Saratoga Springs’ payment of another legal bill is being held up amid questions about on-call payments.
In July, city GOP committee chair Mike Brandi brought an emergency petition to Saratoga County Supreme Court Justice Dianne Freestone, preventing the city from paying a $60,000 legal bill to defend Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran.
Moran and his deputy commissioner are part of an investigation into an on-call pay dispute from 2023 when appointed deputies began receiving payment for attending city events.
Now, Brandi has held up a payment to local attorney Oscar Schreiber, who represented former Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub and his deputy commissioner in the same investigation.
Brandi says the basis for his temporary restraining orders lie in the city charter.
“Obviously, Moran’s bills were much more shocking to the conscience as far as their amount, but the legal basis is the same. And it’s very clear under the charter that city councilors, city employees do not get attorneys in criminal matters, and they don’t get attorneys because they are witness to a criminal matter. The only instance under the city code, the city charter, where an employee or an officer gets indemnity is if a civil matter is brought against them,” said Brandi.
With the payment of the $2,300 bill held up in court, Schreiber says he’s caught in the middle of political posturing.
“Michael Brandi is running this city. The mayor didn’t have the guts to tell me that. Jason is gone. There’s a hearing September 25th in front of Judge Freestone. I will be there and I assume she’ll allow me to get paid,” said Schreiber. “But where does Michael Brandi get off on running this city?”
Following Tuesday evening's city council meeting Mayor Safford, a Republican, said the commissioners need to establish a standard of reasonableness to avoid future frustrations. He declined to comment on Schreiber’s claims on Wednesday.
Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi, a Democrat, says Brandi is holding the city hostage.
“We have vendors who have given their service to city members. All of it was, you know, discussed at city council meeting several times over at this point. And if the vendor has provided us a service, the city has to pay them. It's as simple as that. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, we can discuss that at city council, we can debate that at city council. But we have to pay the vendors. And I was really surprised. Honestly, that [Brandi] put in another lawsuit because the bill is $2,340, it’s not a big bill,” said Sanghvi.
The city council has been attempting to define a standard of reasonableness that would outline when sitting city councilors would be indemnified. The motion to pay this bill passed with three yes votes while Coll abstained.
Moran’s loftier bill passed three-to-two in July when the council was at full strength.
Brandi says he’s surprised the council moved forward with the most recent payment.
“If I’m in the city’s shoes, and I have a pending lawsuit for the same exact thing, maybe I’d hold off and wait for guidance from the court. I had hoped that the city would do that, for whatever reason the city decided to go ahead and approve these bills as well. So, for consistency’s sake, we filed essentially the same litigation on the same basis to stop those fees and the court issued the temporary restraining order as well,” said Brandi.
Over the past year, city council meetings were dominated by debates over the payment of legal bills for former Mayor Meg Kelly. A state Attorney General’s report found that she and other city officials, as well as city police, unconstitutionally targeted Black Lives Matter activists in 2020 and 2021.
