Saratoga Springs City Council Remains Deadlocked in Process to Fill Fifth-Seat Vacancy

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Two measures that could have potentially filled the fifth-seat vacancy on the City Council failed to garner majority approval on Oct. 1 at City Hall, resulting in a deadlocked council in disagreement about the best way to move forward.      

The first measure, proposed by city Mayor John Safford, sought to appoint an ad hoc advisory committee charged with interviewing candidates and subsequently leading to the eventual council-appointment of an interim Commissioner of Public Works. 

That appointed position would be seated on a temporary basis until a councilmember is elected by city voters to complete the term through 2025. The most recently amended resolution calls for four  members to be on the ad hoc advisory committee, with each councilmember appointing one person to the committee. 

The second measure, proposed by Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran, sought to set a date for the “special” election as Dec. 10, with that newly elected commissioner presumably being seated on the council Jan. 1, 2025.    

The council opened its Oct. 1 meeting by recognizing Tom McTygue, who died last week at the age of 83. McTygue, a longtime city Commissioner of Public Works, served 16 terms and a total of 32 years in service to the city. His tenure spanned the early 1970s to 2008, when Anthony “Skip” Scirocco was elected to the DPW Commissioner’s seat – serving from 2008 until his passing in 2022.  

“Think about the loss we’ve had over the past couple of years,” Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran said, at the start of this week’s council meeting. “The loss of Commissioner Scirocco, the loss of Commissioner McTygue. And we sit here today flummoxed as a City Council trying to replace Jason (Golub),” said Moran, referencing the city’s most recent DPW Commissioner who stepped down in mid-August. 

“I would love all of us this evening to reflect both on Commissioner Scirocco and Commissioner McTygue’s contributions to this community, and I would like to see us do the right thing to advance both – the election, and the appointment process,” Moran said. 

However, it was not to be.  

Following a 57-minute discussion regarding both measures, the resolution seeking a Dec. 10 election date was tabled after seemingly lacking the necessary votes for approval. Additionally, a council vote to appoint an advisory committee to help put an interim commissioner in play failed to pass, resulted in a 2-2 deadlocked vote largely because there was no election date agreed upon which would signal the end-date of the interim commissioner’s appointment.  

The process will presumably be revisited at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council on Oct. 15, although budget workshops held weekly in October ensure councilmembers will come together at City Hall every Tuesday through this month.