SARATOGA SPRINGS — Chandler Hickenbottom pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct charge during her arraignment at Saratoga Springs City Court on March 7.   

The violation charge, specified as disturbing a lawful assembly, was requested by City Council member and Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino in connection with the disruption of a Feb. 7 City Council meeting. That council meeting was subsequently adjourned early and eventually resumed two days later.

“I filed the charge that I filed because the City Council meeting was ended. It wasn’t delayed, it wasn’t’ interrupted, it was ended,” Montagnino said, during the City Council meeting Tuesday night, March 8. 

The 26-year-old Saratoga Black Lives Matter activist was accompanied by her attorney Mark Mishler who told the court that the allegations infringe and violate Hickenbottom’s protected First Amendment rights. 

Inside the courtroom, supporters of Hickenbottom wore newly minted red sweatshirts stenciled with the hashtag #thepeoplesmeeting and name-checking the city’s public safety commissioner with the stenciled phrase addition “Your Racism Is Showing.”    

Both Saratoga Springs City Judges - Jeffrey Wait and Francine Vero –  apparently withdrew from hearing the case, the reason for their respective recusals not immediately known. Mechanicville City Court Judge Constantine DiStefano instead took the position at the judge’s bench flanked by the U.S. flag and N.Y. State flag as a handful of regionally based television news crew members sat in the jury box and fixed their cameras on the defendant’s table. 

In court, Judge Constantine DiStefano denied an additional filing by the commissioner, who sits on the City Council, for an order of protection. If approved, it presumably would have barred Hickenbottom from attending council meetings, which are attended by Montagnino. 

All parties are scheduled to return to city court on March 28.

“This whole situation is absolutely ridiculous,” Hickenbottom said, meeting with members of the media on the steps of City Hall following her appearance in court. “What we see is a public official now taking out an Order of Protection against an activist. This is taking away from my (ability) to go to City Council meetings, to speak about things I feel I should be able to speak about.  I am a lifelong community member, born and raised in Saratoga Springs, and it is my right to come to these City Council meetings.” 

Hickenbottom said recent developments are “fracturing” the relationship between Saratoga BLM and city government. Recently, the council agreed to hold a special forum with activists to discuss issues. That forum is anticipated to take place March 21. 

A number of Saratoga BLM activists are intending to bring a lawsuit against the city, according to Hickenbottom’s attorney, Mark Mishler said. “Going back well before (city protests in) July 2020, but at least for these purposes, starting in July 2020, there has been a policy and practices directed and motivated to violate the civil rights, the constitutional rights, of Saratoga BLM and other supporters of Saratoga BLM,” Mishler said. “We didn’t need this new charge to have a very strong lawsuit against the city of Saratoga Springs, (but) it is our intent that this event will also be part of the lawsuit.” 

There is no specific timeline to file a potential lawsuit, but Mishler reminded that the state Attorney General’s office remains engaged in an investigation of the city related to civil rights violations. “We are interested in seeing what the Attorney General’s office says when they complete their investigation, so, most likely a lawsuit will not be filed until that process is complete.” 

“I want to see actual change,” Hickenbottom said. “Nothing is going to change if they don’t listen to the things that the community wants. What I’m looking for is the City Council to actually listen to the community. The only way we’re going to move forward and be a better Saratoga is to listen to the people who are working in Saratoga and living in Saratoga. And that doesn’t mean the people who are rich in Saratoga. That means the minorities of Saratoga: the poor, the black, the homeless.”

The other four members of the City Council have come out publicly expressing disapproval of the action brought by their fellow Democrat public safety commissioner. 

“I wish we hadn’t taken this step,” city Mayor Ron Kim said, shortly after Hickenbottom’s court appearance. “I don’t think we need to have a court hearing on someone who is exercising their free speech, even though that speech we may not like, or we may not like the way they are delivering it; it’s still essentially a First Amendment right and we shouldn’t have the courts dealing with this. It’s regrettable we have this situation.” 

“Where we are now is partly because of Darryl Mount, but it’s not only because of that,” said Saratoga BLM activist Alexis Figuereo. 

Darryl Mount was a 21-year-old biracial man who was mortally injured while fleeing city police in the early morning hours of Aug. 31, 2013. Mount was subsequently in a coma for several months following the incident and died in May 2014. 

The city’s Public Safety Department maintained there was no police misconduct evident related to the circumstances of the injuries suffered by Mount, although the level of speculation about what may have occurred has remained high among some area residents, particularly after a 2018 report published by the Times Union revealed court documents showing the city’s then police chief admitted no internal investigation into misconduct was ever conducted and that he had intentionally deceived a local reporter whose published stories referenced an ongoing internal investigation that the chief knew didn’t exist.

“I believe with all the things that have been going on across America, and even in our own communities – things that are swept under the rug and people don’t talk about – that’s the reason we came together in 2020 to speak our mind,” Figuereo said. In the summer of 2020, protests for social and racial justice ramped up regionally much as they had nationwide in the wake of the May 25 murder of George Floyd in in Minneapolis.    

“Even if there was no Darryl Mount we would be out here. Daryl Mount is a big part of it, but there are still a bunch of other people who have been abused in this community and in this county - being called racist words, the KKK flyers on our cars. It needs to be spoken against, and that’s what we’re going to do.”    

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A criminal complaint was filed last month asking the Saratoga Springs Police Department to issue a summons to Chandler Hickenbottom, in connection with the disruption of a Feb. 7 City Council meeting. That council meeting was subsequently adjourned early and resumed two days later. 

The request for a criminal summons was made on Feb. 16 by Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino, according to court documents. The charge, a disorderly conduct violation, is specified under the subdivision as disturbing a lawful assembly without lawful authority to do so. Hickenbottom, 26, is scheduled to answer to the charges in City Court on March 7. 

Following reports of the filing, city Mayor Ron Kim released a statement regarding the matter and the apparent filing of a summons against Hickenbottom, a member of Black Lives Matter Saratoga. 

“I regret to hear that the Commissioner of Public Safety has filed a summons against a BLM activist for her disruptive conduct during the Feb. 7, 2023 City Council meeting. This action is counterproductive to a continued dialogue with all members of our community, a waste of city resources and could potentially lead to additional costs to the city and taxpayers,” said Mayor Kim, who along with Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino were two of the five council members present during the Feb. 7 meeting. 

“The BLM activist who interrupted our meeting…acted in an irresponsible manner and I condemn any outbursts by a community member at our public meetings, but I do not believe it was criminal or requires any consideration by the courts,” said Kim, calling on Montagnino to withdraw the summons and adding that the action is “a misguided overreach by the Department of Public Safety… counterproductive and regrettable.” 

Additional statements were later released by three other City Council members. They read, in part:

• Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi: “I am deeply distressed to see that instead of moving towards engagement and dialogue through a community forum, the Commissioner of Public Safety has decided to waste taxpayer dollars by filing a criminal complaint against Chandler Hickenbottom of Saratoga BLM.” 

• Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub: “I believe there are much better ways to respond to and solve the issues raised by BLM and by the Police Reform Task Force, rather than escalating unproductive rhetoric and taking unnecessary legal actions...BLM and the protests we’ve seen locally and nationally over the past few years give voice to a problem that must be taken seriously, and not dismissed by leaders. I believe the best path forward is a strategic and ongoing dialogue between BLM, members of the council, members of the police force, and other impacted constituencies with concrete outcomes and accountability. Everyone must come to the table and work together in order for us to progress.” 

• Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran said he was “deeply disturbed by the unilateral actions taken by the Commissioner of Public Safety,” and urged “collaborative engagement with those seeking answers about our efforts relative to the work of the Police Reform Task Force... the criminalization of speech is simply unacceptable and will further widen the divide that exists within our community.” 

Subsequent to the February meetings, the mayor recommended changes to the twice-a-month council meetings, effective immediately, that will feature an earlier start time and place a time-lengthened public comment period at the end of meetings, rather than at the beginning – where they currently stand.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Addressing potential solutions to the lengthy and at-times volatile public comment sessions during recent council meetings, the city is looking to change meeting start-times from early evenings to late afternoons. It will also relocate public comment sessions from the traditional meeting-start to meeting-end and extend each speaker’s allotted time limit by adding additional minutes.

“All meetings will now start at 5 p.m.,” city Mayor Ron Kim announced while proposing the changes during the council’s Feb. 21 meeting. “We (will be) starting a little earlier to get to some of the standard business that has to be done by our City Council.”  City Council meetings are typically held on the first and third Tuesday of each month. 

Public Comment periods – both, those targeting specific proposals as well as sessions provided for general commentary – will be moved to the tail end of meetings. The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors similarly stage their public comment periods at the end of their regular meetings. Each speaker will be allotted twice as long to talk as is currently allotted.

“Each person will have four minutes to speak, rather than the current two minutes,” Kim said. “People seem to be very constrained by the two-minute time period. We’re doubling the time and adding a (once-per-month) Community Forum which will allow groups to speak to us in a more open and less constrained manner. We do believe this will enhance our ability to interact with the public.” 

The changes are anticipated to go into effect with the council’s next meeting on March 7. The 5 p.m. commencement stands in contrast to the traditional 7 p.m. start of meetings that back many years and through several administrations. A sampling:   

April 4, 2000 – Mayor Ken Klotz called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Meeting Notes: Commissioner Thomas McTygue informed Council members that two individuals had been apprehended in Congress Park for pouring dye on the Katrina Task stairway. He said these individuals were caught due in great part to the new cameras placed throughout the park.

April 20, 2004 - Mayor Michael Lenz called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and reviewed some of the guidelines for the public comment period: 1 - Speakers must step to the microphone and give their name, address and organization; 2 - Speakers must limit their remarks to two minutes on a given topic; 3 - A total of 15 minutes shall be allotted at the beginning of each Council meeting for the public comment period. If more time is needed, time will be provided to those still wishing to speak at the end of the Council meeting; 4 - All remarks shall be addressed to the Council as a body, not solely to any member thereof; 5 - Speakers shall observe the commonly accepted rules of courtesy, decorum and good taste. 

March 21, 2006 – Mayor Valerie Keehn called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Agenda: Finance Commissioner Mat McCabe leads discussion on city Bond Rating; Public Safety Commissioner Ron Kim announces the formation of a Pedestrian Safety Committee. 

July 15, 2008 – Mayor Scott Johnson called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Several people spoke during the public hearing regarding the donation of land to the Shelters of Saratoga (SOS) on Walworth Street to enable the Shelters to build a transitional housing to compliment the Shelter already existing there.

Dec. 6, 2016 – Mayor Joanne Yepsen called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Discussion and Vote: Resolution for Humanity, Respect and Inclusiveness; Announcement: Special City Council Meeting on Affordable Housing scheduled to take place Dec. 14. 

Oct. 5, 2021 – Mayor Meg Kelly called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and opened the public comment period at 7:01 p.m. Melanie Trimble of the New York Civil Liberties Union addressed the arrests made of BLM activists in the past weeks and expressed the belief that the protestors were engaged in actions protected by the first amendment. 

Feb. 21, 2023: meeting call to order 7 p.m.  City Mayor Ron Kim lead a discussion regarding changes for future City Council meetings.   

The proposed changes

• Saratoga Springs City Council meetings will now be called to order at 5 p.m. 

• Public Comment Period, normally held at the beginning of meetings and allowing 2 minutes per public speaker, will now be held just prior to conclusion of meeting, allowing 4 minutes per speaker. 

• Proposals up for vote requiring public comment will be re-arranged accordingly, so the public may   voice their opinion prior to a Council vote taking place.

• At least one City Council meeting per month will also include a Community Forum. That forum, anticipated to run 30-to-60-minutes in length, will be an open forum and focus on one specific item, selected by the mayor’s office with public input. Council members and supervisors are invited, but not required, to attend the forums. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The city’s three Land Use Boards are a good indicator of plans, designs and proposals that will ultimately define the Saratoga Springs landscape in the near and distant future. 

Upcoming meetings: 

Design Review Board – 6 p.m., March 1. 

“For Outdoor Dining Applications Only” – 6 p.m., March 8.   

Planning Board – Feb. 23. Workshop: March 2, 

Meeting: March 9. 

Zoning Board of Appeals – 6:30 p.m., Feb. 27. 

All meetings at Saratoga Springs City Hall. For more information about meetings and agendas, go to: Saratoga-springs.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Springs City Council meeting Feb. 7 was abruptly adjourned early following a lengthy and an at-times raw public discourse between members of the City Council members of Saratoga BLM.

The regularly scheduled council meeting- which began at 7 p.m., was adjourned at 8:02 and resumed at 8:13, before eventually adjourning for the night at 8:38. 

Both - members of the City Council and members of Saratoga BLM, committed to staging a public meeting with one another. The date of that meeting and the room where the meeting is to be held need to be confirmed, as well as ample time given for public notice. As such, a date was not immediately available regarding the staging of that meeting. 

Due to the early adjournment, no agenda items anticipated to be heard during the regularly scheduled meeting took place. These items included all five city department and both supervisor reports, as well as an anticipated discussion under the mayor’s agenda titled “Homeless in Saratoga.” 

It is anticipated a public meeting regarding the items not addressed on Feb. 7 will be scheduled prior to the City Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 21.     

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Shelters of Saratoga has announced it is canceling plans to site its shelter on Williams Street. 

“We value your trust in us as a homeless services provider in the greater Saratoga area. After hearing the concerns of the community, we’ve decided not to move forward with a shelter at 5 Williams St.,” the organization posted on its social media pages. 

Plans were underway to site a permanent 24/7 year-round shelter at the soon-to-be-vacated Senior Center on Williams Street. The city of Saratoga Springs announced a comprehensive initiative to address the city’s homelessness last October, during which time the City Council unanimously approved a resolution in favor of the project.

In January, some members of the Saratoga Central Catholic School, which partially borders the Williams Street Senior Center, began to express concerns regarding the siting of a shelter in close proximity to the private school. Last Monday, a meeting was held at the Holiday Inn where the shelter proposal met with backlash from parents and community members.

“The proposed city-led shelter proposal is a serious issue for the City’s administration and the Saratoga Springs community as a whole; however, the placement of such a facility near our school is fundamentally flawed,” said Dr. Giovanni Virgiglio Jr., Superintendent Of Schools, Diocese of Albany Catholic Schools, in a statement.  “Asking school parents and administrators — Catholic school parents and administrators at that — to reconcile the proposed location of a low-barrier shelter is not only unfair, it’s unacceptable. When considering the care and concern for both vulnerable populations, the welfare of our children and students must take precedence. Their safety is already our top priority, and we cannot stand for anything, no matter how well-intentioned, that may put their safety in question.”

“Code Blue” shelter and shelter services are provided to the homeless community whenever inclement winter weather temperatures are at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, inclusive of National Weather Service calculations for windchill.

Members of the Saratoga Springs community, motivated to action in the wake of the death of a city woman exposed to a winter’s elements on a December night in 2013, helped initiate a temporary homeless emergency shelter that Christmas Eve at St. Peter’s Parish Center. A series of temporary winter shelters have followed.

Local philanthropic efforts have raised more than $1 million and the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors have additionally expressed both verbal and financial support for the siting of a permanent shelter, but all efforts to site such a location have been rejected by residents or other stakeholders located in those specific communities.

The current lease at a temporary Code Blue shelter located on Adelphi Street runs through April 30 at a cost of $8,000 per month.

According to a statement issued by Shelters of Saratoga (S.O.S.), the organization has “identified a more viable location to operate Code Blue… We will continue to engage our community as our plans progress, and look forward to making an announcement soon,” said Duane Vaughn, executive director for Shelters of Saratoga.

A follow-up statement, released by the marketing wing of Discover Saratoga in care of S.O.S. states: “the plan we proposed to the city was to establish a permanent Code Blue Shelter and resource navigation center for the Williams Street property owned by the City. We have been negotiating in good faith for a long-term lease… however, the conversation began to focus on operating a 365-day, 24-hour per day shelter, including the idea of a low-barrier shelter. We made the effort to explore this idea. There are many implications to this type of shelter, a significant departure from our recommendation, with a wide range of new factors that must be cautiously evaluated. After careful consideration, we chose not to pursue the Williams Street location.”

The statement again re-iterates: “recognizing the imminent need for a Code Blue shelter commitment, we made the difficult decision to seek an alternative solution. We are finalizing a new agreement for a new location, which we will share with you in the very near future.”

A few hours following the initial announcement by S.O.S., city Mayor Ron Kim delivered the mayor’s annual State of the City Address and said, in part, that he will be forming a Task Force on Homelessness with the goal of selecting a permanent site for a shelter and navigation center by this fall.   

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Challenges of the past, prosperity and hope for the future. 

City Mayor Ron Kim delivered Saratoga Springs 2023 State of The City Address Feb. 3 at Saratoga Music Hall. 

“This is the Year of the Rabbit,” said Kim, the first Asian American city mayor in New York State, one month into his second year in office and one week after celebrating the Lunar New Year. “In Asian culture, the rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity and 2023 has been designated A Year of Hope,” he said. 

“While Saratoga Springs has some challenges, the State of the City is strong, its people and businesses are vibrant and 2023 can be a year of continued prosperity and hope.”

Infrastructure-wise, the city is nearing completion of a long-awaited third fire station; final designs have been approved and implementation begun on a comprehensive “missing sidewalks” program throughout Saratoga Springs, Kim said. 

This month, the first public hearing is anticipated take place with neighbors living in the western part of the city, tasked with the ultimate goal of developing a design for a multi-use trail on Grand Avenue that will connect the West Side. Additionally, a “destination” playground is anticipated to soon undergo development at Veterans Memorial Park, as is an undertaking of a comprehensive rehab at the city’s Waterfront Park on Saratoga Lake. 

Calling 2023 the year that the city makes great stride towards a carbon neutral future, the mayor informed that the city will create a Climate Action & Resiliency Plan. 

“Just in the last few days, the Mayor’s Office obtained a Climate Smart Grant for $37,500 to review the city’s carbon footprint and develop strategies to reach carbon neutrality,” Kim said. “This grant will allow the city to assess where it can reduce its carbon footprint so we can move to a carbon less and eventually carbon neutral future by 2030.” 

Regarding affordable housing, Kim referenced a recent partnership struck with Putnam Resources LLC on a proposed project at a brownfield site opposite the Saratoga Springs Public Library; a 200-unit Liberty Affordable Housing project adjacent to Saratoga Casino currently under review by the city’s Land Use Boards, and a pair of ongoing construction projects on the west side anticipated to add 202 housing units at Tait Lane. 

“The city not only needs to improve its affordable housing options, but also must offer shelter for its homeless residents. In June, I held the first Mayor’s forum on Homelessness at the City Center,” Kim said.  “In addition, my offices supported the successful ‘member-item’ funding effort by Congressman Paul Tonko to build a $2 million dollar Homelessness Day Center at RISE facilities.

“Currently, the city’s homeless take refuge during a major portion of the year in one of the city’s garages on Woodlawn. Not only is this inhumane, it is dangerous for residents, visitors and the homeless,” Kim said. “To remedy this situation and establish a long-term strategy, I am forming a Task Force on Homelessness with the goal of selecting a permanent site for a shelter and navigation center by Fall of 2023.”