Steve Thurston (2022)
Joseph "Bubbles" Ribis speaks with Saratoga Springs Police after he refused to wear a mask during the city council meeting Feb. 2, 2022.
When Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran congratulated the rest of the city council on completing their first full month in office, Mayor Ron Kim quipped: “Has it only been a month?”
This might not be unexpected as the mayor has been dressed down by a city court judge over the mayor acting as city attorney, which came after his first choice for city attorney bowed out of consideration.
Moran offered the congratulations about midway through the city council meeting, after the mayor honored the Saratoga Springs girls cross-country team, leading a standing ovation for the young women who are for the 12th time in the team’s history, the best in the nation.
Also, a public hearing on a proposed police oversight Civilian Review Board, which occurred just before the Tuesday night council meeting, only a handful of supporters of the Black Lives Matter Saratoga group spoke, largely with calm voices and little belligerence, a dramatic shift from council meetings last year.
But those points of happiness were overshadowed by the public forum at the start of the council meeting. It once again turned loud and belligerent. Kim opened the meeting to public comment, a time when the public can speak on any topic. He explained that people should be polite, should address the board and would be held to two minutes of speaking time.
Longtime Democrat and political leader Jane Weihe chastised the three Democrats on the council and the Democratic mayor for backing Mayor Kim during the Jan. 18 meeting. During that meeting Mayor Kim directed the council into executive session using “a laundry list of all the possible reasons a public body could go into executive session.” By law, a body must explain which reason they are using to move into executive session.
“In addition,” Weihe continued, “Mayor Kim got the approval of his Democratic colleagues to violate the city charter” when they agreed to postpone the mayor’s State of the City Message. During the last meeting, the council agreed to postpone the State of the City until March when the COVID surge of the omicron variant would be lower and people could convene.
“The charter only requires a written report on the state of the city to be submitted by the first meeting in February,” she told the council, adding they can meet to discuss the report whenever they want.
“Thank you, I hope you’ll remedy these problems,” Weihe said just as Kim said, “Your time’s up.”
Wiehe responded that she understood the mayor would be less draconian about the time limit. “You’ve changed your mind on that,” she said before sitting down.
The real problem came when some members of the audience wondered why other members were not required to wear their face masks, which is part of the rules in City Hall and the statewide mask mandate.
Kim then asked the group of people, some belonging to the Down Range MC motorcycle club in Saratoga, to please put their masks back on. He said it was the polite thing to do and if they did not want to, they could leave and watch the meeting online.
That brought Joseph “Bubbles” Ribis to the microphone.
He is a member of the Down Range group and is also on the city’s Board of Assessment, according to the city’s website. Down Range members often use their nicknames. Ribis has attended many city council meetings in recent months.
He began by telling the Black Lives Matter supporters to “shut up” as he approached the microphone.
He introduced himself as Bubbles and said: “I’m listening to people who don’t live here directing what you guys [the city council] do. If you don’t live in this city and you don’t pay taxes, you have zero input on it. You have no right to dictate what goes on in this city. You’re not voters, you’re not taxpayers, you’re nothing—” Kim interrupted briefly— “Let me finish. You come here, and I’d like to know which ones of them spend money here in Saratoga. They don’t. All they do is come here and create chaos.”
He was eventually cut to two minutes, and a dejected Kim said: “Please put your mask on, Bubbles” as Ribis went back to his seat. Supporters of BLM Saratoga come from the city and from surrounding areas.
When the group of about six kept their masks below their noses or on their chins, more people including Supervisor Tara Gaston asked the city council to bring police and to enforce the rules, as the meeting grew louder.
Police were called and eventually escorted Ribis to the entryway of the hall where they spoke together for 15 minutes or more.
Lt. Laura Emanatian, the police public information officer, said she did not know if an arrest was made or a ticket was issued.
She wondered aloud if an arrest for not wearing a mask had ever been made and said that if one was, it would be in the department’s police log distributed on Friday.
Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi asked that future meeting would have a uniformed police officer at them. This comes just as the police presence in City Hall had been cut back from previous levels.
Kim did not return a late request for comment. Ribis did not return a call for comment (Update: Ribis returned the call after publication.)