Tuesday’s Saratoga Springs City Council meeting was the second without a sitting Public Works Commissioner, and the path to fill the seat remains contested.
Jason Golub began a new role as both general counsel and deputy commissioner for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision August 19th, leaving an empty post on the five-person city council.
In the weeks since, the remaining commissioners haven’t made much progress toward filling his seat in either the short- or long-term.
Golub, a Democrat, was appointed to the position in 2022 and then won the seat in a special election that November. The city council wants to replicate that process this time around, but discussions over the order of operations have reached an impasse.
“I say we, again, we can walk and chew gum, but I promise you I will not vote to put somebody into office until there is an election set,’ said Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran. “Because part of the issue is if you’re not willing to run an election, why would I appoint you?”
Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran is one of two Democrats on the council seeking assurances that a special election will happen, as per the city charter, before moving forward to appoint an interim commissioner.
Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi presented a resolution that would have begun the process to hold a special election as soon as November 5th.
“I think the board of elections should tell us what we need to be doing. But they won’t tell us until we have a resolution that asks them to tell us what we need to be doing. My resolution was really so that the board could come up with a timeline and give us an idea as to what are the next steps and the process. It seems like the mayor and Commissioner Coll don’t want to do that,” said Sanghvi.
Her resolution failed, splitting the four-person council. Moran, who is presenting the DPW’s agenda until the seat is filled, advanced a last-minute resolution he says was identical to Sanghvi’s apart from pushing the timeline for an election back to December 31st. That also fell short.
Sanghvi says discussing an appointment without establishing the path to a special election is pointless.
“It’s not a partisan issue, it’s not a Dem/Republican issue regardless of what some people might think. It’s a charter issue. And, more importantly, I don’t want to interview someone for an appointment when I don’t know what that end date is. People are providing us their time, their effort, their energy, to come here in a job that pays very little and that demands a lot from you,” said Sanghvi.
Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll is a Democrat who won his seat with GOP backing. He says after speaking with the county board of elections, the city is no longer within a necessary 90-day window to hold an election November 5th.
“And they also said that’s an issue for members of the military who cannot get through their absentee ballots, so that date, for me, is a non-starter. I think that’s wrong. Then, there was another amendment which is very similar to make the date pushed back to December and my point is we just need guidance from New York State Board of Elections. Because it’s clear that they have to oversee this election process. And the guidance has to be the timeliness of it, when can it occur, how is it going to occur, all those factors need to be considered,” said Coll.
Republican Mayor John Safford says he’s received eight resumes from individuals interested in filling the role on an interim basis.
He says he is worried that a shortened timeline to an election would prevent voters from being able to consider all candidates interested in filling the role until the end of the 2025 term.
“You know we’re talking about what’s fair here. There are some people who have never thought about running for office or being involved in it who are really good candidates. And if we really want to get the best person, we don’t want to do it in this Democrat Republican way, you know, we want to have a fair process. And that’s all I’m asking for. Under state law there’s a fair process,” said Safford.
The council requested that the city attorneys get guidance from the state election board as soon as possible.
