How to resolve AdBlock issue? SARATOGA SPRINGS — During its meeting on May 2, the City Council, by a 4-1 vote, approved a resolution that acknowledges “Saratoga Springs has supported and allowed racism and hate” during its history, and set the groundwork for the formation of an 11-member review panel to provide the council recommendations of what form restorative justice in the city should take.
Immediately following the vote, approximately 20 Saratoga BLM members and supporters stood and engaged in a collective chanting that disrupted the meeting and eventually caused an abrupt adjournment. The meeting would resume two days later.
May 2 marked the second time this year that a City Council meeting was shut down early.
On Feb. 7, during the Public Comment session, Saratoga BLM supporter Chandler Hickenbottom refused to “wrap up” her time at the mic after repeatedly being asked by Mayor Kim to do so. Official city meeting notes detail the activity: “chaos ensued.” Hickenbottom was later charged with disorderly conduct. Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino was the complainant in the violation charge, and the four other council members subsequently expressed disapproval of the action brought by their fellow Democrat.
The City Council’s April 4 meeting, while not concluded early, included a fracas which led to additional charges of two people. During that evening’s Public Comment session, as former Public Safety Commissioner and current city mayor candidate Chris Mathiesen referenced the Feb. 7 meeting as “mob rule,” Saratoga BLM founder Alexis Figuereo approached the mic and spoke into it. A subsequent commotion continued for several minutes. The meeting eventually resumed to conclusion.
Figuereo was subsequently charged with obstructing governmental administration - a misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct - a violation in connection with actions during the meeting. Local resident Bridgette Barr, who unfastened a thin barrier separating members of the council and the public and approached the council table while yelling at its members was similarly charged.
Asked whether charges related to the May 2 meeting might follow, Montagnino replied: “The truthful answer is: I don’t know.”
Police Prescence
Five Saratoga County Sheriff’s department patrols were brought in at the request of the city police department and staged on Maple Avenue during the council meeting at City Hall, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said.
“The Saratoga Springs City Police Department requested the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Departments assistance within the city to respond to residents’ public safety needs,” Sheriff Zurlo said. “I arranged for Saratoga County Sheriff’s Deputies to be present in the city so they could quickly respond to an emergency situation should Saratoga Springs residents or visitors need assistance that evening.” The deputies were never inside of the City Hall building, Zurlo added.
Additionally, Saratoga Springs City Police officers stood in a hallway adjacent to Saratoga Music Hall where the council meeting was held. Those officers remained in the hallway and did not enter the hall where the meeting was staged. Footage from two officer body-worn camera videos were released at the direction of Commissioner Montagnino detailing what went on behind the scenes as the meeting was taking place.
Montagnino said he held conversations with his deputy commissioner and the command staff of the police department “in response to significant activity on social media that indicated an intent to bring and recruit a large number of individuals to Tuesday’s City Council meeting.”
Members of the council expressed displeasure that they had not been made aware of the presence of officers in and outside the building prior to the meeting.
Mayor Ron Kim said that no information was presented regarding any security arrangement. “The mayor’s office, under the (City) Charter is the presiding officer. We weren’t aware of anything. I literally walked up the back stairway and bumped into three riot-geared police officers,” said Kim, adding that “10 sheriffs” had also been stationed nearby.
“No one was in riot gear; you’re making things up,” Montagnino told Kim. Saratoga Springs PBA released a statement this week specifying that the mayor “made false statements” regarding officers being dressed in “full riot gear” and that “ten” Sheriff’s Deputies were also in the building to make arrests, pointing to the body worn camera videos released as showing the statements to be untrue. The statements, the PBA said, “do nothing to further positive community relations between the police and members of the public,” and alleged behavior by “some elected officials and their open hostility to the mission of the Department of Public Safety and members of the police department.”
Thursday, May 4
The postponed May 2 meeting resumed on May 4, during which Mayor Kim discussed a threat he received from a member of the public and his dissatisfaction by Commissioner Montagnino’s reactions to it.
“I sent you an email several days ago that essentially threatens me, by a person who’s sitting in this room. And the reason I’m comfortable right now…is he’s sitting here in this room, so I can see him, and I don’t have to worry about the fact that my wife is home alone,” said Kim.
The interaction carried after the meeting over into the hallways of City Hall and a verbal altercation that ensued was released by the city police department as captured by city cameras and an officer’s body cam. The video depicts city Mayor Ron Kim using vulgar language in a confrontation with Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Jason Tetu, saying that his family is being threatened and apparently displeased about how the matter was being handled.
“He hasn’t even responded to me. I don’t want special treatment, I just want treatment that any other citizen I think would get,” Kim said in an interview. “When I did talk to an officer, he said: ‘oh yeah, we know that guy.’”
“The incident resulted in the filing of an incident report with the Saratoga Springs Police Department,” according to city police, in a statement issued alongside the footage. “At the present time, there are no criminal charges pending and the investigation has been closed.”
Post-Meet
Former city Director of Risk And Safety Marilyn Rivers filed a lawsuit on May 8 against Mayor Ron Kim and Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino claiming a discriminatory and hostile work environment, the Daily Gazette reported this week. In the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County, Rivers claims her reputation was maligned by Kim.
Subsequent to the event, Saratoga Springs Republican Committee Chairman Mike Brandi released a statement calling on the council to act “to protect city employees and stop Kim’s abusive conduct,” and attached a FOIL response of two city emails penned by Kim – on Feb. 26, and on March 27 – with multiple usages of the f-word.
“They asked for every single email that I ever sent. So, I think that’s a pretty low percentage. I’m not excusing myself, but sometimes you see something and that’s how I react.”
