Council Declines To Support Appeal To Pay Moran and Golub Legal Bills

At its meeting on August 5, 2025, the Saratoga Springs City Council rejected an attempt by Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran to have them appeal a ruling that barred paying his and former Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub’s legal bills.

Into The Weeds for A Little Background

Many years ago, the city adopted a resolution regarding the indemnification of city employees and officials in civil matters. That is to say, the city established that an employee or official charged with a civil complaint would be eligible for the city to pick up the cost of legal representation. It did not address criminal matters.

For years, the city had the opportunity to adopt a section of state law that would have made city employees and officials eligible for indemnification in criminal matters as well, but successive City Councils never did so.

Nevertheless, the Democratic majority at the time on the City Council (Moran, Golub, and Sanghvi) voted to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills that Democratic Commissioner Moran had accrued during the New York State Police investigation into OnCall pay, which was a criminal investigation.

Judge Walsh’s decision ruled that, as the city’s locally adopted indemnification policy only addressed civil charges, neither Dillon Moran nor Jason Golub was eligible for the city to pay their legal bills, since their cases involved criminal charges.

To address this lack of coverage in criminal matters, the City Council has scheduled a public hearing for its next meeting on plans to replace the local law with two sections of state law that would, going forward, indemnify employees and officials for both civil and criminal charges.

Unfortunately for Golub and Moran, as their bills predate the adoption of this law and their cases involved a criminal investigation, they are not eligible to have their bills paid. The Council voted 3 to 1 against appealing Judge Walsh’s ruling, with Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi absent and only Moran voting in favor.

Moran: Is It A Problem With His Memory Or His Honesty?

In an earlier post, I wrote about Moran’s repeated failure to follow the policy of posting proposed actions on the Council agenda on the Friday before Council meetings. I noted this is important so the public and fellow Council members can be given time to understand the significance of pending legislation. This week, Moran once again waited until the last minute to add his resolution to Tuesday’s agenda, and he failed to attach copies of the bills generated by his and Golub’s attorneys to the agenda for public and Council review.

To confuse his colleagues, add chaos to the deliberations, and divert criticism for his failure to properly attach his attorney bills to the agenda, he made a rambling attack, asserting that somehow the City Attorney was to blame for his lack of transparency.

Moran is like dealing with a recalcitrant teenager. When the attack on the City Attorney failed to gain traction, he asserted instead that the city had never posted attorney bills with agenda items so this wasn’t a problem.

The problem is that what Dillon confidently asserted was wrong. There are numerous examples of legal bills attached to agendas. Here are legal bills attached to an earlier request for payment that appeared on the Council’s agenda.

Moran’s Attempt To Get His Bills Paid Wasn’t Even Crafted Properly

In addition, Moran failed to bring to the table the additional resolutions required to fund an appeal. This would have required two legislative actions including a budget amendment to properly access the necessary city funds. Moran has never been one for details. He tends to throw together the resolutions he brings to the table without doing proper research or getting proper legal advice.

Moran’s Conflict of Interest

Moran also appears to be oblivious to the concept of a “conflict of interest.” At the August 5 meeting, Moran moved that the city pursue an appeal of Judge Walsh’s decision in order to allow the city to pay his legal bills. This was a clear conflict of interest. To add insult to injury, he also voted to approve his own resolution for the appeal. Since he also cast the deciding vote with the previous Council when they initially agreed to pay his exorbitant bill, this is no surprise. It is the way Dillon Moran does city business.

Toxic Attack On Lisa Ribis

Dillon Moran had many angry ramblings at Tuesday night’s meeting. Among the most odious and bizarre was his rant which revisited his false claims against his former and now deceased employee, Lisa Ribis.

I have written earlier about Moran’s unscrupulous attempt to blame Lisa Ribis for the on-call pay scandal. At the August 5 meeting, he, for some reason, revisited all his false claims, including that he fired Ribis for altering the minutes for on-call. His slurs at this meeting were entirely gratuitous, having nothing to do with the resolution on the table regarding the appeal of Judge Walsh’s decision. It was just another example of how illogical and toxic his rants often are. It’s as if he lives in his own magical universe, where he creates facts on the fly to support whatever he wants.

Lisa Ribis is deceased and cannot defend herself.

Madigan Waded Into the Fray to Support Moran

To add even more drama at this Council meeting, Democratic candidate for Mayor Michele Madigan left her seat at the Supervisors’ table in the Council chamber and stepped up to the microphone to give her full-throated support to paying Moran’s bills. She characterized anyone who would oppose paying Moran’s bills as somehow being part of an authoritarian MAGA campaign.

This was, interestingly, the direct opposite of her position just last year when she herself was one of those people opposed to paying these same bills. This is what she wrote when Moran’s legal bills were coming before the Council not that long ago