Democrat Ron Kim was elected to become Saratoga Springs’ next mayor on Election Night. Kim, a former city Public Safety Commissioner, says he has already met with outgoing Democratic Mayor Meg Kelly to start the transition process.
The new year will bring four new Democratic faces to the five-member city council.
Kim tells WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard that he hopes to work well with the new councilors, whom he got to know on the campaign trail.
Ron Kim:
I think that there are some real common goals that we have. And so we are really excited to sort of start working on those. I mean, we've, we've been talking about this for six months, almost all of us have been at this since I guess, March. So this is sort of the time when we can, you know, really start focusing on trying to put those pieces together.
Lucas Willard:
It remains to be seen what will happen next week when the current council is set to discuss a revised ordinance to establish a CRB a civilian review board. Do you have any desires for the outcome of what the city council is currently considering? Or would you rather the next council tackle that issue?
Ron Kim:
I would rather that our city council tackle this issue, I think voters spoke about what they were looking for on this particular issue, because all of the candidates, including myself, were very clear about what we wanted to do. But, you know, we have one government at a time and one mayor at a time. And so if the, if this city council decides to move forward, we'll certainly look at it and then evaluated after January one. So I think that's where we'll be, at this point, is just watching and, you know, keeping our fingers crossed, that, that we get a product that really worked for the city, but if not, the New City Council can address some of that, too.
Lucas Willard:
Do you have any ideas for creating any new boards that involve people in the city? Any community outreach boards or any bodies besides a CRB that you hope would foster communication with city government?
Ron Kim:
Well, one of the things that I said I was going to do and as soon as I took office, but as it turns out, I'm going to be doing it even sooner than that is I'm going to be meeting with various neighborhood groups I'm going to be meeting on the 19th with. So I'm going to continue the Saratoga listens program of getting out to neighborhood associations and hearing what they have to say. So that's an ongoing thing. And it will continue. I think that we're in the that's part of our transition is to is to sort of determine what other issues out there, I think we are probably going to put together an Infrastructure Committee. That makes sense, because once again, we sort of have to hit the ground running, there's a bill passed. Now, there's both federal and state money, there's been state money available for the last year, I was talking to Assemblyman Carrie Woerner. And so we need to jump on that because that money is not there all the time. And so I I'm going to be putting together with the other members of the incoming council committee that can sort of assess this and part of that is going out to the neighborhood and saying, What's your priority? What what is it? Is it drainage? Is it you know, fixing our water systems, complete streets, etc, etc. So we're going to be doing that in the next few weeks, even before January one because the time is now.
Lucas Willard:
Would you also take another look at zoning? The city has been working on its Unified Development Ordinance, and I know that you made preserving the Green Belt a point of your campaign. Would you call for a closer look or re examination of the city's zoning?
Ron Kim:
So I've looked at the Udo unified development ordinance pretty closely. It's lengthy, there are things that still could be improved on it. I would hope that the city council similar to the civilian review board, waits for the new council, because I think again, voters spoke pretty clearly about that. But again, we have one government at a time I'm not sure what they're going to be doing. I don't know how they're, you know, how, what the consensus is there. I do think the current proposal could be improved. I think there are some uses that are allowed in the Udo that aren't contemplated in the 2015 comprehensive plan in the Greenbelt. And those would be the kind of things that I'd want to look at and hoped that the city, the current city council does, but if they don't, it's once again, something that I think, will will take up after January one if necessary.
Lucas Willard:
Jim Montagnino, who was elected to be the next Public Safety Commissioner, says on January 1 he's going to release a report his own report that he's been working on about the Darryl Mount case. And he's also said he'd call for an investigation into the Mount Case. Would you join him in asking for an investigation, asking the DA for an investigation?
Ron Kim:
Absolutely. And if and if the DA won't do her job? Because that's what it is. It's her job. I'm going to be asking the state attorney general to look at this. They have some statutory authority here. If not, if neither of those entities take a step forward, I think this is such an important thing that we need to consider the approach at Rochester did, you know, you know, sort of tragic death of a, an individual out there, where they hired outside counsel, that would be the last resort. But certainly, we should finalize this and have an investigation after all these years.
Lucas Willard:
The current council is has had a very rocky relationship with the activism community. Because the Democrats, the Democratic Party had support from Saratoga BLM during the campaign, do you expect there to be better communication between City Hall and the activism groups?
Ron Kim:
Well, I hope there's better communication with all parts of the community, Saratogians care about our city. They are very involved. One of the great examples of that is that that, you know, when, in the middle of a pandemic, when the current city council sought people to make to to be involved in the police reform task force. Many people stepped up in the middle of pandemic, many meetings were held, I think there were 15 or so. I mean, that's quite extraordinary. And and I would also argue that's one of the reasons that there has been so much tension, because essentially, there's been a delay in getting some of those recommendations. adopted. So you know, the one thing about this issue of both the civilian review board and their amount, investigation, this isn't just something that BLM and the activist groups, as you say, want I knocked on a lot of doors. This is something people want resolved, however the chips fall, and I don't know. People have asked me well, what do you think? I don't know. Because we never had an investigation. This is something the community wants, because we want to, you know, because we're a community that cares. And so we should get it done. And forthwith and that's, you know, something that I'll do and certainly support Jim Montagnino, our incoming Commissioner of Public Safety
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
