Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran has been engaged in a mad campaign of conflicting statements and resolutions to find a way to bail out the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee’s failure to place a candidate on the January 28, 2025, special election ballot. With every ploy failing, at the November 6, 2024, City Council meeting, Moran and newly appointed Public Works Commissioner Hank Kuczynski, a Democrat, falsely contended they had the right to cancel the election so that Kuczynski could serve the entire rest of Golub’s term to the end of 2025.

Video From The November 6 Meeting

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_YO84yPRIAk%3Ffeature%3Doembed

The Key Points

• Moran attempts to gaslight the community by blaming Joe Suhrada, the Republican Commissioner of the Saratoga County Board of Elections, for blocking the special election when he knows that Suhrada has agreed to the election, and worse, that Cassie Bagramian, the Democratic Commissioner, is now blocking the special election.
• Having claimed that she had the authority to block the city’s special election, Bagramian could not cite any statute or legal precedent to substantiate her claim.
• At the pre-agenda meeting, Moran claimed he could retroactively alter the election calendar so that the Democratic Committee could get their candidate on the special election ballot.
• The City Attorneys issued an opinion that the city, having voted to issue the required proclamation crafted by Moran, could not alter or cancel the election.
• Despite the City Attorney’s opinion that the special election must proceed, Moran announced that there would be no special election, and he and Kuczynski declared that Kuczynski would serve Golub’s full remaining term as Commissioner of Public Works.

The Dubious Maneuvering At The County Board of Elections

At the November 6, 2024, City Council meeting, Moran elaborated at length on the fact that the County Board of Elections’ Republican Commissioner had blocked the city’s special election.

It is true that Republican Commissioner Joe Suhrada initially opposed allowing the special election, but he subsequently announced his support for it after receiving a letter from the Attorney General that he said addressed his concerns. Omitted from Moran’s rant, was that Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Cassie Bagramian then asserted that unless the city changed the election calendar to accommodate a Democrat on the ballot, she would not allow the special election to proceed (see email below)! Apparently, Moran thought that no one would notice.

Bagramian’s Overreach

The Saratoga County Board of Elections does not have the authority to decide whether or not an election should proceed. This blogger has researched the issue, and no statutes or legal precedents grant this authority.

I emailed Democratic Commissioner Bagramian several times, asking her to provide the legal basis for her claim of authority. While she wrote back to me, she failed to acknowledge that there was even a question about her authority, let alone provide documentation.

Moran’s False Claim That He Could Change The Election Calendar To Get A Democrat On The Ballot

At the pre-agenda meeting on November 4, 2024, Moran presented the other Council members with a revised special election calendar. The new dates would allow the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee to place their candidate on the ballot. He advised his colleagues that he would submit the new calendar for a vote at the November 6, 2024, Council meeting.

The City Attorneys’ Opinion Blows Moran’s Revised Calendar Out Of The Water

Unfortunately for Moran, City Attorneys David Harper and Tony Izzo issued an opinion that the special election, having been properly “proclaimed” (Moran himself had drafted it), could not be modified or canceled. As documented in the video, Moran, who is not an attorney, damned the opinion as “intellectually dishonest.”

Moran and Kuczynski Assert That There Will Be No Special Election and That Kuczynski Will Serve Out The Commissioner of Public Works Term

As noted above, neither the County Board of Elections nor the City Council can alter an officially proclaimed election.

Putting aside the City Attorneys’ opinion, it is worth noting that the City Charter states that the Council can appoint a person to fill a vacancy only “until the end of the official year in which said vacancy occurs”[Sec. 2.4] So, even according to the charter, neither Moran nor Kuczynski had the authority to announce that Kuczynski could serve the entire term. According to my calendar, the year will end in less than two months, and the term runs through all of 2025.

It Won’t Work

Moran’s and Kuczynski’s arrogance and hubris in thinking that they can cancel the special election and then simply announce that Kuczynski will stay on the Council till the end of 2025 are stunning. Apparently, they are operating in a bubble that confuses what they want with what is legal.

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This is a screenshot of a post from the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee’s Facebook page.

This blogger lives in a different universe than the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.

To this blogger, being an elected official requires the highest standards of ethics. The people have elected their officials because they believe these men and women will scrupulously avoid abusing their position by drawing on the city’s resources for personal use. I cannot believe this is even debatable. Yet, we have two clear instances in which former Saratoga Springs Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub and current Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neill exploited the trust of this community by using city employees and city materials to work on private premises, and the Democratic Committee dismisses this behavior by blaming it on alleged racism and revenge.

I find it particularly discouraging that the committee would stoop to using racism to dismiss wrongdoing.

I take no pleasure in the exposure of these two men’s actions, nor do I hope that the penalties they may incur will be severe. I know this kind of petty corruption is too common in our country. Still, I am proud that in pursuing these charges, this city announces that what may be business as usual in other cities will not be tolerated in Saratoga Springs. Rather than cast doubt on the integrity of our police department as the Democratic Committee has done, I am proud of them.

As an enrolled Democrat, I ask: Is there not one member of the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee who will speak out regarding their committee’s behavior in this matter?

Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran has inserted himself into the news stories on the charges against ex-Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub and Department of Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neill III. Following the disclosure of the charges for Official Misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor, Moran contacted the media to attempt damage control on behalf of his friend, Jason Golub.

Neither Moran nor Golub’s lawyer denies that public employees did work on the Commissioner’s private home. Moran’s strategy is to simply belittle the fact that Golub, rather than spend money like the rest of us to hire a plumber to fix a plugged-up sink, had employees under him make two visits to his home when he was present to solve his problem. Moran then attempts to divert attention from this misconduct by making wild accusations against Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and the Saratoga Springs Police.

Moran tries to confuse the public and divert attention from the charges against Golub by claiming that Coll and the SSPD had some dark ulterior desire to destroy Golub. His narrative conveniently ignores that the investigation was prompted not by Coll or the police but by the New York State Comptroller, who referred it to the State Police. Moran also ignores that Coll has no authority to direct the police to bring charges or make an arrest. It is curious that Moran focuses only on Golub and doesn’t even try to explain the similar charges against O’Neill

Commissioner Moran’s Attacks on Coll and SSPD:

“It should be deeply troubling to everyone that the Public Safety Commissioner Coll and the Saratoga Springs Police Department intend to charge former city Commissioner Jason Golub with a crime based on a jug of Drano and a clogged sink,” Moran said. “This is more about the city’s law enforcement priorities and suspect motivations. We have reached a new low in the city.”

Times Union November 7, 2024

I have to admit, Mike Brandi’s obsession with me is flattering. Unfortunately what we are dealing with is a pattern of attacks on former Commissioner Golub by Tim Coll the citizen and Tim Coll the DPS Commissioner.

“No further comment” isn’t an acceptable response to the intentional personal destruction he is causing. [JK: It is inappropriate for public officials to engage in public comment in an ongoing investigation. A lesson that Commissioner Moran has never learned.]

We need to ask, why are you attacking this man for a second time?

Moran’s Facebook Page

City Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran also issued a statement on the matter calling it “deeply troubling” that Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and the police department intend to charge Golub with a crime based on this.

“This is more about the City’s law enforcement priorities and suspect motivations. We have reached a new low in the City.”

“It is my understanding that the AG is already aware of and looking into this,” he added.

Channel 13 News

Abuse Is Abuse

I ran the federally funded Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council (now LifeWorks Community Action) for sixteen years. I fully understood that as the chief executive, I could not cross a line by using employees under me to do any work for me personally.

Apparently, Moran has no such inhibitions. If he feels it was OK for his fellow Commissioner to use public employees to do work on his private home, one has to ask, what “minor” uses of public resources does Moran feel he is eligible for?

It is unconscionable for Moran to use the reasonable application of the law in the case of Golub and O’Neill for acts Moran does not dispute happened to try to smear Commissioner Coll and the police by alleging that they have some unnamed, nefarious agenda.

As a registered Democrat, I find it even more troubling that the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee promotes Moran’s narrative on their Facebook page. When did my party decide that it is perfectly ok for elected officials to have their employees perform personal services for them? Are there no committee members willing to insist on a re-examination of this decline in ethics?

Today, November 7, 2024, the Saratoga Springs Office of Public Safety issued a press release stating that on November 1, 2024, the Saratoga Springs Police Department issued appearance tickets to former Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub and Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neill to appear in City Court on November 21, 2024.

The press release states that the two men have been charged with “Official Misconduct” under NYS Penal Law 195(1), a Class A misdemeanor.

The charges arose from the alleged use of city employees to work on private residences, in Golub’s case, his home. An earlier blog post documented the facts of this case.

Class A Misdemeanor

In New York, a Class A misdemeanor is the most serious type of misdemeanor charge. A conviction for a Class A misdemeanor can result in:

• A fine
• Community service
• Up to one year in jail
• Probation
• Driver’s license suspension
• State surcharges
• An order of protection 

Some examples of Class A misdemeanors include:

• Assault in the third degree
• Petit larceny
• Theft of services
• Unauthorized use of a computer
• Forcible touching
• Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 7th degree
• Resisting arrest 

Misdemeanors are less serious than felonies, but a conviction can still have consequences. For example, a misdemeanor conviction can make it difficult to get certain jobs or attend college. 

The October public workshops on the Saratoga Springs proposed budget have exposed a shocking level of ignorance on the part of the city’s Finance Department and Commissioner Minita Sanghvi. It is not an exaggeration to say the proposed budget looks like a group of uninformed bureaucrats cavalierly went through expense items and simply crossed them off based on their titles. Yes, it is that bad.

Highlighting the poverty of the research done to put this budget together, Sanghvi’s proposed budget included cuts to items that would violate city contracts and the terms of grants the city has received. You would think that Commissioner Sanghvi would be embarrassed when, during the workshops, she was told over and over that she could not make cuts because they violated contracts or the terms of grants. Instead, Commissioner Sanghvi simply acknowledged them without apology or explanation and, in some cases, indicated they would be restored.

During the workshops Sanghvi also asked questions that further exposed both her ignorance of the city’s finances and her failure to do due diligence prior to the workshops.

Sanghvi’s predecessor, Michele Madigan, and her Budget Director, Lynn Bachner, required the departments to submit their proposed budgets in August. For the next two months, Ms. Bachner would meet with the deputies of all the departments to rigorously review the requests and thoroughly inform herself and Commissioner Madigan of the merits of what the departments were seeking.

In contrast, it is embarrassingly clear by Sanghvi’s questions at the workshops that she was unfamiliar with why departments were asking to include particular items in the budget. Sanghvi came to these workshops thoroughly unprepared. THIS IS TOO LATE IN THE GAME, AS ANYONE WATCHING THE WORKSHOPS CAN SEE. A workshop is supposed to be the final opportunity for departments to make their case for restoring cuts discussed in previous meetings. If the Commissioner of Finance is unaware of the legal requirements of items, what does that tell you about the quality of her analysis as to what should be approved?

As the following videos document, she asks questions that should have been asked and answered well before these fall workshops. In the video with Deputy Mayor Joanne Kiernan, Sanghvi asks whether the city pays for professional memberships. Sanghvi asks whether “we pay for that (travel and training at conferences) for land-use board members and their alternates?” “What’s mandatory?” “How many building inspectors do we have?” “So six building inspectors have mandatory education?” “Is that online or in a specific place?”

I could go on with many quotes from Sanghvi with questions that should have been addressed before drafting her proposed budget. How did she decide to slash the professional development moneys without first having the answers to these questions?

Sanghvi’s Imperious Power

In this video clip from the October 19, 2024, workshop, Sanghvi advises Deputy Mayor Joanne Kiernan of the Finance Department’s authority. She dismisses Kiernan’s request that they meet to discuss the cuts.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=27naCyW-Gbs%3Ffeature%3Doembed

“You Choose the Priority”

Sanghvi severely cut the professional development budget for the Mayor to $800.00. This money is supposed to provide professional development training for twenty professionals who work in the Planning Office and Building Department, twenty-one land-use board members, and six alternates. Land use regulations and standards are constantly changing due to litigation and new legislation. For the Planning Office to effectively address the many land-use issues the city must deal with, they must purchase materials and attend training events.

As a sign of just how out of touch Sanghvi is, she asks whether the members of the land-use boards could pay for their training materials. The members of these boards must already spend hours preparing for and deliberating at meetings. Kiernan points out that these people are volunteers. They must receive training to function. Requiring them to pay for their training would be unreasonable.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=96U1gDXrWE0%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Just a Few Of The Many Cuts That Would Be Violations

The city receives grant money for a program to address DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). Sanghvi included the revenue for this program in her budget but eliminated the expenses this money was to pay for.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3loSilZToyE%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Public Safety dispatchers must update their training annually to maintain their certification. Sanghvi eliminated the money to pay for this training.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aNVOcWV0HVA%3Ffeature%3Doembed

These are just a few of the many cuts that conflict with the regulations under which this city must operate.

It Might Be Time For Commissioner Sanghvi To Prioritize

Commissioner Sanghvi may have too much on her plate. She has a full-time professorship, a family, and a city position as head of the Department of Finance. She writes and promotes her romance novels and is running for the State Senate.

Her previous budgets all had tax increases (in fact, she unknowingly exceeded the tax cap last year). For some reason, this year, she is suddenly insistent that the budget does not involve a tax increase. I do not think it is coincidental that her sudden fiscal austerity coincides with her run this year for the New York State Senate.

Inadequate Reporting

The inadequacy of this budget is an extension of the poverty of her reporting on expenses during the year.

The Comptroller issued a working paper outlining the standards for reporting on spending. Commissioner Sanghvi simply ignores these simple standards.

At Council meetings, Commissioner Sanghvi recites amounts spent under various categories. No document has been provided to the Council with these numbers. Most serious is her failure to produce numbers with “meaningful indicators.” One thing is for sure: her Council reports do not tell the members of the Council or the public what they need to know about the city’s finances, namely: “Where have we been?” “Where are we now?” or “Where are we going?”

At a minimum, the public and the Council would need a spreadsheet that uses the city’s adopted budget to help them understand whether we are overspending, underspending, or right on target. The raw numbers she provides are useless.

From The Comptroller’s Office:

Dire Consequences

https://youtube.com/watch?v=78ilQC2fIrw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Undoubtedly, the costs of retirement and health care will increase, placing great strain on the city. The Safer Grant that resulted in hiring sixteen firefighters is currently covering their salaries, but the grant requires the city to pick up the cost of these positions when the grant ends. Sanghvi projects the cost of covering these positions as $1,700,000.00 per year. This is on top of the million-dollar increase in the city’s annual liability insurance caused by the mishandling of risk and safety by former Mayor Ron Kim and current Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran.

Controlling costs is not easy, but it can only be achieved by strengthening the Department of Finance’s monitoring and analysis of costs.

This blog documents that the current department headed by Commissioner Sanghvi is simply unable to fulfill this obligation.

Let me close this blog by reminding readers that the on-call scandal could only have occurred because the Department of Finance not only failed to flag this disaster but that Commissioner Sanghvi herself approved improperly paying her own Deputy for being “on-call.” Commissioner Sanghvi has steadfastly refused to acknowledge her failure in this matter. If she grossly mishandled this obvious misuse of public money, what would that tell us about her overall operation of the Finance Department?

I am confident this city will eventually survive this incompetence, but we have some challenging times ahead.

While the special election to fill the Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Public Works vacancy is now set for January 28, 2025, it now appears that only one candidate, a Republican, will be on the ballot.

Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran, a Democrat, was granted his wish to manage the special election to fill the Commissioner of Public Works vacancy. As noted in an earlier post, at the October 15 Council meeting, he was authorized to work with the Saratoga County Board of Elections to arrange for the election. Also, at that City Council meeting, Moran submitted a resolution to the Council, making January 28, 2025, the date for the special election. The Council supported him and passed his resolution unanimously.

Moran then crafted a “Special Election Political Calendar.”

According to this calendar, political parties were required to submit a “Certification For Nomination” by October 25 to get their endorsed candidates on the ballot for the January 28 special election. Moran’s calendar required candidates to accept or decline the nomination by October 27.

Unfortunately for Moran and the Democratic Committee, they did not submit a “Certificate For Nomination” by the required date to get their endorsed candidate, Sarah Burger, on the ballot.

In contrast, the Republican Committee submitted the certification for its Commissioner of Public Works candidate on October 25, and its candidate submitted his acceptance on October 27.

So, as it stands, only one candidate will be on the ballot on January 28, 2025, and that person will be Chuck Marshal, the Republican.

The Documents

Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran and Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi have continued to insist that they will not agree to move forward to appoint someone to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub resigned until the city establishes a date for a special election. Mayor John Safford and Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll have expressed concerns that setting a date and organizing an election are not simple tasks and have argued plans to make a temporary appointment can and should move forward while election issues are being addressed.

Moran and Sanghvi have repeatedly rejected proposals by Safford to begin interviewing the six candidates who have expressed interest in being appointed to fill the vacancy. The two instead continued to accuse Coll and Safford of using their concerns about the propriety of some of the proposed election plans as an excuse to block a special election despite both Coll and Safford repeatedly stating their support for one as long as it was legal.

In the meantime, as proof of the relevance of Coll’s and Safford’s reservations, Moran has called for six different dates for a special election over the last month and a half as he has bumbled his way forward. He has proposed various dates in November, as well as in December and January including November 5, the date of the Presidential election. This was clearly illegal given the date of Golub’s resignation, but Moran didn’t bother to confirm this before pushing for it (as did ill-informed members of the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee who turned up at public comment to support the November 5 date) . Moran has never explained his rationale for choosing these various dates nor has he discussed his reasons for continually abandoning one date and moving on to another.

In frustration, Safford and Coll presented a resolution at the Council’s October 11 pre-agenda meeting that stated the entire Council supported a special election and granted Moran, as Commissioner of Accounts, full authority to take whatever actions were required to hold one.

Here is the resolution:

So, having gotten a resolution establishing his authority over selecting a date and organizing the election, what did Moran do? He announced he would vote against the resolution.

When you watch the video below of the meeting, remember that Moran carries on lengthy attacks on Mayor Safford and airs other grievances despite the fact that the proposed resolution would give him full authority to shepherd to fruition the special election he claimed to be seeking.

Among his many grievances, Moran claimed the Saratoga County Republican Commissioner of Elections (the county appoints one Democrat and one Republican Commissioner) had already stated publicly that he will not approve a special election for Saratoga Springs. Moran did not indicate where he had gotten this information, and there is no record of the Saratoga County Republican Commissioner of Elections, Joe Suhrada, opposing the election either in the media or in any correspondence with the city before the pre-agenda meeting.

Moran consistently opposes anything Mayor Safford proposes no matter what the substance. His ploy this time to avoid supporting Safford’s resolution was to insist he would only vote for it if the resolution were amended to add that the city would sue the county if Suhrada blocked the special election. This was, to say the least, an unusual demand since the city obviously cannot pass a resolution authorizing a lawsuit before any offensive action has actually been taken.

Not surprisingly, Moran’s intemperate remarks about the Republican Saratoga County Election Commissioner prompted an equally intemperate response from Suhrada later that week. Moran pointed out that Suhrada is also the chair of the Saratoga County Republican Party, but up until recently, Moran was the vice chair of the Saratoga County Democratic Committee. His name as vice chair is still on the county website, but he told the Council he no longer held that title. Long time Democratic Election Commissioner Bill Fruci was the County Democratic Committee treasurer during his time in office and the current Democratic Commissioner Cassie Bagramian was a member of the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.

An Excerpt From The Pre-Agenda Meeting

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HU8Q-tIrDhY%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Dillon Moran: “I have a target on my back.”

At the regular meeting of October 15, 2024, the Council took up the Mayor’s resolution. Moran voted against the resolution again, but this time for a different reason.

Gone was the demand that the resolution contain a declaration that the city would sue the county. Moran now claimed that giving him the authority to pursue the election would, in his words, “put a target on my back.” He claimed that, somehow, this would allow “the Mayor’s friends” to sue him.

Moran chose the opportunity of this discussion to oddly wander into an attack on those criticizing him for hiring a lawyer at $1,250.00 an hour.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1r-7EDDRGzw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Commissioner Sanghvi asked City Attorney Tony Izzo to come to the microphone. She asked him whether this resolution would make Moran individually vulnerable to a lawsuit. Izzo responded that if there were lawsuits, they would be directed to the entire Council as it was a Council decision.

Despite this, Moran voted against the resolution. In a rare split between Moran and Sanghvi, Sanghvi voted along with Safford and Coll to adopt the resolution which passed

Video Excerpt Of Discussion And Vote For Mayor’s Resolution

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XPJ4RmNV3Do%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Politicians Behaving Badly

In the October 17, 2024, edition of the Times Union, Saratoga County Republican Commissioner of the Board of Elections Joe Suhrada threw down the gauntlet in response to the city’s proposal to have a special election on January 28. In language reminiscent of Moran, he called the idea of having an election in late January a “horrible idea.”

In a wandering statement, again reminiscent of Moran, he cited multiple reasons for refusing to allow an election. He vigorously asserted that having an election in late January would discourage participation, whereas having the election in November of 2025 would draw more people.

He then told the TU that the city should seek clarification from the New York State Attorney General as they had been directed to do by the NY State Board of Elections weeks ago.

In a further bizarre twist, the New York State Board of Elections refused to comment on the debacle, asserting that it was a local matter.

The original letter to the city from the state Board of Elections claimed that a special election was impossible. It referred the city to the New York State Attorney General’s Office regarding the city’s authority in the matter as stated in the city charter. The city has reached out to the Attorney General’s office but has yet to receive a reply.

According to David Harper, the city attorney, the state Board of Elections told him in a phone call that the letter they had sent was in error and that the city could hold an election. So, for the state Board of Elections to now refuse to comment to the Times Union on the local conflict was particularly strange.

Can The Adults Please Step In

It should be clear now that Mayor Safford and Commissioner Coll’s concern that the city proceed cautiously and cooperatively with the county in pursuing a special election was merited.

The Council has made it clear that it wants a special election. The question is what is the way forward? Moran and Suhrada seem unfortunately to share some common character traits that will make putting an election together challenging.

In a previous post, I wrote that Joe O’Neill, the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works, had resigned.

At the October 15, 2024, council meeting, O’Neill was seated with the other deputies. Dillon Moran made a show of his presence, telling those present that a certain blogger had misreported O’Neill’s resignation.

Moran apparently was unaware of O’Neill’s situation.

O’Neill had been in a civil service position when he became deputy commissioner of public works. To protect himself if a different commissioner did not want him as deputy, he worked out a deal by returning to his civil service job at intervals; if a new commissioner didn’t want him as deputy, he could return to his civil service job.

Things Did Not Work Out

Following the allegations of abuse at public works and the police investigation, O’Neill attempted to resign as deputy and return to his civil service job. The city’s HR (human resources) advised him and confirmed by civil service that he was no longer eligible to return to his previous civil service position.

O’Neill gave up on the change and returned to deputy.

In the October 4,2024, edition of the Daily Gazette, Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford informed reporter Shenandoah Briere that the city’s Human Resources Department and the police were looking into accusations that Saratoga Springs former Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub and Public Works Deputy Joe O’Neill III had used city employees for work on “personal property.”

In the October 8, 2024 edition of the Daily Gazette, it appeared that Safford tried to walk back the story. The article stated:

“My understanding is this is a huge rumor based on a fired employee complaint to HR,” Safford said in a text Saturday night. “I don’t think it amounts to anything much.”

Unfortunately, there is an abundance of evidence to indicate that this is more than just a “huge rumor.”

The Allegation

A complaint made last summer to the New York State Comptroller resulted in a referral to the Saratoga Springs Police Department regarding the potential criminal activities of then Public Works Department Commissioner Jason Golub and Public Works Department Deputy Joe O’Neill III. [At the end of this blog is the relevant excerpt from the New York State Public Officers Law, which makes using public employees for private use a crime.]

It is alleged that two department employees were directed to work on Commissioner Golub’s home under Golub’s and O’Neill’s direction. These allegations have exposed additional potential crimes involving the misuse of city staff and city resources.

Yesterday (October 7), O’Neill resigned as Deputy. He was able to return to his original civil service position, and as far as I can tell, that’s what he did.

The Blocked Drain

Early in 2023, it is alleged that O’Neill directed employee A of the city’s Department of Public Works to go to Golub’s home to address a blocked drain. Employee A could not fix the drain, and the following day, O’Neill had Employee A and Employee B meet him at the city Rec facility at about 1:00 PM.

O’Neill told them to return to Golub’s home, where Golub would meet them. When they arrived, Golub was not there. Shortly afterward, he arrived, and together, they entered the house. Employee A had with him a bottle of Green Gobbler used to unclog drains. It is unclear whether the bottle came from the city’s chemical inventory or whether it was purchased especially for Golub’s job by the city. On Amazon.com, the liquid sells for $26.00 a bottle.

The liquid did its job, and after success, they all left.

O’Neill’s Further Alleged Abuse

Sometime around December 2023, O’Neill had employee A meet him in the city skating rink’s parking lot. He told employee A to throw his tools into the back of O’Neill’s truck, and the two went to the home where O’Neill’s child lived with his mother. I am unclear as to O’Neill’s relationship with the child’s mother.

Employee A repaired a leak under a bathroom sink.

Alleged Black Topping On Private Driveways

Earlier this year, the DPW re-blacktopped a section of Grand Avenue under a grant specifically for that purpose. During the same period, they blacktopped driveways at three private homes. One of the homes was owned by a DPW employee.

Employee A Was Terminated

The Department of Public Works terminated employee A. The contract with the union representing employee A establishes that a person is on probation and considered an at-will employee for the first year. As an at-will employee, they can be terminated at any time without explanation. I can find no information as to the reason Employee A was terminated.

The Statute

Article VIII, §1 of the State Constitution, interalia, prohibits municipalities from making gifts or loans of their money or property to or in aid of private entities. Further, it is a general rule that, because town equipment is acquired for town purposes (see Town Law, §64[2-a]) and town personnel is hired to provide services for the town (see, e.g., Highway Law, §140[4]), a town may not perform work on private property in furtherance of purely private purposes even if fair and adequate consideration is paid to the town under a contract (see, e.g., 1988 Opns St Comp No. 88-41, p 81; 1985 Opns St Comp No. 85-37, p 51; 1983 Opns St Comp No. 83-103, p 127; 29 Opns St Comp, 1973, p 122).

Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran never seizes to amaze.

1. In his proposed 2025 department budget, Moran has included over $6,000.00 in on-call pay for his Deputy, Stacey Connors. One would think that the ongoing criminal investigation into him and his Deputy on this issue would have made him cautious. Instead, he seems to have just doubled down.
2. Reliable sources tell me that he has generated another $12,000.00 in bills with his downstate attorney over the on-call scandal on top of the $60,000.00 plus approved by Jason Golub, Minita Sanghvi, and Moran (a clear conflict of interest). He has not submitted the new bills for payment yet. The city is currently enjoined from paying the original bill pending a decision by Judge Freestone. I assume he is waiting for her final decision before submitting this additional bill he has accrued to the Council.
3. In the October 4, 2024, edition of the Saratogian, Dillon Moran is quoted making the following false statement about Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and particularly Mayor John Safford:

They (Mayor Safford and Commissioner Coll) don’t want to have the election,” Moran said following the meeting. “The mayor has told me, to my face, he does not want an election. Maybe he forgets, I don’t know, but literally I had conversations with him today that he completely either forgot or ignored or refuses to acknowledge.

This is false as anyone who followed what passed for a discussion at the Council table knows. In fact, earlier in the same article, the paper reports that Mayor Safford was for the election. It is grotesque but not out of character that he would try to slander the Mayor by inventing the alleged conversation.

It is hard to report on Dillon Moran without appearing shrill because his behavior is extraordinarily dishonest and manipulative, even by today’s dreadful standards of politics.

I used to speak to Moran, but over a year ago, I stopped. Routinely, he would promise to send me documents supporting his statements and then not do so. He frequently told me things that were clearly false. As anyone who has dealt with Moran on the phone knows, it is hard to politely end the conversation. I was forced to advise him that anything he wanted to say to me, he should put in writing. He has never sent me an email or responded to an emailed question since then.