John Kaufmann, a Saratogian and writer of the Saratoga Springs Politics website, has submitted a request to the state comptroller asking that office to look into the purchasing practices of the Saratoga Springs City Council. He says in his submission to the office that the city contracted law firm E. Stewart Jones, Hacker, Murphy LLP improperly as the city fought a temporary restraining order late last year. The city approved the contract on Dec. 16.
Kaufmann says that Jones Hacker submitted their bid to represent the city too late and that the city should have accepted the bid of Benno & Associates of New York City, a bid that had come in before the deadline.
“Saratoga Springs purchasing policies…require that if an RFQ fails to deliver an acceptable proposal, the city must restart the process. This involves either rewriting the RFQ itself or expanding the number of vendors contacted in a new email or doing both,” a statement from Kaufmann says.
He added in an interview Feb. 1 that he was not suggesting corruption or quid pro quo, but simply, "They violated the city's purchasing policy, which is a very bad precedent."
Mayor Ron Kim, citing a letter that City Attorney Tony Izzo is drafting, says that Kaufmann is confusing the bidding process with a request for quotes that is used to hire professional services such as lawyers.
"It's not only not illegal, it's actually required that we get three quotes” in the RFQ process, the mayor said.
Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino agreed with the mayor. Montagnino said that he sent the RFQ to the Jones Hacker law firm after the deadline since the city received only two responses.
Also, the timing of the contract was such that starting over as Kaufmann suggests in his complaint, would have meant the city would miss deadlines in a lawsuit, Montagnino said.
"We would have defaulted,” Montagnino said in an interview Tuesday Feb. 1.
The city was responding to the Nov. 23, 2022 Temporary Restraining Order restricting dissemination of information about a gunfight on Broadway on Nov. 20. The mayor and commissioner had released police bodycam video to the public in the hours after the shooting. Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen acted quickly to get New York Supreme Court Justice Dianne N. Freestone to issue a restraining order. The city response was expected by Monday Dec. 19, and so the city needed legal representation.
The Jones Hacker lawfirm agreed to the work at the rates of $400 per hour for partners in the firm, $325 per hour for associates and $125 per hour for paralegals and administrators.
The city first sent the RFQ through an association that specializes in First Amendment legal issues, thinking that the case might end up in federal court instead of state court, and therefore the names on the list of potential law firms were in New York City, Buffalo and elsewhere, Kim said.
Heggen allowed the restraining order to lapse and opened a new lawsuit against the mayor and commissioner. In that suit, Heggen sought two primary goals: to immediately prohibit the mayor and commissioner from reviewing or examining evidence in the case or from releasing it to the public. That case is still wending its way through the courts.
Kim said that when realized the new case would remain in Saratoga County, they sought local, legal representation.
Kaufmann believes that violations of the purchasing policy can have ripple effects as bond rating companies or insurance companies may see poor practices and downgrade the city or increase rates, he said.