Saratoga Springs is a nearby town originally famed for its waters; then Horse racing. Is something now in the water turning town officials into horses’ asses?

They’re always in the news and not in a good way, with lots of feuding. Mainly between Mayor Ron Kim and Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino. I supposed there’d be good guys and bad guys involved, but couldn’t figure out who was which. Sadly, it seems they’re all acting like clowns.

A big point of contention was dealing with Black Lives Matter activists, who admittedly have been in-your-face. But that’s their job. Public servants seem not to have handled things well, often pouring gasoline on flames (and on each other).

But here’s the latest blow-up, that got my attention.

It seems the city sold off a surplus police horse, that turned out to have a heart condition, atrial fibrillation. An e-mail chain about this included Montagnino. Part of his (otherwise businesslike) reply was “Please don’t tell my wife that AFIB is a ‘major heart defect’ that renders one ‘not ridable,’ as my AFIB never got in the way of that before.”

Okay, maybe not a comedic triumph, nor entirely appropriate in workplace messaging. But get this: Led by Mayor Kim, the city council voted, regarding Montagnino’s e-mail, to hire a law firm to investigate “allegations of discriminatory conduct” and “sexual harassment.”

Discrimination and harassment against who? And what, pray tell, is there to investigate? Was Montagnino writing in metaphor? Does he actually have AFIB? If so, how does it affect his sex life? Why does anything here matter? Who was harmed? Much ado about nothing.

The newspaper report about this gotterdammerung doesn’t say how many taxpayer dollars the “investigation” will burn up.

Anyway, this is how Saratoga Springs public officials imagine they are doing their jobs and serving the public.

After I scribbled up the foregoing, the next day’s paper reported Saratoga Springs’ insurance coverage being cancelled, due to officialdom’s poor risk management. Their predictable response was more finger-pointing.

Kim and Montagnino are up for re-election next month. Montagnino’s Republican opponent is Tim Coll — a former FBI agent largely responsible for the notorious Albany “terrorism” sting that sent two completely innocent Muslims to prison, one of the most disgraceful travesties of justice I’ve seen in America (which I’ve written about: https://rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/2023/04/04/a-government-witch-hunt-masood-haques-film-witness/).

This whole Saratoga story is (as I once famously wrote in a legal brief characterizing telephone company arguments) grass processed through the digestive system of a horse.

POSTSCRIPT: When I write critically about someone, I consider it good form to notify them. I emailed both Kim and Montagnino, finding their email addresses on the city government website. Both messages bounced back!