Steve Thurston (2021)
Lexis Figuereo addresses the Saratoga Springs City Council on July 20, 2021. The meeting, shortly after this image was taken, turned into a shouting match.
The City of Saratoga Springs thus far is on the hook to pay $36,283 in attorney and related fees to help former mayor Meg Kelly and former Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton respond to subpoenas from the New York State Office of Attorney General. Last July the two were subpoenaed regarding their response to the Black Lives Matter movement that grew during the summer of 2021, especially after a press conference held by Dalton and then-Assistant Police Chief John Catone in June 2021. The press conference was followed by a protest and months of disrupted city council meetings.
In September 2022, the city approved $20,000 to cover the potential fees and acknowledged then that the fees might exceed that number. Under state law, the city is required to cover these expenses if the expenses relate to an official's time in office.
[Read our original story about the subpoenas here. Read the story about the fees here.]
Mayor Ron Kim said during the council meeting Tuesday Jan. 3 that in releasing the invoices to the public, he was trying to be transparent with the city as they paid these bills.
“They’ve gone above the amount we’ve authorized,” Kim said during the meeting.
Karl Sleight, billing $395 per hour, and Christian Flemming at $325 per hour at the Lippes Mathias law firm are working for Meg Kelly. Her total is $20,528.
Attorney Michael McDermott, with the O’Connoll and Aronowitz law firm, is billing $300 per hour. He is working with Robin Dalton. Her total is $15,755.
The bills in both cases include conferring with the respective clients, speaking with other attorneys including City Attorney Tony Izzo and the Office of the Attorney General, analysis of information from personal cell phones, and communications with vendors.
Kevin Connolly with Capitol Investigations Group LLC was hired by O’Connoll and Aronowitz to analyze two cell phones. His bill comes in at $8,765, bringing the total for Dalton to $15,755.
A letter from Connolly is included with the bills that the mayor sent to members of the media. In the letter, Connolly says one phone had 22.9 gigabytes of information and the other had 312 gigabytes, which took much more time to analyze.
Kim said he would likely be bringing a resolution to the next city council meeting, but there was discussion about how much money it would list.
“We haven’t paid these bills yet,” Kim said, adding later that he did not want an open-ended commitment from the city. Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino asked much the same question as to what a “reasonable” cost would be, saying “reasonable” comes up in the state law that requires the city pay for this sort of fee.
City Attorney Tony Izzo said the city should reach out to McDermott and Sleight to get an estimate of the expectations.
“I would say, having been a government investigations lawyer for 15 years, these bills are not unreasonable,” Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub said. “Reviewing documents, producing documents...it takes a lot of time.”
Kelly did not respond to a request for comment.
Dalton for her part said that she has fully complied with the subpoena and has "no further requests from the Office of the Attorney General."
The city council discussed depositions and whether those were pending and would be another expense for the city. Dalton said she did not have a date for a deposition and was not expecting to be deposed.
She added that she is aware that it is taxpayer money that is funding the legal fees, adding that she was OK with the release of the invoices.
"I think it's really important that we've had transparency," she said.
Sidebar, from our earlier coverage:
Former Mayor Meg Kelly and former Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton were issued subpoenas dated July 22, 2022. Neither Kelly nor Dalton commented on the issue at the time.
The subpoenas demand “any and all” records of communication and documents of all types, either professional or personal — emails, texts, reports, letters since January 2021 — having to do with the Saratoga Springs Police Department, regarding:
- The June 28, 2021 press conference in which then-Assistant Chief John Catone said, according to the subpoena, “pull out every single connection my family has made over the last 130 years and I will stop your narrative.” [Read more here.]
- The July 14 protest in downtown Saratoga Springs that was organized in part because of the June 28 press conference. [Read more here.]
- The subsequent traffic stop of Marcus Filien and Alexus Brown, who were at the protest and had said at the time that they were racially profiled in the stop. [Read the Times Union story here.]
- The 15 arrests made during the protest and in the weeks after. Those arrested include Saratoga BLM leader Lexis Figuereo, organizer Chanler Hickenbottom, organizer Samira Sangare, Schenectady City Schools board member Jamaica Miles, activist Molly Dunn and others present at the protest. [Read more here, here and here.]
- The city council meetings that occurred in the wake of the July 14 protest. [Read more here.]
- The restricted access to a courtroom on Sept. 21, 2021. [Read more here.]