Former Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi has posted a defense on her personal Facebook page of her management of the city’s finances during her two years in office. The city has found that she ran deficits in every budget she crafted during her four years in office, including the current budget under which the city is operating, which shows an approximately $5 million deficit.
Sanghvi cites all the increases in costs during her terms as contributing to the city’s financial problems, and they are considerable. It is true that retirement costs, health insurance, etc. have all been increasing, contributing to financial stress in many local municipalities, including Saratoga. Sanghvi does, however, make one stunning admission of culpability on her part alone: her failure to plan how the city would pay for major expenses incurred on her watch and with her support. Consistent with her chronic mismanagement, she seems unaware of the gravity of her admission. In her piece, she writes:
Now here is the thing about fire-fighters overtime. The mayor signed an agreement with the fire-fighters union about making sure there were 4 people on a firetruck. There are several studies that show that this is safer for fire-fighters. But it is also important to note that in Saratoga Springs a mayor can sign ANY agreement with unions on their pay, benefits, etc. without getting a financial impact statement from the Finance department. I should have asked the mayor to wait on that agreement and should have provided the city a financial impact statement as they do at the county. (But this is something I have learned from my time as County Supervisor) [JK:Emphasis added]
So, what is a “financial impact study?” It is a fancy phrase for whether something is affordable. It is beyond stunning that Sanghvi would make this statement, because it speaks to the folly of all her budgets that included many additional items for the city’s operations, which she approved and voted for, for which she apparently did not bother to conduct “impact statements.”
She Was Warned
In a post way back on October 5, 2022, I warned in this blog that the SAFER grant to hire the sixteen firefighters that the city had applied for was a time bomb. I wrote to Sanghvi repeatedly, asking what the plan was for paying for these additional firefighters after the grant ended, and never received a reply.
When Mayor Kim brought the contract with the firefighters’ union, referred to in the above quote, before the Council for adoption, he cavalierly noted that the city’s labor attorney had warned him to include a sunset clause in the agreement, which he dismissed. The contract, which Sanghvi voted for, would require the city to spend approximately an additional $2,000,000.00 a year to cover the cost of these firefighters once the federal grant ended. Sanghvi now admits as Finance Commissioner she should have planned for this. It is truly amazing that in four years as Finance Commissioner this never occurred to her. Since it is in the contract without a sunset clause, we are perpetually locked into paying this money. It is a major factor in the city’s current fiscal crisis.
Her Statement
I have made it a policy not to respond to attacks. But I am tired of the people trying to reframe my record as finance commissioner. HERE ARE SOME FACTS:
We submitted the Annual Financial Report to the State Comptroller on time all 4 years.
My team and the city maintained AA+ credit rating all 4 years.
All budgets were presented on time and adopted on time (unlike many other municipalities around) without exceeding the tax cap.
And the city had a “no designation” for its fiscal stress score (which means that the city was not under fiscal stress).
AND we collected 12 years’ worth of delinquent taxes that the new administration stalled as soon as they took office.
I was the most transparent Finance Commissioner providing information on our revenues (which were good) and our rising expenses and overtime (which were major constraints). I did this at every meeting and especially during budget season.
Here is what happened – Our economy jumped back after 2020. But so did inflation.
An ambulance that cost $180,000 in 2019 was costing $587,000 in 2026.
Other costs went up –
Liability Insurance went up 188% increasing from $834,732 in 2022 to $2,408,693 to 2026
There was an 86% increase in retirement costs from $4,441,742 from 2022 to $9,951,409 to 2026
Health Insurance costs increased 27% from $7,823,776 to $9,951,409
This is all published data from the city budgets that I have presented. Almost every budget season we talked about the rising costs and beseeched the departments to cut costs and stop hiring new people.
During this time the public safety budget went up over $10 million. And yet, they were constantly going over budget because of overtime. Now here is the thing about fire-fighters overtime. The mayor signed an agreement with the fire-fighters union about making sure there were 4 people on a firetruck. There are several studies that show that this is safer for fire-fighters. But it is also important to note that in Saratoga Springs a mayor can sign ANY agreement with unions on their pay, benefits, etc. without getting a financial impact statement from the Finance department. I should have asked the mayor to wait on that agreement and should have provided the city a financial impact statement as they do at the county. (But this is something I have learned from my time as County Supervisor)
We tried our best to plan better so we were better financially prepared for the future. We created the strategic budget and forecasting group and we tried to get better forecasts for future expenses and revenues. We worked with different departments to help them better understand the financial issues. I also requested both mayors that I served with to help create a strategic plan for the city so we were all working towards the same vision.
Inflation and rising costs are hitting many cities around the country. Closer to home, Schenectady, Albany and many other cities are going through the exact same issue. So, trying to blame me for something that is happening everywhere is just petty politics.
[JK: I received the following from Tim Coll, Commissioner of Public Safety.]
Open Letter to Times Union Reporter Wendy Liberatore
When I first ran for office several years ago, I promised to correct the record when necessary, and I will do so yet again.
On August 18, 2026, Times Union reporter Wendy Liberatore mischaracterized a proposed capital plan in the City of Saratoga Springs. Rather than waiting for the presentation on August 19, 2026, she concluded that the City was committing $14 million to a new police facility amid a $5 million deficit.
In fact, as I pointed out during the public hearing, this was a needs assessment in which all City departments submitted their capital needs. It was also pointed out that only approximately $2.7 million of the capital projects presented may potentially be funded. The remaining requests represented identified capital needs.
Yes, Liberatore is correct that the City is facing a fiscal crisis. Former Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi left the City with a significant financial mess, and this Council is now focused on correcting those problems while moving the City forward.
I also pointed out during the public hearing that a new joint venture with DPW was initiated and that the City has issued an RFP to retain a commercial broker to assist with the sale of certain City properties and potentially acquire another. If this works out, we may be able to address some of our infrastructure needs without any cost to the taxpayers.
Liberatore’s history of careless reporting and advancing a false narrative critical of our police department needs to stop. Our officers deserve fair, accurate, and responsible coverage, just like everyone else.
The public deserves accurate reporting, not conclusions drawn before all of the facts are presented. I encourage Ms. Liberatore to watch the entire meeting and review the facts before continuing to report on these issues.
The facts matter, and I will continue to correct the record when it is misstated.
I feel for the last four years I have been like Cassandra, warning that former Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s budgets were thrown together with little understanding of the city’s spending, let alone planning for the future. I warned in this blog that this would lead to a budget deficit that would challenge this community. Well, the numbers are out, and they are even worse than I anticipated, leaving the city in a major financial hole that will require a lot of pain to fill.
The following graph, prepared by the Finance Department in order to educate the public on the seriousness we face, is from a city release. Each tan column represents the actual spending each year. The blue line represents how much income the city took in each year. The red and green columns represent how much the city overspent/underspent each year. It is important to note that in the first column for the year 2022, the budget was prepared not by Commissioner Sanghvi but by her predecessor, Michele Madigan. Not coincidentally, that (the green column in the lower left) was the only year that the city actually operated within its budget, leaving a fund balance (reserve) for Commissioner Sanghvi of a whopping seventeen million dollars which Sanghvi has recklessly squandered.
There is still a significant amount of time before this fiscal year is over, so it is an inexact art to project what it will cost the city to operate for the balance of the year and how deep in the red we will be. Regrettably, there is little doubt much of our fund balance will have been exhausted to fill Sanghvi’s budget holes. The city’s policies and procedures require that the city fund balance represent at least 10% and no more than 25% of the city budget; the city will have little in the way of resources to fill what will be a widening gap next year.
The city of Saratoga Springs is in a serious fiscal crisis. Four years of fantasy budgets by the previous Commissioner of Finance, Minita Sanghvi, have continuously underestimated expenditures and overestimated revenues while drawing down the city’s reserves to cover the deficits her budgets created. Sanghvi repeatedly voted for labor contracts, grants, and dubious vanity projects, proposed by predecessors to the current members of our Council, without any plan for how the city was going to cover the costs incurred by these votes along with the other predictable budget increases in insurance, etc.
Incoming Commissioner of Finance JoAnne Kiernan inherited a total financial mess. As reported previously in this blog, the city’s outside auditor found the books in such disarray that he could not perform his audit. Commissioner Kiernan and her crew faced the task of straightening out the records from 2025 so they could be audited while trying to manage her department’s regular record-keeping and begin the planning for 2027, the first budget she would be responsible for.
Kiernan realized that, in addition to fixing the previous mess and maintaining regular operations, something needed to be done as soon as possible to get control of the city’s deficit spending.
To that end, she asked each of her colleagues on the Council to prepare an analysis of the size of their overtime to date and a further analysis regarding why the overtime was required. She asked that they present their findings at the pre-agenda meeting on July 20.
As the videos below will document, each of the departments complied with her request with the exception of the Commissioner of the Department of Public Works, BK Keramati, who never submitted any report prior to the meeting and came completely unprepared.
Most blog readers may not want to get so deep in the weeds, but I have provided videos of three of the Council members’ detailed presentations of how overtime has been used in their departments.
As the Public Safety Department has the most staff and must function 24/7, its presentation by Assistant Police Chief Frederick Warfield (Chief McIntosh is on military leave) was extensive, including detailed spreadsheets drilling down on who gets overtime and why. Warfield also explained steps his department has taken to reduce overtime. Similarly, Fire Chief Joe Dolan gave a detailed report on overtime in his department.
As the Finance and Accounts departments are relatively small, their presentations were briefer but highly informative.
In contrast, Department of Public Works Commissioner BK Keramati had not prepared, as is apparent in the short video below. When Kiernan asked him about employees who had huge overtime for the second quarter of this year, including someone with 189 hours in overtime (that calculates to almost five weeks out of eight for the quarter), he failed to answer.
The Silent BK Keramati
As readers may recall, the previous month, Keramati denounced the charter changes proposed by Mayor Safford’s Charter Commission, then turned around and voted for all of them. At the time, I emailed Commissioner Keramati several times and attended a Council meeting asking the Commissioner to share with the public why he had suddenly changed his position on the charter proposals. He never answered.
At the pre-agenda meeting, Commissioner Kiernan asked Keramati to explain what appeared to be extreme cases of overtime in his department, including an employee who had earned 189 hours during the second quarter (almost five weeks of overtime over eight weeks and outside of snow season). He said he did not know.
Keramati’s lack of a response prompted me to once again attend a regular Council meeting the following evening. As Keramati had previously been asked about the 189 hours of overtime, I courteously asked him during public comment if he could explain this.
As with the previous question about his changed vote, he declined to answer.
Readers may recall that Keramati’s campaign focused on his opponent’s alleged failure to be transparent to the public.
Commissioner Keramati reminds me very much of former Finance Commissioner Sanghvi, who also simply ignored questions that she did not like while routinely claiming her commitment to transparency.
As will become increasingly clear to the public, the city is facing a large deficit. It requires not only good management within the Commissioners’ departments but a willingness to engage publicly and candidly about their departments’ expenses.
Keramati’s behavior is extremely disturbing. It is the kind of unwillingness to engage in difficult discussions that brought us to the current crisis. Commissioner Keramati needs to rise to the occasion and be open to the public about his actions.
An Unprepared Keramati
Commissioner Kiernan Introduces Discussion and Documents The Use Of Overtime In Her Office
In her presentation, Kiernan displays a chart documenting that Sanghvi’s budget arbitrarily set overtime without considering the pattern of need during the previous three years. Kiernan goes on to detail overtime in her own department.
The Police Presentation by Frederick Warfield.
Fire Chief Dolen Presentation
Commissioner Troisi Presents Overtime For Accounts
At a time when the city is facing severe financial challenges, a recent audit has revealed that former Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran arbitrarily and illegally waived $54,000 in special events fees owed to the city.
The city hosts around 80 special events each year. Many of these events require the support of the Department of Public Safety and/or the Department of Public Works for road closures, emergency medical services, traffic control, etc.
In 2022, Commissioner Dillon Moran received approval from the City Council to consolidate the bills generated by city departments assisting local organizations’ special events (Chowderfest, 5K Run, etc.). In the past, each department had billed organizations directly. No one at the time had any idea how far Moran would go in improperly exploiting this opportunity to elevate himself as the czar of special events.
Many of us had heard that Moran was routinely violating city regulations by discounting or waiving the fees required by the city for work to facilitate special events. Now, an audit has revealed the extent of his largess with public money.
The city policy could not be clearer.
“There shall be no donation of City goods or services unless previously approved by the City Council (JK:emphasis added). All goods and services shall be charged according the the fees approved by the City Council.”
-Finance Policy and Procedure Manual – Section XIII: Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
So any deviation from paying for work done by the city required special resolutions by the Council approving the change. As the spreadsheet documents below, Moran, without any authority and hidden from the general public, routinely bypassed the Council and waived or discounted the bills to organizations favored by him.
He Just Made Stuff Up
There are no records of how Moran arrived at his policy or how he determined the size of the discounts he gave out. He assumed rather royal authority.
As part of the audit, there are spreadsheets below listing all the special events, the cost to the city for these events, and how much Moran discounted or waived charges.
In the spreadsheet for the year 2022 below, under notes for events, the only explanation for waivers was occasionally the euphemism “economic development adjustment.” There is nothing in the city’s policies and procedures about an “economic development adjustment.” Moran just created this fig leaf to create the appearance that there was some sort of reason for his beneficence.
At the April 18, 2023, Council meeting, Commissioner Moran advised the Council that he had learned from the New York State Conference of Mayors, the New York State Attorney General’s office, and the New York State Comptroller that Police Departments cannot charge for police time. It was unclear at the time whether the civilians (non-police) employed by the city to handle traffic management and code enforcement would be included in these opinions.
Regrettably, Moran made no effort to memorialize this discovery in the city’s Policy and Procedures Manual, nor did he explore the issue of charging for the services of civilians working in the Public Safety Department. Revisiting these policies would have prompted a thorough review of his practices, which he probably wanted to avoid.
Commissioner Kiernan’s Rigorous Methodology
This audit was prepared by the Finance Department. Its thoroughness and prudence reflect the impressive talents of Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan.
To be especially careful in determining how much Moran gave away, she excluded all Police and non-Police traffic related costs incurred after April 18, 2023.
I would add that while Moran has made much of the police exception to defend his discounts, he has scrupulously avoided the obvious impropriety involved in waiving Department of Public Works fees. Unlike for police, there is nothing in state law that precludes paying the kind of bills submitted by the Department of Public Works.
Taking Care of His Friends
The greatest beneficiary of Moran’s generosity was Todd Shimkus and the Chamber of Commerce events.
Todd Shimkus is the President of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce. According to the Chamber’s 990 form, Shimkus makes $240,000.00. Shimkus was a generous donor to Moran and attended his fundraising events.
As an example of Moran’s generosity to his friend Shimkus, look at the spreadsheet for the celebration “Belmont on Broadway,” an event put on by the Chamber in 2022 (before the revelation of police exclusion). The Department of Public Safety billed $11,333.00 for the event. Shimkus’ organization was billed only $4,725.00. The note on the event reads, “$3,120 traffic; $525.00 code; $7,688.00 FD (JK: Fire Department).” The city had to “eat” the other $6,608.00.
Blaming The Messenger
After four years of improper discounts and waivers, Finance Commissioner Kiernan and Accounts Commissioner Jessica Troisi have had the unenviable problem of dealing with the outrage of the individuals and organizations who were the beneficiaries of Moran’s “generosity” who now have to pay the real costs to the city.
Moran, Kim, Golub, and Sanghvi’s profligate spending during their tenures has created a major financial crisis for the city. Commissioner Kiernan has been burdened with trying to untangle the mess that has been used to hide this train wreck. This city is so lucky to have someone of Kiernan’s skills and dedication as its Commissioner of Finance. To offer some sense of the chaos Kiernan inherited, consider that the city’s outside auditor has been unable to audit our books for 2025 because the record-keeping was not properly maintained under former Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi. As a measure of the breakdown in finance under Sanghvi, it is the end of July, and the outside auditor has still been unable to audit the 2025 books.
Kiernan inherited a budget for 2026 (Sanghvi’s budget for this year) which wildly underestimated expenses and wildly inflated expected income. The full scope of the looming crisis will only be determined once Kiernan has been able to properly balance Sanghvi’s accounts and address the many errors in record keeping.
Dealing With The Anger
Commissioner Kiernan and Commissioner of Accounts Jessica Troisi have been the targets of anger as organizations are outraged at the bills that now reflect the true cost of providing support services for special events.
We are very lucky to have Kiernan and Troisi as our Commissioners, and I hope that people will come to appreciate what they are doing to straighten out the mess they inherited.
Civility vs Accountability
This city has suffered from several years of the worst partisan behavior at the Council table. A number of Council members in previous administrations attacked their colleagues at every opportunity in the most toxic and ugly manner, often over actions that never existed.
In contrast, the current Council has placed a premium on comity. In the past, the worst violators of decorum seemed more interested in scoring political points than in properly managing the city. The difference in the civil behavior at the Council table now is striking and welcome.
What Dillon Moran did regarding the fee waiver was a clear abuse of his authority. The city’s code makes crystal clear that the Council as a body determines what groups planning special events should pay, not the Commissioner of Accounts.
I believe that a violation of trust as extensive as Moran’s in this matter needs some kind of disciplinary action. The idea that a public official should give away city resources at their personal whim to ingratiate themselves with certain groups and individuals deserves some kind of disciplinary action, especially in light of the other dubious activities that have plagued the Department of Accounts under the former Commissioner.
To their credit, most of the members of the Council are reluctant to censure Moran. He is no longer in a position of authority. Such an action could be interpreted as mean-spirited and a return to the bad old days.
I sympathize with their concerns, but to simply ignore such an extreme violation of public trust only empowers more such behavior in the future. I encourage the Council to find an appropriate action to assure the public that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated
The following text is from the Saratoga Springs Police Department Facebook page.
WARNING: This video may be difficult for some to watch.
On June 16th at about 2:30am, officers were dispatched to the barns at the Saratoga Casino for a report of a fire. Upon their arrival, they discovered a barn fully engulfed in flames. Together with NYRA security personnel, they leapt into action as the flames crept closer, rescuing about 10 horses from an adjacent barn who stood in their stalls, frozen in fear. Sadly, 17 horses perished in the fire.
This body camera footage is just a small snippet of the bravery and courage displayed by our team of officers that morning. It also highlights an unintended benefit of our Mounted Unit; there were officers working who understood the horses’ behaviors, equipment, and communication and it certainly benefitted them in their response.
We also want to recognize those you won’t ever see on body camera, but may often hear. Only two dispatchers were working this evening, and they seamlessly handled the heavy demands of an incident this size while also dispatching other calls throughout the city.
At the July 7, 2026, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting, Dave Buchyn spoke during the public comment period. Mr. Buchyn, who is Vice President of the Upstate Conservative Coalition and former chair of the Saratoga County Conservative Party, offered critical commentary about the histories of two Saratoga Springs elected officials, addressing them directly.
Under the Council’s normal public-comment protocol, the Mayor explains that speakers are strictly limited to three minutes and should direct their remarks to the Council as a whole.
Mr. Buchyn began by singling out Saratoga County Supervisor Sara Burger and Public Works Commissioner BK Keramati.
Commissioner of Accounts Jessica Troisi interrupted him and asked Mayor Safford, “This can’t be appropriate?”
The Mayor then carried on a brief exchange with Buchyn during which he granted that Buchyn had the right to say whatever he wanted but urged him to email these concerns rather than express them at the meeting. Buchyn and the Mayor are friends and Buchyn graciously agreed to end his comments.
Correcting The Record
Following the public comment period, the Council discussed whether Buchyn had the right to make those remarks.
Public Safety Commissioner Coll explained to his colleagues that, under the city’s recent agreement with the New York State Attorney General and opinions issued by the New York State Committee on Open Government, the city cannot legally restrict speakers based on the content of their remarks. He emphasized that, no matter how offensive or disturbing some comments may be, the law protects the speakers’ right to make them.
Anyone who has followed this blog has seen numerous videos of activists cursing at, taunting, and shouting at Council members without consequence. Readers will also know that meeting decorum has been a major issue, one that has drawn the city into litigation and proceedings involving the Attorney General.
Coll was simply reminding his colleagues of that history and cautioning them about the legal consequences of disregarding it.
BK Keramati Never Listens
Public Works Commissioner Keramati joined the discussion by telling his colleagues that he “took exception” to Coll’s statement. He then argued that public comments should be limited to matters of city policy and that personal attacks should be prohibited. That Coll had just explained that the law does not permit such content-based restrictions appeared to escape Keramati.
Regrettably, Commissioner Keramati seems to be continuing a pattern established during the previous two administrations, in which inconvenient facts— including laws and authoritative legal opinions—are treated as though they do not exist. At no point did Keramati address Coll’s central argument: that the law protects even the most offensive verbal attacks.
Readers should also recall that Commissioner Keramati did nothing to object when previous Council members were subjected to severe abuse during the Black Lives Matter controversy.
I could not agree more with Commissioner Keramati that participants should be civil and respectful at Council meetings. At the risk of sounding snarky, however, I must ask: Where has Commissioner Keramati been for the past seven years? I don’t recall him criticizing Ron Kim, past Mayor and now chair of the city’s Democratic Committee, past Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran, and past Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi who vigorously attacked their colleagues and supported the toxic attacks by the BLM people.
[JK: One of the most thoughtful writers on our local politics is Lew Benton, who served as Saratoga Springs Commission of Public Safety some years ago. He is currently a member of the Charter Review Commission.]
John, I’m sure you agree that Fred Hequembourg was one of the most astute members to ever sit on the County Board of Supervisors. He often said that in politics “If you want to beat a dog you can always find a stick.”[JK: On this Lew and I are in synch. Fred Hequembourg was, in this blogger’s mind, the finest legislator to serve on the County Board of Supervisors in my lifetime.] So, it seems the recently issued “White Paper” attacking the Charter Review Commission and its work to date has become the big stick.
The “White Paper,” issued by the City Democratic Committee, accuses the Commission and some of its members of all manner of impropriety from proposing to ‘roll back city planning’ to ‘opening the door to bid rigging” to, and this is my favorite, ‘reducing our representation on the County Board of Supervisors.’ We are apparently, according to the referenced White Paper opening lots of doors.
The indictment also suggests that some Charter Commission members were ‘cashing out.’ As a member of the Commission and a registered Democrat, I can assure all that I have neither cashed out nor in. I am somewhat surprised that we haven’t yet been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool or rigging the 2020 Presidential election.
The 11-count indictment slings accusations that require indignation and public correction. It is replete with falsehoods, intellectual dishonesty, deliberate misrepresentations. First, our current Charter does not ‘guarantee the city two supervisors.’ City’s in NYS are without any standing in charter, General City Law, General County Law, or General Municipal Law or to determine its number of representatives on boards of supervisors. This has been detailed ad infinitum. The city will always have one or more based on decennial reapportionment. Period.
What is so disconcerting is public elected officials who falsely attest otherwise. If our representatives lack a basic knowledge of how our Board of Supervisors is structured under the‘one person, one vote’ principle, we have a bigger problem than the Charter. The indictment also alleges that ‘financial oversight will be gutted.’ No, it will be strengthened by the instant proposal and the more comprehensive changes likely to be proposed in the second phase of our work.
Under the current charter, our Commissioner of Finance is required to produce annual internal audits. The “White Paper’ tells the public that the Commission’s proposed changes, these audits become optional, and an annual review of the City’s investment policy is eliminated entirely.
That is false. There are NO charges to either Title 4.2.4, Investment of City monies or Title 4.3.3, Annual audit. Those existing titles remain unchanged. They remain wholly intact. Apparently, in their haste to distract and disrupt, the authors of the ‘White Paper’ failed to read the actual proposal and note that only proposed changes are highlighted and NOT those titles with no amendments. What the Commission has proposed is requiring ALL budget transfers to be ‘accompanied’ by a written explanation and strengthening the language regarding Payments prohibited.
The Commission is well aware of the violations of Charter Law by some past council members, their entering into contracts with or obligation to outside legal counsel in violation of the Public Officers Law and Titles 4.4.13 and 8.1 of the existing Charter, and the awarding of inappropriate additional compensation to deputy commissioners. The Commission has proposed amendments designed to prevent such abuses in the future and sanction violators.
The last few budgets have also failed to match operating revenues and expenditures. The result has been significant operating deficits that are depleting the City’s fund balance. The ‘White Paper’ neglects to note this and the corresponding need to maintain balanced budgets. The charge that “financial oversight will be gutted” is manifestly false. And it again demonstrates that those who levied the accusation did not understand that only the Commission’s then proposed initial amendments were presented in the Local Law No. 4 of 2026. ALL OTHER EXISTING SECTIONS OF THE CURRENT CHARTER REMAINUNCHANGED, INCLUDING THOSE THAT THE CITY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE’S CRITIQUE CLAIMS “… WILL BE GUTTED.” One count of the indictment claims that “Saratogians have “no say” in the Commission’s work.
Of course, that is patently false. Every Commission meeting is announced and every meeting has and will continue to allow and encourage public comment. And every person who speaks is treated with respect and dignity and comments to date have influenced the Commission’s deliberations.
The ‘White Paper’s’ claim that “ … the City has made no attempt to produce a full, independent review of what changes will cost …” is also incorrect. The Commission is required to cause a fiscal impact analysis of the final Charter to be presented to the voters in November.
The claim that the changes would result in the new, paid position of City Historian is, of course, untrue. The salaried position has existed for years. Why and how would the leaders of a city’s political party not know that? What is to be gained by telling the public falsehoods?
Those who have an interest in what the Commission’s actual recommended Charter changes are should read Local Law No. 4 on the City website. Lew Benton July 7, 2026
At the June 16, 2026, Saratoga Springs City Council meeting Mayor John Safford introduced a resolution to adopt changes to the city charter recommended by the Charter Review Commission.
In a very strange incident, Public Works Commissioner BK Keramati vigorously attacked the resolution and then voted to adopt it. The resolution passed unanimously.
While I was pleased that Keramati voted for the charter changes, given how strenuously he had opposed passing the changes just before the vote, and given that he offered no explanation for his change of heart, this seemed especially odd.
I was especially curious as to why he changed his vote, because to date, he has loyally and uncritically supported the local Democratic Committee, whose opposition to the proposed changes was caustic. His vote had to have angered them, so it would have been truly revealing to know which of the committee’s false allegations Keramati disagreed with.
I wrote three emails to Keramati politely asking him why he changed his vote. I copied the other members of the Council on one of the emails.
Commissioner Keramati did not reply to any of my emails.
So, in the interest of pursuing the truth, I actually attended the last Council meeting to ask that he answer my question. (22 seconds)
Refusing To Answer the Public Why They Voted A Certain Way Is A Violation Of Trust
I was disappointed once again as Commissioner Keramati was silent, refusing to explain to the public his reasons for his vote.
Being a public official in this age of recrimination is not easy. They are the subject of continual attack, both fair and unfair. There are limits to the time they can devote to their duties as well.
Still, at the heart of democracy is transparency. For BK Keramati to effectively stonewall on the issue of the city’s fundamental document, the charter, and refuse to reveal why he voted the way he did, is most unfortunate.
The Supporting Videos
Keramati Opposes Vote On Charter Changes (1 Minute 55 Seconds)
Keramati Votes For Charter Changes (6 Minutes and 3 Seconds)
Unless you live under a rock somewhere in the South Pacific, you know that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were married on July 4, 2026. The event was so excessively lavish that it must have cost as much as Jeff Bezos’ wedding, in which Bezos basically rented the city of Venice, Italy.
I think I can legitimately call myself a romantic. I cry at movies. I am not above enjoying a chick flick in which the couple lives happily ever after. My own wedding was a modest and warm event at our home with about twenty members of Jane’s and my extended families.
A Spectacle As Romantic As…
The Swift/Kelce wedding was held in Madison Square Garden (MSG). The Garden is better known for hosting some of the greatest boxing matches of all time than for its romanticism. Reportedly, to provide the needed effort for some sort of love theme, Swift and Kelce had planned to erect a castle inside MSG. It would seem to make some sort of effort at a Walt Disney Snow White fantasy (Could it really not be tacky?).
There were widespread reports before the wedding that the venue would feature a large fairytale “castle” set as part of the décor. Entertainment outlets reported that crews were building an elaborate temporary structure with grand staircases, faux trees, white railings, and garden scenery to transform the arena into a storybook setting.
However, shortly before the ceremony, other reports—including one from People citing sources close to the event—said those “castle” rumors were overstated. According to those sources, there was no literal castle. Instead, the arena was transformed into an elaborate indoor garden with grass, canopies, flowers, trees, and a stage for the ceremony.
What An AI Search Produced
According to published reports, some 1,000 people were invited to the nuptials.
I am trying to wrap my head around all this.
Who has a thousand friends they want at their wedding? How do you even put together a list of a thousand? Maybe if I subscribed to Ancestry.com, I could come up with a thousand.
This is a further sign of this blogger’s age and his retro culture. Being old-school, I view a wedding as a way for people who actually care about the couple getting married to express their joy for the bride and groom. Concomitantly, it is an expression of kinship by the bride and groom with the people privileged to be invited.
I also consider it more than quaint for the bride and groom to personally express their appreciation to each of their guests for coming.
I rather doubt that Ms. Taylor and Mr. Kelsey found the time (and probably not the interest) to personally greet the guests who may have made the trip.
I also wonder what kind of gift to give to two people who have such great wealth. They probably don’t need a good frying pan or a chafing dish.
So, Why Put On Such An Event?
The cost of this event is estimated to be well over $20,000,000.00
There was a time, a charming time, when modesty was considered a virtue and when putting on an event as excessive as this wedding would have been taboo. I was curious as to the scale of J.P. Morgan’s weddings (1800’s), who, at the time, was considered one of the richest, if not the richest, men in the world. He was married twice, and each was a small private affair.
One possibility is that this event is part of a branding/advertising strategy. As Ms. Swift is estimated to be worth over two billion dollars and her concerts are uniformly sold out, she does not appear to require such publicity. (I don’t know what Mr. Kelce’s money situation is, but I expect he is comfortable and the route to his financial fortunes is firmly planted on football turf.)
I Am Honestly Perplexed.
I truly do not understand why Ms. Swift and Mr. Kelce put this event on.
Why would they invite a thousand people? What was the purpose of this thing?
When I think of the people who work two or three jobs to support their families and do not have health care, and I look at this wedding, the most glaring expression of conspicuous consumption I have ever seen, I simply scratch my head.
Saratoga Springs Politics 