(Steve Thurston 2022)
Saratoga Springs Director of Risk and Safety Marylin Rivers, right, stands and listens as the city council discusses her role and whether her office should move from the Commissioner of Accounts to the office of the city attorney.
Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim put forth a resolution that would have moved “risk and safety” personnel from under the Accounts Department to the city attorney’s office, which the mayor oversees, but he removed the resolution after an hour-long battle with Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran, in which both accused one another of misrepresentation or outright lying.
The resolution stemmed from an email that Moran said was sent to him and called him to appear in a court hearing regarding a matter of Tim Wales in a lawsuit against the city.
Tim Wales vs. the City of Saratoga Springs is pending litigation. The Times Union wrote in December that Wales lost one appeal in an attempt to get his job back after claiming that he was fired in 2019 for not supporting his boss, then-Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco, in Scirocco's run for reelection.
Without naming Moran at first, the mayor said “a member of the city council” went to the hearing and worked to negotiate a settlement with the plaintiff without including the city’s attorney, Tony Izzo, in the decision to go.
“I believe it is imperative that we better coordinate the activities of the city attorney and the director of risk and safety,” the mayor said. Tony Izzo is the city’s attorney and Marilyn Rivers is the director of risk and safety. “Currently, it’s clear that the city attorney is not being engaged in all ongoing litigation that occurs on behalf of the city. And that’s what spurred this resolution.”
The mayor says that the city will again be engaged on the case this July, and the city attorney has not been involved at this point. For this reason, the resolution would have moved “risk and safety” under the city attorney’s office. He said having the two offices separated was like having two different law firms working separately under one roof.
Moran said that he did not work outside the system. He said he was called by the federal judge overseeing the case, to appear and that he asked the city’s outside counsel on the case, John Aspland, if he had to appear and was told yes, he should go, Moran said.
“While I could have sent around an email to everybody to ask for permission, when a federal judge asks me to appear at a session, I’m going to go,” Moran told the mayor.
Moran said he was offering testimony as evidence about an endorsement meeting within the Democrat party. He was not negotiating.
The mayor said that other documentation suggests that Moran could have said no.
FoothillsBusinessDaily.com briefly saw the email in question, though not the documents attached to it. The body of the email had little information.
The email was sent from the risk and safety manager to Moran, and copied on the email were outside counsel for the city, John Aspland, of Fitzgerald, Morris, Baker and Firth; Brian Kremer of Goldberg and Kremer, a law firm focused on labor issues; and Tony Izzo, the city’s attorney.
“This is a managerial process. This is something we could have worked out internally,” Moran told the council. Arguments went back and forth over whether the city's charter would allow this change with a simple resolution and whether or not the civil service commission had to be involved.
It was here that Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub seemed to agreed with Moran.
“I have a process problem with this. If at the end of the day we go through the right process and it makes sense to put risk and safety under Tony, then so be it. I don’t think this is the right process,” Golub said. He added that if they push forward with the resolution as it was, any majority of the city council could just move departments wherever they wish, and could do so for political reasons. That seemed improper or unfair, he said.
He too wondered if it was a civil service commission issue and said “We need an independent arbiter to look at this…Someone who looks at all of the facts without all of the friction.”
Golub asked if the city attorney even wanted the department under him. Izzo then took to the microphone and reminded the board that he has worked at the city for decades.
“I’ll do what the council needs me to do,” he said.
Since Izzo was given a chance to talk to the council, the mayor allowed Marilyn Rivers to speak, despite protestations from Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi who said it was untoward to ask employees to speak in this forum at all.
Rivers who stood in the back and listened called out to the council that Izzo, "needs to read his emails. The emails were sent.”
At the microphone, she said: “I received the email in question…I immediately contacted and provided it to the city attorney," Rivers said, adding the outside counsel was ready to share needed information. She added later that all necessary emails dealing with insurance have been forwarded to the city attorney.
Asked after the meeting, asked if he had seen the email in question, Izzo responded: “I don’t recall reading it…I don’t recall, but I will check.”
The resolution was withdrawn, and a quick discussion of a public hearing on the matter was not supported by the council.
Editor's note: This is a continuing story. We will have more as events warrant.