to state requirements.

On December 7, 2023, I published a post on the chaos of the proposed city 2024 budget. At the time, I wrote:

This budget, however, which raises taxes for the second year in a row, appears to have a tax levy that exceeds the New York State limit. 

December 7, 2023 blog post

Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi has proudly announced on several occasions that she does not read this blog. It appears that in this case she might have benefited from doing so. It seems that she has just discovered at the last possible moment that, in fact, the city has exceeded the tax cap and did so without first passing a required local law that would allow for this.

Here is an excerpt from her resolution:

“WHEREAS, since then, it has come to the attention of the Department of Finance that the amount stated in the 2024 Adopted Budget as $17,640,999, which is listed as line # A012-41001 was based on erroneous calculations. Upon investigation, it was found that the calculations were caused entirely by human error. A
summary of the erroneous calculation and the correct calculation are included with this resolution and made a
part hereof”

Resolution From Commissioner Sanghvi

As Sanghvi routinely touts her transparency, it will be interesting to see if the public will learn exactly what the error was, who was responsible for it, and what actions will be taken to avoid such errors in the future.

Cap Guidelines from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the New York State Department of State gives these directions:

“If the levy exceeds the tax levy limit due to technical or clerical errors, the excess amount shall be placed in reserve in accordance with Office of the State Comptroller requirements.”

For some reason Commissioner Sanghvi, having now admitted her budget exceeded the tax cap is now ignoring the state’s direction on what the next step needs to be.

Instead she has on her agenda a resolution that takes a convoluted path to amend the 2024 budget and amend the tax rate based on section 4.4.8 of the city charter.

My reading of the state requirements for overriding a tax cap lead me to believe that Sanghvi’s resolution fails to adhere to the state’s requirements. It is unclear if Sanghvi has communicated with the Comptroller’s office as to whether her resolution is acceptable.

As the current people on the Council routinely introduce new resolutions at the Council table, I am going to wait until the final version is adopted to comment further on whether they are handling the override properly.

A Meeting From Hell

The December 19, 2023, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting was another five-hour meeting where the requirements for legislation were ignored and where misinformation was shamelessly spread.

Here is an account of some of the actions, or inactions, that evening.

Promises, What Promises?

At the previous Council meeting, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran tried to pass a resolution placing himself in charge of overseeing a contract to audit the the city’s 50 point plan put together by the Saratoga Springs Police Reform Task Force. It was an obvious stretch to have him, rather than the Public Safety Commissioner, supervise the audit. Moran withdrew the resolution, telling his colleagues it would be more appropriate to have incoming Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub, who had co-chaired the Task Force, in charge.

Apparently, he either changed his mind or forgot about his promise. The resolution that was actually adopted by the Council on December 19th was the same one Moran had withdrawn at the previous meeting. None of his colleagues on the Council acknowledged his decision to renege, let alone offered any challenge, including Commissioner Golub, who was present at the Council table. Did no one else on the Council bother to read the resolution, or did no one on the Council care? Who knows?

Making A Mockery Of Transparency

Mayor Ron Kim issued a memo at the meeting on the pending release of the New York State Attorney General’s investigation into allegations against the city for its treatment of Black Lives Matter activists. Kim had already taken his memo to every media outlet in the capital district and gotten plenty of coverage.

Congratulating himself on his alleged transparency, he claimed he was issuing his statement out of a commitment to transparency even though he admitted he had not actually seen the Attorney General’s report which has not yet been released. His document was full of hearsay conjectures based on discussions he had had with the AG office during the investigation.

Apparently, the Attorney General was not pleased that Kim did this. In a tersely worded release, the Attorney General’s office wrote:

 “We are disappointed that details from private and preliminary settlement conversations were shared without our knowledge or approval.”

Office of the New York State Attorney General

Kim’s $13,250.00 Error

Every opportunity Mayor Kim finds to remind Saratoga Springs citizens of the cost of providing legal assistance for officials and employees swept up in the Attorney General’s investigation, he recites the names and amounts.

In the same release that speculated on the Attorney General’s impending report, he again listed the officials and their bills.

In the case of former Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton, he stated that the city had paid $29,000.00.

How Kim arrived at that figure is unknown. The actual bill was for $15, 775.00.

At the meeting, Robin Dalton advised the Mayor of his error during the public comment period. Did he apologize? No. He sat grim-faced.

The following is an email from Ms. Dalton’s attorney that indicates he has never spoken to Mayor Kim and had only one brief contact with City Attorney Tony Izzo, during which he indicated the initial estimated cost, which was not $29,000.00. The following is an email documenting this.

---

From: Michael P. McDermott, Esq.
Date: Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 1:17?PM
Subject: Dalton legal expenses
To: jcatkids@gmail.com
CC: Meghan E. Hebert

Dear Ms. Dalton,

I am writing in response to your request for a breakdown of the legal fees paid to date on your behalf by the City of Saratoga Springs.

Initially, I note that the only person I discussed potential fees with was Mr. Tony Izzo. I enclose our letter to Mr. Izzo dated February 1, 2023 wherein I gave an initial estimate of $10,000.00 as the cost to respond to the Attorney General’s subpoena. I have never discussed your case, nor offered an estimate
of future legal expenses, with Mayor Kim.

To date, the city has been billed, and paid our firm, the sum of $15,755.00 for your defense. That sum represents $6,990.00 in attorney time and $8,765.00 in disbursements associated with the data harvesting of your phone, which we paid on your behalf to Capital Investigations Group. Copies of the relevant documents are attached for your reference.

If you have any other questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,
Mike

Michael P. McDermott, Esq.
President and Shareholder

---

Dillon Moran and His Colleagues on the Council: City Procedures and Policies? Who Cares?

The city has a rigorous set of procedures that were established by Marilyn Rivers during her tenure as the Director of Risk and Safety to ensure that in awarding contracts, the city is protected from any mishandling that might create problems in the future. They can be cumbersome, but their rigorous enforcement is part of the reason the city has enjoyed one of the highest bond ratings in New York State.

At the pre-agenda meeting on Friday, December 15,2023, Dillon Moran offered the following:

“We are transitioning the Risk and Safety approvals. We uncovered a spot where I wasn’t seeing certain documents [JK: What ever that means.] I’m working through all those approvals today for the outstanding contracts. What we had is them essentially move forward contingent on my approval. Those will all be resolved before the end of the day [JK: That day being Friday, December 15. Even if he did not meet his goal of properly updating the information that day, he still had four days to complete his work.]  

Dillon Moran December 15, 2023

On Moran’s agenda for the December 19th Council meeting was an item to approve a contract with Beacon Risk Group to audit the city’s progress in implementing the Police Reform Task Force’s fifty-point “Reinvention Plan” that had been adopted by the previous Council in 2021.

Beacon Risk had been selected last June to do the audit. The problem was that as of the Tuesday evening Council meeting, the insurance certification document posted with the Beacon Risk Group (BRG) resolution still did not include all the coverage required by the city, including the mandated umbrella policy, the auto insurance policy, and workman’s comp insurance or a state waiver that would relieve BRG of this requirement.

I attended the Council meeting to point out that the insurance document on the city’s agenda for BRG, which Moran was asking the Council to adopt, did not meet the city’s requirements.

There was no reason why Moran could not wait to ask for Council approval until he could present to them and to the public a properly documented award. After all, BRG had been selected some six months earlier, so no one seemed in a hurry to get this done. 

Why Moran was suddenly in a feverish rush to get this contract approved when the Council had a special meeting scheduled for December 28, 2023, is anyone’s guess. This was not the only resolution he was insisting be adopted in violation of the city’s purchasing policies. 

This is a video of your blogger making these points to an indifferent Council.

During his agenda, Moran assured his colleagues that he had in his possession a proper insurance certification form from BRG. Moran did not bother to disclose why he did not properly post this alleged correct document with the resolution. Nor did Moran explain why he could not wait until the proper documents could be posted to ask for a vote. It is, of course, possible that Moran does not have the actual proper insurance certification.

None of this seemed to bother a pliant Council, which unanimously approved the BRG resolution.

This is a clip from later on in the meeting on a different subject, but it really says it all. Moran publically proclaims that the Council routinely violates city policies and procedures. Be assured this is not taken out of context. 

Duplicative Contracts, Who Cares

Last May, the Council approved a resolution to establish a Restorative Justice Panel. Their mission was to “seek to define via community input and dialogue a ‘Saratoga Springs’ Restorative Justice Program.” While I appreciate the dedication of the members of the Restorative Justice Panel, their meetings have been unfocused and marked by confusion. 

I will leave it to the readers to decide whether my characterization of them is ungenerous. Here is a link to one of their meetings: https://saratogaspringsny.new.swagit.com/videos/274333

Due to their inability to come up with a concrete strategy, they resorted to recommending two actions. Hire a consultant and do a survey. This is the common outcome committees resort to when they are lost.

The process, engineered by Deputy Mayor Angella Rella, was to exploit the poorly worded city policy regarding the purchasing of professional services in order to rush funding through to hire a consultant using a Request for Quotes (RFQ) instead of the more appropriate Request for Proposal (RFP) procedure.

There are two vehicles for contracting professional and other services and goods.

1. Request For Quotes (RFQ)
2. Request For Proposals (RFP)

Request for quotes are supposed to be used when the item(s) being sought are defined clearly enough that all the bidders have to do, as the word “quote” signifies, is to submit an amount. RFQs are most often used by the Department of Public Works. So DPW might put out an RFQ for one hundred shovels or for a Ford 150 two-door pickup truck.

An RFP is used when the city has a problem they want solved. They might put out an RFP for a homeless shelter. Here, the competitors would have to come up with proposed designs and their costs. 

The award process for RFPs is highly structured. The city must establish a set of criteria by which to compare the proposals. Contacts between the bidders and the city are supposed to be rigorously enforced. The answer to any question asked by a bidder must be shared with all the other competitors.

In the case of this RFQ put together by Rella, the words informal and unstructured come to mind. There is a catch in the purchasing procedures. RFQs are allowed for any purchase under $30,000.00. So this group, supported by the City Attorney, claims that even though the Restorative Justice Committee was soliciting proposals rather than just quotes, they could do so. In so doing, they were able to ignore all the requirements for establishing a transparent and structured process by which to compare the proposals.

If this all seems confusing, it is, but it reflects an indifference to the need to use a professional method to compare the proposals in a manner that is fair to the bidders and that will result in an effective use of city money.

The winning “quote” included the following statement:

“In light of the questions and concerns regarding the fidelity of the implementation plan to-date, we will work collaboratively with the Reinvention Plan Implementation Team to design and publish a public and frequently updated ‘Report Card’ detailing actual numerical and qualitative progress in implementing with fidelity, each of the fifty points”

Fenton-Ives successful proposal for restorative justice

As Jane Weihe pointed out to the Council, this is a clear duplication of the audit that Beacon Risk Group is being contracted to do.

Again, there was no need to rush through the approval of the resolution to contract with this firm on Restorative Justice. Under Marilyn Rivers’s hawk eyes, she would have stopped this cold and insisted that the apparent conflict be resolved. Unfortunately, Dillon Moran, who now oversees Risk and Safety, in his usual rush, saw no need to correct this deliverable. Unfortunately, neither did any of his colleagues at the Council table. So, both Ives-Fenton (for around $30,000) and BRG(for somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000) will be paid by the city to duplicate some of each other’s work.

Minita Sanghvi : “You Can’t Do That”

Dillon Moran: “Oh, Yes I Can”

Before the city can authorize a contract, it must first authorize the money to be spent on it. This involves determining what pot of money the funding will come from.

Moran’s agenda included a resolution to transfer money to RISE for its homeless shelter as an extension of their contract. Finance Commissioner Sanghvi offered that she supported the idea and she was sure she could find the money to pay for it out of unexpended money in the Mayor’s department. She vigorously opposed adopting the resolution, though, until the money to pay for it could be identified and a transfer authorized.

In spite of the fact that there was still a December 28,2023, meeting scheduled at which time this could be done properly, Moran and Kim would have none of it.

Things got heated as Moran hectored Sanghvi as he pressed to override her opposition. Kim and Moran claimed that the executive director of RISE was “in a panic” over the idea of any delay. This proved to be false.

This is typical of Moran’s behavior. Kim tried to shut down Sanghvi earlier by shouting, “Call the question.” This is just another example of the Mayor’s routinely demonstrated ignorance of Roberts Rules Of Order. The question can only be called when the person calling for it has the floor. It is an abuse to interrupt a person who is speaking by invoking “call the question.”

In a further abuse of Robert’s Rules, the Mayor routinely incorrectly seeks seconds, discussions, and votes on “friendly amendments”. It is one of the reasons Council meetings run for hours. The proper use of a friendly amendment is to request the person who has a resolution before the body to allow for a “friendly amendment.” This is to say, can I amend your resolution to add this language. If the person accepts the language and there is no objection, the chair may simply declare that the amendment is adopted.

Moran attempts to bully Sanghvi into adopting his resolution in spite of the fact it is in violation of the city’s policies and procedures.

Here, Kim characterized the rules and procedures for properly adhering to the city’s purchasing policies as “obstacles that aren’t real.”

Scary!

Is it any wonder that the city has a problem securing liability insurance? Given the flagrant disregard for scrupulously adhering to the city’s purchasing practices, it is surprising we have a carrier at all. The next shoe to drop will be the city’s bond rating. 

Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim’s behavior at his last regularly scheduled City Council meeting (the voters resoundingly defeated him in November) was the perfect ugly coda to his term in office. Unhappy with the message that former Public Safety Commissioner and County Planner Lew Benton was delivering during the public comment period, he interrupted Lew, and when Lew attempted to finish his remarks, Kim banged the gavel and temporarily shut the meeting down to silence Lew.

This was especially disturbing because Kim routinely has allowed speakers who are friendly to him to go on with no limit. In fact, earlier this year, he had announced that the four-minute limit was simply a suggestion. Since then, he has routinely opened the public comment period by stating that people should just try to limit their remarks to four minutes as a courtesy to others who might wish to speak. Apparently, Kim’s generosity did not include extending this flexibility to Lew Benton.

Violating State Authority-Who Cares?

Lew Benton braved the cold and took the time to come to a City Council meeting to advise the Council that they had lacked the authority to limit truck traffic on Van Dam Street as they voted to do at a previous Council meeting. He explained to the Council that he had contacted the New York State Department of Transportation, and they had confirmed his understanding. Lew was attempting to explain the law and what the city’s options were when Kim cut him off.

Now a naive reader might have expected someone from the Council to have insisted not only that Lew be allowed to finish but also that the Council should follow up on what Lew was telling them and reconsider their action. Surely, the homeowners on Van Dam Street deserve a full review. After all, the Council had led them to believe that their truck traffic problems were over. Instead, Kim’s colleagues, like him, cruised along as though unaware of the very large gorilla present in the room-the inconvenient truth that they had overreached their authority.

[More on all the other mischief at the December 19, 2023 Council meeting in a later post]

The December 5, 2023, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting was yet another marathon event.

Resolutions to be considered at this meeting were a moving target, with multiple resolutions added and others removed following the pre-agenda and before the actual meeting. These changes then continued to be made on the fly during the actual meeting.

Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran pulled at least four items from his agenda at the table. This is an ongoing problem that raises issues of both transparency and accountability.

Unless you continually go to the city website and continually check the agenda page, you do not know what resolutions will be acted on at the Council table.

In addition, if a citizen was concerned about the adoption of a particular resolution, they might venture out to a Council meeting and address the resolution during public comment, only to discover later in the meeting that it had been withdrawn later. If this were a rare and exceptional event, this would be tolerable, but Commissioner Moran routinely pulls items from his agenda at the last moment as he did (4 times) at the December 5 meeting.

More Violations Of The Open Meetings Lw

Commissioner Moran had sought approval for an action by the Council using email. They, in turn, approved his request through email.

This was a blatant violation of the New York State Open Meetings Law. I contacted the New York State Committee on Open Government regarding this matter, and they confirmed this.

Mike Brandi, the chair of the city Republican Party, has a lawsuit pending against the city for multiple violations of the Open Meetings Law, including this violation.

As a result, one of the items on Moran’s agenda was a resolution to be formally passed by the Council that he said was crafted to address the violation. 

The Contest

This blogger is offering to purchase a Mrs. London’s croissant (chocolate, almond, or plain-your choice) for the contest winner for the best answer to my questions about Moran’s resolution.

Here is the text of the resolution: 

So my questions are:

1. What documents “involving City projects and processes, and other related actions” do readers believe he is referring to here?
2. Who was supposed to be the beneficiaries of these documents? The public? Other Council members? City employees?
3. How does this resolution address the Council’s violation of the Open Meetings Law?

Entries are not required to make any more sense than this resolution. All responses are due by April 1, 2024, December 24, 2023. I will publish the winning interpretation!

[JK: Architect Jim Martinez has a long history of trying to address the truck traffic issues in our city. Here are some of his thoughts.]

To my knowledge, this discussion on truck routes and bypasses has been going on since 2005. In all fairness to those residents who can remember during the 1960’s when a plan was proposed to connect Route 50 as a truck bypass access arterial from points north and east to points west by demolishing most of Franklin Street in Franklin Square, this issue probably seems familiar. Fortunately, this plan was foiled by several of our early preservationists and businesspeople and was discarded. At the time, the city also considered a plan by the Holiday Inn to build an addition to the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. Desperate times, desperate measures.

During the 2005 election season, truck traffic on Washington Street, a New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) route, was being challenged by residents regarding oversized vehicles. With a little research, it was quickly determined that Washington Street was not a designated NYS Route for oversized Special Dimension Vehicles (SDV). While a truck route, the connecting route from our only Qualifying Highway (I87) to points west was and still is Van Dam Street as noted in their first of these two documents; https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/operating/oom/transportation-systems/repository/Truck%20Book%202020.pdf ; https://www.dot.ny.gov/nypermits/repository/perm71b.pdf.

The conundrum for residents addressing all other vehicles not distinguished with the numbers ‘53 painted on their trailers is that trucks must service all our businesses and properties within the city limits. Believing that truck traffic should stay on course within designated corridors is as impractical as imagining cyclists staying within the recently inaugurated bicycle lanes that service less than 5% of our streets.  

After much discussion in 2006 regarding the SDVs turning onto Washington Street from Broadway, hopping the curb at Starbucks, often resulting in traffic on Washington to illegally back up, the city devised a plan to eliminate parking on lower Washington Street, narrow the sidewalk against the Brause Building for the large rigs to manage the turn. Unfortunately, it resulted in the crosswalk from the east side of Broadway terminating in the street as opposed to a safe refuge on the sidewalk. Since that plan was constituted, the SDVs still travel on the narrow Washington Street, whose structures are denser and closer to the street than the state-designated route of Van Dam Street.  

The larger trucks were once routinely stopped and inspected for safety and manifest destinations. I can remember Saratoga Springs Officer Chowski flagging vehicles off Route 50 to a weigh station off Excelsior and later further south at the SPAC parking lots. It should be mentioned that there was also an audacious proposal to place a truck inspection station in front of Yaddo. That idea was summarily dashed when it was recognized that the trucks were on the other side of the city, the physical constraints of that location would not permit such an activity, and most importantly, the city did not own the land, it was already restricted by New York State. 

I can sympathize with the residents of Van Dam Street, both those who have been there for some time and those recent to the street. Every neighborhood has issues, whether it’s traffic or parking, but we lived in one of the great small cities, and one must go back decades to recall when this funkier, quieter community was struggling to promote itself to attract businesses and new residents. This recent ill-conceived restriction of truck traffic without consultation and approval of the NYSDOT is unfortunate, and this last-minute neighborhood request in December before the Council expresses nothing less than a Hail Mary toss before the clock runs out. 

I should mention the truck bypass route once envisioned through pristine wetlands and crane rookeries in the New York State Park that would not have addressed any of today’s concerns. Like the proposed Inspection Station at Yaddo, the trucks of concern are on the other side of the city. Today, the SDVs travel legally on Route 50 to Fenlon Street, then to Route 9 south to Exit 13. In a perfect world, all trucks would follow the same route. We all know better. The destinations for many 48′ and shorter transports throughout our city prevent this utopian idea.  

Lastly, we are fortunate to have PS Commissioner Lew Benton and PS Commissioner Christian Mathiesen for their invaluable measured knowledge and experience in this matter. As always, thank you, John Kaufmann, for providing this community with your dedicated journalism that always provides more to the table for understanding.

At the December 5, 2023, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting, Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub expressed concern about adopting a restriction on truck traffic on Van Dam Street without a thoroughly researched plan.

In the following email from former Public Safety Commissioner and County Planner Lew Benton, Benton offers his research on the efficacy of limiting such traffic without the approval of the New York State Department of Transportation.

I texted Public Safety Commissioner Montagnino, asking whether he had checked with the New York State Department of State (DOT) prior to installing the signs restricting truck weight on Van Dam Street. As of this time (December 14, 2023), while Montagnino has not responded to me, I have learned he plans to contact DOT “sometime in the future.”

In a related matter, my friend, Jim Martinez, has advised me that 53-foot trucks are prohibited from using Washington Street (Route 29). Apparently, this has not been enforced.

From Lew Benton

John.

For what they’re worth, here are a few preliminary thoughts on routing Special Dimension Vehicles (SDVs) and Qualifying Access Highways.

These vehicles, or vehicle combinations, were initially authorized by the 1982 Federal Surface Transportation Assistance Act and subsequent state legislation.

Under the 1990 Omnibus Truck Safety Bill, New York authorized the use of 53 foot trailer combinations, effective November 1990. Per § 385(3)(e) of the Vehicle & Traffic Law, the 53 foot trailer combinations are restricted to the Qualifying and Access Highway system.

A Qualifying Highway is a roadway designated as part of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) of 1982, which allows Special Dimension Vehicles (tractor trailers combinations greater than 65 feet, tractors with 28-foot tandem trailers, maxi-cubes, triple saddle mounts, stinger-steered auto carriers, and boat transporters) and 53′ trailers to use that highway and any other highway within one linear mile.

Unless otherwise specified, all Special Dimension Vehicles may use Qualifying Access Highways. In addition, Special Dimension Vehicles may also operate on all highways within one road mile of Qualifying Highways (National Network) using the most reasonable and practicable route available, except for specific safety reasons on individual routes (23 CFR 658.19). The National Network consists of all Interstates plus specifically designated other highways, including most state highways.

The confluence here in Saratoga Springs of several state and interstate components (9, 9N, 29, 50, I 87) of the National Highway Network resulted in several city-owned and maintained street segments designated an “Access Highway.” Van Dam Street is so designated.

Local government has diminished authority to regulate these local access roads and streets. Imposing a weight limitation on a local access road first requires the designation of an appropriate alternative route and approval by the NYS Department of Transportation Regional Office.

It seems inconceivable that the City Council would post a local “access” roadway – as it was apparently authorized by an amendment to the City Code at its last meeting – without prior approval of the DOT. I do not know what alternate route the Council may have asked DOT. At this writing the 5 Ton Limit signs are posted on Van Dam immediately next to the posted Truck Route signs.

If DOT does not approve the Council’s action, the proposed weight limit will be unenforceable.

Perhaps the entire community and the Council members would benefit from a review of all currently designated access roads in the city, how some have been altered over time, the process necessary to amend the system, and other pertinent matters. Such a review might also include a brief history of the several by-pass proposals and initiatives that have been undertaken since 1980.

Finally, I note that V & T Law enforcement and commercial truck inspections, as measured by the number of citations issued and fines collected, seem to have declined precipitously.

In the late 80s and early 90s, following the establishment of a well-trained and equipped traffic safety unit, V & T and overweight and unsafe truck fine revenue was as high as $225,000 annually. The number of traffic citations issued annually by the SSPD increased from an average of 2,145 before the Traffic Safety Division came online in 1988 to nearly 3,300. In 1993, 46,00 tickets were issued. Vehicular accidents and personal injury accidents declined to ten-year lows. Today, that revenue line has fallen to $30,000.

Then, Truck Fines appeared in the city budget as a separate line. That line is long gone. The Traffic Safety Division, as originally constituted, was abolished at some point in time. I do not know when or why.

Lew Benton

The December 5, 2023, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting was yet another example of mindless accusations and poorly considered actions by Council members.

The issue was limiting truck traffic on Van Dam Street by placing a 5 ton weight limit on trucks using that thoroughfare.

Following the public comment period at which many of the residents of Van Dam pleaded with the Council to limit truck traffic there, Mayor Ron Kim accused one of his opponents in the last election, Chris Mathiesen of “illegal” behavior in somehow making Van Dam Street a truck route years ago. His accusation was based on unsubstantiated allegations. [JK: Chris’s response is at the end of this post.]

Kim claimed that a letter written by Chris Mathiesen, the Commissioner of Public Safety at the time, to the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) in 2014 somehow directed DOT to make Van Dam into a truck route.

During his spirited accusations regarding Mathiesen, Kim disclosed that he did not actually have a copy of the letter he cited as evidence, nor had he apparently seen one. It was also evident that he had not had the courtesy of discussing the matter with Mathiesen before making his public accusations.

All of this performance was for the benefit of the many people from Van Dam Street who had addressed the Council on their desire to place a weight limit on trucks allowed to access their street.

A History Of Van Dam Street and the City’s Truck Problems

One route trucks take traveling from the New York State Thruway east to the Adirondack Northway is through Saratoga Springs. For decades Van Dam Street has been one of the roads trucks take to get through the city. In the late 1970s, my wife and I looked at a house on Van Dam Street as a possible home for us. Knowing that the street was frequently used as a truck route, though, we decided not to pursue the purchase. This pre-dated by many years, Mathiesen’s terms as Public Safety Commissioner.

The idea that Mathiesen was responsible for making Van Dam into a truck route is patently false.

I spoke to Chris about what actually happened.

Washington Street is a state road (NYS Route 29) and is a state-designated truck route. The road is narrow. Even narrower than Van Dam St. It ends in a T intersection at Broadway (by Starbucks). The increased truck traffic over the years has made life on Washington Street challenging for those homeowners. In many ways, the problems for homeowners on Washington Street were even worse than those on Van Dam. In addition, the maneuvering trucks had to do to negotiate the turn onto Broadway from Washington was notorious. Sidewalks at that intersection were frequently in need of repair as trucks would routinely go up over them to make the turn. I use the past tense since construction has kept that stretch of Washington closed recently. This could maybe account for the complaints of Van Dam street residents that truck traffic on their street had increased.

To his credit (no good deed goes unpunished), Chris attempted to see how to ease the truck problems. He wrote to NYSDOT advising them of the streets currently used for truck traffic, including Van Dam. He sought their advice on how to ease the city’s truck problems. Clearly, Van Dam would be part of a possibly better design.

The critical point here is that Van Dam was already a truck route. It was reckless and without foundation for Kim to blame Mathiesen for the truck problems on Van Dam, let alone say that he did something “illegal.”

Here is a twelve-minute excerpt from the meeting of the discussion.

I understand the frustration and anger expressed by the residents of Van Dam. Still, Van Dam intersects with Broadway beyond the north end of the downtown business district and connects quickly to the arterial leading to the Northway. Washington Street, in contrast, dumps truck traffic directly into the middle of downtown. It’s hard not to agree that, given bad choices, Van Dam makes sense as one of the city’s truck routes.

Finance Commissioner Sanghvi rightly asked what happens next if trucks can’t use Van Dam. Where will they go? Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub expressed reservations when the item came up later on the agenda for a vote. He thoughtfully suggested that before proceeding, there was a need for a thoroughly thought-out plan.

Nevertheless, succumbing to the compelling and emotional pleas of the Van Dam Street homeowners, the Council ignored these issues and approved the weight limit for their street. I have to express sympathy for the people of Washington Street who will now bear the burden of even more truck traffic, as will downtown Broadway.

A Skeptical Blogger Ruminates About Trucks

The problem of truck traffic has plagued this city for decades. At some point, the State Park and DOT were approached about building a truck route at the Southern end of the state park in order to bypass downtown Saratoga Springs. The response was a resounding no. There are extensive wetlands in that area, and the park does not want the noise of trucks to be part of its environment.

Bill McTygue has recently garnered headlines in the Daily Gazette by resurrecting this plan for a truck route.

Given the history of this problem, this blogger is highly skeptical that this solution will be any more viable now than it was when it was proposed and dropped years ago. I noted that when McTygue spoke to the Council, he was careful to observe the impact on Washington Street that removing trucks from Van Dam would have.

Congratulations but……..

I congratulate the Van Dam homeowners on their success at the December 5, 2023 meeting. Their victory, however, if sustained, comes at the cost of making life for those who live on Washington Street even more difficult and will negatively impact Broadway and downtown Saratoga. It remains to be seen, though, if this resolution will be sustainable. Not only will the new Council now have to deal with the fallout from this Council’s poorly thought out action, but it has yet to be seen if DOT will allow this to happen.

Chris Mathiesen’s Statement

[This was a letter he sent to Saratoga Today]

In particular, I addressed one of the attacks on my administration as Public Safety Commissioner during my term in office (2012-2017).

It should also be noted that Mayor Kim’s frequent criticism of the Police Chief’s decision to reduce the Traffic Division of the SSPD is unfair.  I have offered to sit down with the Mayor to discuss the reasons for that decision.  He has continued to ignore my offers.

The letter is below:

December 6, 2023

To: Saratoga Springs City Council

RE: Van Dam Street Truck Traffic

After attending last night’s Saratoga Springs City Council meeting, I did some research today.  I have been able to establish the following:

Van Dam Street has been a Designated Access Highway for truck travel since 1989.  No change was made regarding that designation during my  term in office as Commissioner of Public Safety (2012-2017).

I did send to the NYS Department of Transportation letters on November 18, 2014 and March 4, 2015 to inquire whether the Washington Street/Route 29 corridor from West Avenue to Broadway could be restricted so that large trucks could no longer use that state route.  This was one of a number of suggestions that we were considering, including one proposal that would eliminate east-to-west truck traffic on Lake Avenue.

Due to the lack of cooperation from the Town of Wilton, the plan to eliminate east-to-west traffic on Lake Avenue was not successful.

Any plan to change truck access to Washington Street/Route 29 would have required approval from the City Council in coordination with the NYS Department of Transportation.  Our inquiry never advanced that far.  Because the elimination of truck access on Washington Street/Route 29 would have resulted in that traffic being transferred to the already burdened Church Street/Van Dam Street corridor, we were reluctant to proceed and, especially after talking to Van Dam Street neighbors, we decided not to pursue that option.

The NYS Department of Transportation verifies that there was no change in designation of the Van Dam Street as a Designated Access Highway during my term in office.  The actions that Mayor Kim claimed to have occurred as a result of my letters did not take place.  Also, Washington Street/Route 29 continues to be a truck route through our west side to this day.

There were no actions taken by the NYS DOT regarding Van Dam Street during my term in office and thus no illegal activity on my part despite the remarks made by Council members during last night’s meeting.  Council members have every right to make inquiries with state agencies.  As Commissioner, I was in no position to negotiate with the NYS DOT but my department was most certainly entitled to gather facts on what the City’s options were on this most important topic.  Had we decided to pursue this issue, the Mayor, the City attorney and the entire City Council would have been part of any formal negotiation with NYS DOT.

In summary, there were no changes in the designation of Van Dam Street as a Designated Access Highway during my administration.  The were no ‘illegal’ or inappropriate actions taken by me or by the NYS DOT regarding the truck use on Van Dam Street.  Truck access for both the Washington Street/Route 29 corridor and Church Street/Van Dam Street were, up until Tuesday evening, exactly what they were when I came into office in 2012.

I am concerned about the actions that the Council took on Tuesday night.  There seems to be no coordination with the NYS DOT regarding the sudden imposition of the 5 ton weight limit.  Van Dam Street continues to be a Designated Access Highway which is inconsistent with the Council’s action.  Also, there does not seem to be a full appreciation for the disruption that this action will cause and the sudden burden on Washington Street/Route 29 (which is currently closed to truck traffic), Church Street/Route 9N, and Broadway as more trucks will be required to take those routes.

I sympathize with the Van Dam Street residents and I can empathize with current and future Council members having to deal with a situation for which there seems to be no reasonable solution.  Good luck to you all.

Chris Mathiesen