Opinion - Saratoga Springs Politics

The below blog posts are written by John Kaufmann.
These opinions do not reflect the views of Saratoga TODAY newspaper.

Tuesday, 23 May 2023 09:26

City Ethics Board Finds Commissioner Sanghvi and Mayor Kim Violated City Ethics Standards

By John Kaufmann | Saratoga Springs Politics
City Ethics Board Finds Commissioner Sanghvi and Mayor Kim Violated City Ethics Standards

[I received the following two releases from Mike Brandi, the chair of the Saratoga Springs Republican Committee. Brandi had submitted a complaint to the city’s ethics board against Mayor Ron Kim and Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi, who had violated the city’s ethics code by putting links to their campaign websites on the city’s Facebook page.

As the complaint was made in February and as the decision was issued on May 17, 2023, the amazing thing is that Sanghvi, who oversees the city’s IT department, had yet another post on the city website that linked to her campaign website this morning (May 22, 2023). It was only up for fifteen minutes.]

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From: Michael Brandi This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2023 10:43 AM
To: Michael Brandi
Subject: Saratoga Springs Press Release follow-up
Attachments: image0 (4).jpeg

Good morning again,

Shortly after my press release this morning, the City yet again shared a post to the official City Facebook page from Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s partisan political page. This is in spite of the admonishment by the Board of Ethics that such conduct violates the Code of Ethics, and despite advice rendered to the City by the United States Office of Special Counsel regarding the City’s obligations under the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of official resources for partisan purposes.

While the post has since been deleted, it is clear that the City’s safeguards are woefully insufficient and that there is little regard for ethical and legal obligations under the current City administration.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss further.

Yours,

Mike Brandi

Virus-free.www.avast.com

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