The City of Saratoga Springs is one step closer to revising its charter for the after two decades without major amendments.
Republican Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford created a charter review commission in 2025 after being initially skeptical of the idea.
Safford charged the 11-member commission with a dual task: create initial local law changes to the city’s governing document and, if deemed necessary, reshape the city’s form of government.
Saratoga Springs operates with a unique commission form of government, where elected department heads also serve as the city's legislative body, sharing power on the five-member city council.
Now, the commission has finished the first half of their duty, chair Vince DeLeonardis presented a number of changes to the city council Tuesday.
“In our current charter we have monetary thresholds of $10,000 for purchases and $20,000 for Public Works contracts for which the council would have to submit those to a public bidding process. Those monetary thresholds were put in place when the charter was adopted in 2001, 25 years ago. New York State has since updated those thresholds a couple of times, so, we included language in the charter to acknowledge those monetary thresholds,” said DeLeonardis.
DeLeonardis emphasized that these proposed changes only need the approval of the city council, and largely modernize the language of the city charter to incorporate more recent committees and departments like the city historian, the city’s IT administrator, and risk and safety department.
“These are all positions that already exist, some are required by New York State Law, some are already referenced in our city code, but because of their importance in city-wide function we thought it was important to incorporate those positions into the charter. So, you’ll see those contained in our report,” said DeLeonardis.
Another proposed change focuses on how city councilors are selected following the resignation or absence of a sitting commissioner.
In January 2025, a special election was held to fill a vacant city Public Works Commissioner position. It came after months of debate and disagreement over the timing of the election.
“There were some issues with regard to both the appointment of the individual who filled that vacancy and with regard to the special election. So, we propose language in our report that indicates in the even of a vacancy, there will be a special election and it will be held not less than 70 or more than 90 days from the occurrence of that vacancy. Unless the vacancy falls within 180 days of an otherwise and already scheduled general election. Then it can occur during that general election,” said DeLeonardis.
DeLeonardis also presented another adjustment to the city’s approval of legal bills: last year former Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran and his deputy racked up a hefty legal bill linked to an investigation into an on-call pay dispute.
“We also, for example, incorporated additional language under title eight of the charter which relates to the council’s ability to retain outside legal services to supplement those otherwise provided by our city attorneys. And we indicated in there as part of our language that any contract for outside legal services must be brought to the city council and approved by the city council before the commencement of any such legal service,” said DeLeonardis.
The initial proposed revisions also call for each new city council to set their own rules of conduct for council meetings.
Additionally, if the changes are approved, city supervisors would no longer be required to attend every city council meeting. Rather, they would have to provide the council quarterly updates.
The city council will now review the proposed changes and set a public hearing and vote for an upcoming meeting.
