The Saratoga Springs City Council resumed business Thursday afternoon after a disruption brought Tuesday’s regular meeting to a halt. Tensions between officials remain front and center.
Thursday’s special city council meeting resumed the agenda that was halted Tuesday after Black Lives Matter activists chanted and shouted when the city council passed 4 to 1 a resolution on restorative justice.
It was the latest in a string of meetings to be halted due to disruptions from the crowd. The meeting came just over a week after prominent BLM activists appeared in court on minor charges for disrupting meetings – measures sought by Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino and condemned by other members of the council.
On Thursday, City Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi added to her agenda an item to discuss why an enhanced police presence was observed at City Hall Tuesday against her knowledge. She posed her question to Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino. All city council members are first-term Democrats.
“At what point did we come up with a plan where we would have extended police presence here? And why were we not told about it?” asked Sanghvi.
Montagnino responded, explaining his department decided to increase staffing due to the pattern of explosive meetings.
“Since you've given me zero advance notice of your intention to bring this up for discussion, what I'll say is that there were talks with my deputy, myself, the command staff of the police department, in response to significant activity on social media that indicated an intent to bring and recruit a large number of individuals to Tuesday's city council meeting. That, not unlike situations that frequently occur in the city, where large numbers of people are expected to gather under potentially questionable circumstances, led to a decision to bring a number of officers who would otherwise have been out on patrol here, into City Hall,” said Montagnino.
The Public Safety Commissioner added he’d be “more than happy” to speak with the police chief to provide a “full breakdown of who was where and when.”
That led to Mayor Ron Kim also requesting information on the police presence. The Democrat, a former public safety commissioner, said he was also unaware in advance of the meeting. Kim added he observed three officers in “riot gear” inside City Hall – a point disputed by Montagnino – and a large presence of county sheriff’s deputies staged in a nearby park after the meeting.
“No information came to my office about any plan, or any security arrangements,” said Kim.
Commissioner of Accounts Dillion Moran then said because “several” members of the city council had been threatened by audience members, including one person he claimed holds a concealed carry permit, he would be requesting a policy developed to screen people for weapons prior to council meetings.
Moran then directed his comments to Montagnino, repeating his charge on Tuesday that the Public Safety Commissioner had intentionally stoked activists during recent meetings. In this exchange, Mayor Kim joins in Moran’s criticism, and Montagnino defends himself.
“Quite frankly, the tenor, the inciting and the escalation activities that you've been engaged in are putting us all at risk — and every single person that sits in this room at risk — and I am not going to sit here idly by and allow you to do so,” said Moran.
“Did I mishear you, Commissioner? You said inciting activities that I've been involved in? I must have misheard that.”
“That would be correct. That's exactly what I said. Let's make sure the record reflects that. The inciting activities that you’ve’ been engaged in,” said Moran.
“I think that is that accurate characterization of it,” said Kim. “You essentially accused people in the audience of a vandalism that happened years ago…”
“That's a lie, Mr. Mayor,” said Montagnino.
On Tuesday, Montagnino drew attention to a Civil War monument toppled in the summer of 2020. The Democrat’s words were:
“I suspect there are people in this room who know who did it.”
Montagnino said Thursday that he “never accused anyone.”
“And you know that I never accused anyone, but you make it up as you go along. The other is you lied about officers in riot gear. There was no one here riot gear; that’ statement is an outright falsehood,” said Montagnino.
Kim again accused Montagnino of not communicating with other city departments.
Campaigning for November’s election is under way. Only two city councilors — the mayor and public safety commissioner — are facing a major-party-endorsed challenger. Kim has a June Democratic primary opponent.
Montagnino accused Kim of playing a political game.
“We now know because of what’s happened in this room and what’s been allowed to happen in this room since February 7th, that three of the five major party challengers to members of this council, have filed written declinations of their nominations. And therefore, the taxpayers are deprived, the voters are deprived of the opportunity to choose their leadership in November. And therefore, it’s carte blanche to do as people please. I’ll say no more about that, I’ll move to the next item on the agenda, please…”
The arguments continued. The meeting concluded after Mayor Kim, citing time constraints, halted Montagnino from reading aloud out a report on the implementation status of a series of police reforms adopted by the previous council. Montagnino agreed to move the discussion to later this month.
