Saratoga Springs City Hall
A philosophical and constitutional discussion broke out during the Saratoga Springs City Council meeting Tuesday Oct. 18 when Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran once again tried to hire an attorney for his own use in the Accounts Department. No one appeared to know if the resolution he brought forward was legal.
Is one department allowed to hire an attorney to work with that department, and could that lawyer end up representing the commissioner in a lawsuit against the city using taxpayer dollars?
That was the question the other three commissioners and the mayor asked of both Moran and city attorney Tony Izzo.
Department of Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub attempted to ask that question the most succinctly of Izzo.
Izzo answered: “Commissioner, the [city] charter doesn’t state one way or the other about that.”
"The Council may, from time to time, engage legal professionals to provide additional legal service to the City or to any department or entity. Contracts with all such legal professionals shall be reviewed and approved by the Council," the city's charter says.
It does not speak explicitly as to whether staff or commissioners may hire an attorney on their own, Izzo said.
Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi said her department hires attorneys to help directly with issuing bonds for the city, but those attorneys, although they work only in the Finance Department, are hired by the city. Her department does not hire the attorney itself.
As well, Izzo and Mayor Ron Kim cited an example years ago of the Department of Public Works hiring its own attorney to look into using water from Saratoga Lake as an alternative to Loughberry Lake, the city’s reservoir.
None on the dais said they could remember how the retention of that lawyer was structured.
The issue stems from the vote that the city took in August to move the department of risk and safety from the Accounts Department to the Mayor’s office. Moran has maintained that it was done against the charter and that he never felt he got the legal representation his department needed.
Moran said the attorney the city hired to help with labor issues, Brian Kremer of Goldberger and Kremer, said he was working for the mayor.
“He said it out loud. He said it in front of my deputy,” Moran said at the Oct. 18 city council meeting. “That means, I don’t have legal counsel.”
Kremer did not return a call for comment before publication.
At the same time, commissioners worry that they may hire an attorney who turns around and sues the city.
The lawyer that Moran chose after talking to people, he said, was Christopher Buckey, of the Cullen and Dykman, law firm.
Both the law firm and the lawyer chosen concerned Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi.
“He practices commercial litigation, which sort of gave me pause because, what are we litigating here?” she asked. “Nowhere on their website do they specialize in municipal law.”
She added a bit later: “It seems like we were setting ourselves up on the path to litigation.”
Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino said he wondered much the same. He said they were talking about using taxpayer funds “to litigate against the city.”
The mayor cited a time when a deputy commissioner and the chief of police sued the city but used their own money to retain attorneys.
Moran said countered that his department needs the representation and no one said anything about litigation.
It was here that Golub wondered about the legality.
“If it’s legal, he can do it, and it doesn’t really matter what we think about it,” Golub said.
In the end the vote failed four to one, with Moran casting the only “yea” vote. Golub explained that he voted no only because of the legal murkiness.
Before moving to the next item on his agenda, Moran said: “OK. So we’re adrift without a rudder. Good stuff.”