Last Friday, Shelters of Saratoga, a non-profit that operates an emergency homeless shelter in Saratoga Springs, backed out of an agreement to locate a low-barrier shelter in a former senior center in favor of a new, yet-to-be disclosed location.
The organization said it would not follow through with an agreement with the city to move its Code Blue program to the former Saratoga Senior Center on Williams Street. The withdrawal came after parents at the Saratoga Central Catholic School objected to the location’s proximity to the school and athletic fields.
The announcement surprised and angered Mayor Ron Kim, who criticized SOS Executive Director Duane Vaughn for abruptly backing out of the plans and some concerned parents of students at Saratoga Central Catholic School who reportedly sent threatening messages about the proposal.
Days later, Tuesday night’s regular city council meeting was disrupted and then adjourned following a heated exchange involving members of Saratoga Black Lives Matter, who are upset that the city has delayed implementing police reforms while it considers appointing a new police chief.
Mayor Kim, a Democrat in his first term, says he anticipates a public meeting with Saratoga BLM later this month. Tuesday’s interrupted meeting is scheduled to resume tonight at city hall.
WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard sat down with the mayor at City Hall today and began by asking about the correspondence with concerned parents.
We did get a few calls and letters and emails from people that were pretty, I guess, aggravated by the idea of a shelter. We were, the city wanted to basically had scheduled a meeting with the parents to go through what we thought was our security arrangements. We had spent a lot of time on that we didn't get the chance I'm still going to be meeting with the parents at Spa Catholic on February 16, I think, and we'll have a discussion. I'm happy to discuss with them, and sort of the next steps for this process. And I hope that they certainly will join the rest of the community in addressing this need.
I know that you were pretty frustrated and angered by just the events around this over the last week and you had some strong statements about the situation and Duane Vaughn and also the families at Saratoga Central Catholic. When you look back on this dialogue this past week, do you think that there needs to be a reset? Or do you believe that you're rightly frustrated about this?
Well, we're definitely resetting. We're definitely going to move on. I was very disappointed in first, never being consulted about SOS's withdrawal prior to it. Only days before the withdrawal, Duane Vaughn was in my office saying that he was going to put together a budget and a plan and move towards a 365, 24/7 shelter. And so it was quite a surprise, because at that meeting that was attended by my deputy mayor and also Commissioner Golub from DPW, who has a role in Williams Avenue. If we were to use it, Williams Street. And so we were left the meeting feeling a little bit concerned that things weren't moving forward, but we were hopeful. And unfortunately, it dissolved a few days later to basically them walking away and not even telling the city that they were going to do that. That was very disappointing.
The meeting on Tuesday night was interrupted and part of that is you've agreed to meet with members of Saratoga Black Lives Matter?
Yeah, they want to have a broader conversation with the City Council. We have at every city council meeting public comment which we have just because we have to have some rules around it. Every participant gets a two minute time slot to basically address the city council. And to be honest, we have been thinking about modifying what we do into a sort of broader conversation with other groups too because it is a little bit artificial, we're still going to have public comment. But we're in the process of sort of looking at how we have these broader public conversations with a group of individuals or a community group or organizations, what have you, about important topics. So we think this is probably a good idea to do, to implement across the board. What, as I said earlier to you, one of the things about Saratoga and its residents, people want to be involved. I respect that. And it's actually a great strength of our city. And part of that involvement is communication and dialogue. So I think we're going to do this not only for this particular situation with BLM, but I think we're going to institute it as a as a regular sort of feature, at least on one of our city council meetings, almost to replace our normal two minute public comment period.
Regarding a possible upcoming meeting with BLM. Do you want other council members to be there, too?
I hope they are. I mean, I can't force anyone to be at a meeting. I'm certainly going to conduct the meeting. And we're going to, as I said, invite them in sometime second or third week of February. And then I'm hopeful that other city council members will attend. We'll certainly arrange it so that it's convenient for everybody, BLM for the public and also for our city council members.
Regarding the search for a new police chief, I know this is more in the Public Safety Commissioner's area of expertise, but as a former Public Safety Commissioner yourself, what are your thoughts on the small pool of applicants, qualified applicants, right now within the city department? I believe it's three, I think that you and I have discussed your interest in expanding that search. But that would require some additional steps within city government?
Yes. So it's a little complicated, but not to get into the weeds. As a Commissioner of Public Safety, one of the things that when the police task force two years ago, came out with recommendations and I reviewed them, I was surprised that they didn't have this as part of the recommendation. So it's important to note it's not part of their recommendation. But I thought that opening up the process, to not just people who have worked in our department, but also to a greater pool of outside candidates who have police experience. I mean, maybe other agencies was a good idea. When I was commissioner, a little bit frustrated by the choices you have, and the limitations. And so when, I think that's what's happening right now, civil service rules dictate who you can choose, and it's a bit limited. I think that if we can eventually move to a broader choice of a chief for all the first responders, I think that's a good move, Saratoga Springs has grown. We're no longer just this tiny little place, where in August it gets pretty busy. We are a city that I think could attract lots of talent and interest. And I think we should we should consider doing that.
And with all of this interruption to the meeting this past week. It comes at the time where the city council as a body is appointing members to the CRB, the Community Review Board, you've appointed a chair.
Yes, Kristen dark.
Kristen dark. So when do you want to see that CRB up and running with everyone appointed, hitting the ground running?
I hope tonight we get everybody's nominations and we move on. One of the things that I'm going to suggest at the meeting is that in the police taskforce report, there was a recommendation also that there be a committee formed to implement and all 50 of the recommendations. I'm going to ask the city council to charge the CRB with that as the task because right now they're really the CRB is on call, if you will, for any kind of issues that might show up, with our first responders, the police, but it there's nothing to say that they wouldn't be very good at perhaps looking at the 50 recommendations and determining sort of how we move forward on those. So I Think that's a perfect first job for them. And I hope that the commissioners will agree with me.
You gave your State of the City address last Friday evening after a very eventful day. But what are some of the big projects that you're looking forward to completing in 2023, and maybe something that is going to take a little more time, but a goal that you ultimately have?
Well, I mean, first and foremost, I believe that in this year, we need to locate, build if we have to, or renovate if we have to, a facility so that we have a 24/7 365 homeless shelter in our city, because we can no longer tolerate what's going on at Woodlawn garage. So that's a first priority. We were making progress on that. But unfortunately, we have to take a step back. But I do believe we can finish that before the years out. Secondly, on the affordable housing front, we have several projects that we think will be moving forward. Liberty housing, near Saratoga Casino is going to be doing a workforce housing project that's all approved, it does have to go through planning board, but the City Council is done and given it the ok. And then we have another project that we have a lot of hope for. Putnam commons, right in the center of the city to do a true affordable apartment complex for people. It's a perfect place because it will basically allow people who also work right in the downtown area in any of our entertainment business could actually live in Saratoga Springs, and so many of the people who work in the bars and the restaurants aren't able to afford it. So that has a lot of promise. We've got it in front of the governor, Governor Hochul's office. And we hope that that will bear some fruit. In addition to that we are aggressively moving forward with our Complete Streets plan. We are right now holding community forums, there will be one next week on the Union Avenue bike lane. And we believe that that is a high priority project that that should also move forward with, you know, the input of the community. Another one is Grand Avenue connecting the west side. Saratoga Springs is a very large geographic size cities 27-28 square miles. And we need to connect all our communities and one of the parts of the community that we don't have great sidewalks systems or bike trails for is the west side. So that's another project that we're very hopeful we'll move forward with in 2023. So and then, you know, we're just going to continue to do the community engagement that I've sort of set out in the last year. As I said, Saratogians, they want to talk, they want to be involved. And that's great. That's a great sign of the health of the community. And I'm all for that. And we'll encourage that.
And do you think you'll need another term to accomplish some of those goals?
I am hopeful to get the nomination for the Democratic Party and move forward. I do. It's a fun job. It's frustrating some days, there are tough nights. The city council nights like you saw the other night, but it's a good job. It's good people, it's a good city.
So we can count on a Mayor Kim run?
I think so, I, you know, it's to some extent, not necessarily just up to me. There's people that have to endorse me, parties that have to endorse me and all the rest of stuff. But I've applied I've talked to them and I'm hopeful that they'll endorse me.
