Saratoga Springs’ Director of Risk and Safety Marilyn Rivers has entered a claim of hostile work environment against the city stemming from the political arguments over her work and position at the city last year. The claim is the first step in a potential lawsuit against the city.
In it, she names four of the sitting council members and at least one deputy as having created the environment, but aims the claim at Mayor Ron Kim, Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino, and Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran.
Through the claim, Rivers also takes aim at Commissioner of Finance Minita Saghvi and Deputy Commissioner of Accounts Stacy Connors.
Although Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub had been appointed to the council by then, he is not mentioned in the claim.
Rivers is represented by Benjamin Hill of the Capezza Hill law firm. The claim was served last September.
The issue came to light Thursday evening Feb. 9 during the city council’s meeting which was an extension of the Tuesday Feb. 7 meeting which had been cut short by protests.
During the Thursday meeting, Montagnino abstained on a vote regarding compensation for non-union employees saying that there was a person retiring who was bringing suit against the city. He was named, he said, and his vote might appear to be hostile. Kim and Moran voted.
In the claim, Rivers outlines her version of events from last spring and summer when the city council battled over whether her position as Director of Risk and Safety should be housed in the Accounts Department or in the Mayor’s office under the eye of the city attorney.
[Our coverage from last year can be found here.]
That issue, the first big rift among the all-Democrat council, stems from a meeting that Moran attended regarding a legal case in which he was named as a witness. The meeting resulted in the claimant there receiving $100,000 in compensation from the city’s insurance carrier with the city paying a $25,000 deductible.
Where Moran contended he did nothing untoward in that meeting which included lawyers and a judge, Kim and others saw the $25,000 payment, which was placed in a portion of the agenda that was voted as a group with other payments, as a way to sneak an improper payment through.
Rivers contends that “Mayor Kim stated that Commissioner Moran and Mrs. Rivers did not inform his office that a $25,000 deductible was owed and that any such agreement to settle the case should have been consented to and approved by the council…and that Mrs. Rivers had deceptively hid it from the council and public,” the claim says.
These statements made during the Aug. 2, 2022, meeting, and others made by Montagnino and Sanghvi that questioned the veracity of the actions, were aimed at her and were false, the claim states.
This is the case, the argument says, because the policy with the Traveller’s Insurance is a “non-consent” policy, meaning the insurance company can decide to settle without the city’s input.
The claim later states that under oath in front of Judge Mae D’Agastino, Kim admitted that he knew the policy was a non-consent policy and therefore, “all of his [the mayor’s] prior attacks against Claimant [Rivers] were false and, importantly, that he knew they were false when he made them.”
The revelation of the payment started months of antipathy on city council last year, ending with the position of the director of Risk and Safety moving to the mayor’s office from the Accounts Department.
After the position was moved, Accounts Commissioner Moran shifted the money in the budget he controls from the line that paid Rivers to a number of various lines. Although he followed standard protocol when moving it, and the city council approved it in a voice vote with other changes in expenditures, it meant that the budget for Rivers’ pay could not be transferred to the mayor’s budget, leaving Rivers effectively in the position of having a job but no salary.
In her argument, Rivers contends that this was Moran's political retaliation against Kim and Montagnino who pushed for the office to move, and that in so doing, Moran perpetuated “the physical and emotional anguish for Ms. Rivers for his own political advantage."
She first made a claim of a hostile work environment in May of last year.
Neither Moran, Kim nor Montagnino wished to comment about the matter at this time.