The final months of the current Saratoga Springs city council term have seen lively debate over the completion and staffing of the Spa City’s long-awaited third fire station. The station, on the eastern side of the city, is not fully open.
Tuesday night, City Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi said her department has made significant efforts to ensure the new station is properly funded.
“The overtime in the fire department was $271,000, in 2024 that’s $400,000, and that also, again, is a 48% increase. Now I understand that we have some firefighters in training, that we might need some. I have been very clear that we need to work with the incoming Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll to figure out what his needs are, once he comes in, to sort of meet and march to make sure that if we need extra monies, we can figure that out,” said Sanghvi.
Mayor Ron Kim and Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino, Democrats who will be leaving the city council after losing their bids for re-election in November, clashed over last-minute funding issues that could delay the opening of the station.
Two agenda items dealing with the staffing requirements of the entire fire department were discussed by the council and Acting Fire Chief Aaron Dyer, heard here addressing the council.
“The MoA that’s infront of you, as was just described, is basically the current policy that is in place with some improvements, that policy does not create overtime in and of itself,” explained Dyer.
The two Memoranda of Agreement are meant to ensure the city's firefighters are supported both financially and structurally.
“No, I don’t feel it ties management’s hands that tight. We have put some provisions in there to give management the opportunity to move people around as necessary,” continued Dyer.
In the final days of his term, Mayor Kim said solutions to funding gaps need to come quickly.
“This station is 30 years in the making, and, frankly, if we don’t get it open as soon as those structural issues are resolved and something happens on the Eastern plateau… Well, I’m not going to be here. But, there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be looked at as who created that dangerous situation,” said Kim.
With 14 fire department employees in training set to graduate in June, officials want to open the station in February.
Commissioner Montagnino explained how the two MoAs work in tandem by giving fire department employees the ability to run three-member trucks, as opposed to four-member trucks, once the new station is fully staffed.
“They won’t insist on four-member engines for the period it’s going to take between when station 3 is ready to open, and when the 14 fir fighters who are currently full-time paramedic trainees graduate from paramedic school. And so, the savings is there, that we we will be rolling with fewer than four members on a lot of runs as a result of this MoA,” explained Montagnino.
Commissioner Sanghvi expressed concern about making decisions without the input of incoming Mayor John Safford and incoming Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, who will be sworn in next month.
“Again, we have $400,000 in overtime set aside for the fire department, and we have $375,000 in comp time set aside for the fire department. This will add $502,000 extra on top of that, right? And keep in mind, the two people who are going to vote in this, the mayor and the public safety commissioner, are leaving, holding the city liable for another half a million dollars that they have no response to the tax payers for,” said Sanghvi.
Both memoranda were unanimously approved by the council.
