In Saratoga Springs, politics bruising – Times Union

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The essence of gentility and sophistication. Sounds like Saratoga Springs.

But you might not know it by the accusations, altercations and resignations among the city’s leading Democrats, the party that dominates here.

The fights, arising from seemingly petty issues to major ones, play out behind the scenes and at the City Council table. Routine matters like water line fees are as likely to prompt political showdowns as big decisions on the city’s future form of government or large-scale building projects.

The battles led to accusations of ethical violations and even the censure of a mayor over her decision to abstain on a zoning variance vote for Saratoga Hospital.

The divisions became especially stark this primary season, leaving some to wonder if it could jeopardize the party’s chances in November. Certainly, the city Republican Party has its own issues: it’s been idle for years, under new, untried leadership but it refuses to back mayoral candidate Tim Holmes this fall.

Debates have played out in an economically thriving city. Over the past decade, developers remade the area around downtown, though not without controversies over building height, and design, zoning and land use.

Many of battles appear rooted in personality conflicts as much as policy differences. Longtime party members say intraparty conflicts among Democrats are nothing new. After a bruising election defeat several years ago, a former Democratic Party chair blamed the loss on infighting, saying “Democrats beat Democrats in Saratoga Springs.”

Their latest disagreement prompted the exit of 16 people from the 50-member party committee, including five on its executive committee. The organization’s new leader said the downsized committee is made up of more like-minded people.

“As far as I’m concerned, our committee right now is the most unified we’ve been (in) the last 10 years,” chairwoman Sarah Burger said. “Ten years ago, chairs were being thrown at people in that room. We had problems with money — we had all kinds of problems. We don’t have those problems anymore.”

But many say the fractures will not easily be repaired. Hard feelings persist. And wounds are being salted by a new controversy: the flipping of the Democratic endorsement from incumbent Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan to Democratic primary winner Patty Morrison. The top of the party’s ticket this fall, Mayor Meg Kelly, has said she is backing Madigan’s re-election.

“We will win in November and we will bring it strong,” Kelly told Madigan’s supporters after the June primary.

The schism has led some voters to consider crossing party lines. Some Democrats vow to vote for Holmes. The Republicans have supported Madigan and will likely again on Independence and Working Families lines in November. The Republicans did not nominate their own candidate for finance commissioner; the line will be blank in the November election.

Drawing ‘tight circle’

While voting for the person and not the party is not unusual in local politics, longtime Democrat William McTygue, who twice ran for office, said any challenges to incumbents have been discouraged by the party for years.

“Their strategy of maintaining power on the City Council, and even in the face of bad decisions … that people like me and others have called into question, is to just draw their circle tight,” McTygue said, adding that the forces protect Republican Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco despite recent controversies. “There are no checks and balances anymore.”

Democratic discord isn’t new. The committee has been plagued by rancor since a surprise sweep of council races in 2005. For the first time in city history, Democrats held not only the majority but all elected seats.

The elation didn’t last.

John Franck, the city’s commissioner of accounts and the only elected official still holding office from that time, said the split started when newly elected Mayor Valerie Keehn removed McTygue, brother of then-Commissioner of Public Works Thomas McTygue, from the planning board. Keehn also called for a review of the city charter to transform its commission form of government into one with a strong mayor. Both moves angered Thomas McTygue.

“It was war from day one,” Franck said of the battle between the factions that lined up behind the mayor and the public works commissioner. “It was the Hatfields and McCoys.”

Franck said it got so ugly that Keehn’s people followed Thomas McTygue around the city, photographing him wherever he went. They videotaped him at meetings. At meetings, Franck recalled, Thomas McTygue tried to blind the camera with a laser pointer he concealed under a book. Thomas McTygue confirmed Franck’s recollection.

Charley Brown, former Democratic committee chair who was among those who recently resigned, said the rift was “a terrible split” that never completely mended.

Personality clashes

In the election two years later, Keehn and Thomas McTygue lost to Republicans Scott Johnson and Scirocco, respectively. A Republican won for commissioner of finance. At the time, Democratic County Chairman Larry Bulman blamed losses on bickering.

“They were so entangled in trying to tear one another apart, they ended up both losing,” Bulman told the Times Union.

Divisions resurfaced, Brown said, after the 2011 election, when Public Safety Commissioner Chris Mathiesen and Madigan won. The two Democrats formed a solid voting bloc with Republican Scirocco on the five-member council.

After the election, William McTygue tried to raise concerns about Scirocco’s department — the office formerly led by McTygue’s brother. He said Scirocco waived $854,000 in water connection fees, which the Times Union reported at the time mostly went to two projects developed by developer Sonny Bonacio.

Instead of taking on McTygue’s concerns, the Council Democrats with the exception of then-Mayor Joanne Yepsen eliminated the city’s water connection fees, saying they duplicated the city’s capital improvement fee.

Franck said the fuse was lit between Yepsen and Madigan. “Joanne and Michele were oil and water,” he said.

In 2015, the City Council considered a land swap, the Collamer lot with land on Union Avenue for an east end firehouse. Former city officials sued, saying the swap wouldn’t produce a fair-market value for taxpayers.

The state Attorney General ultimately blocked the deal in 2017 over concerns about undisclosed relationships between the two private parties involved.

The fallout prompted Burger — now chair of the Democratic committee — to resign as city attorney. At the time, she told the Times Union she “wanted to protect her professional and personal integrity.”

In 2016, tensions exploded when Madigan, Mathiesen and Scirocco voted to censure Yepsen over the mayor’s recusal on a vote to give a zoning variance Saratoga Hospital needed for a controversial office building. Yepsen abstained because she was seeking outside consultant work with the hospital.

Madigan then asked the city’s ethics board to launch a probe into Yepsen’s consulting work and her recusal. Madigan read the findings of the ethics board, which said it was a conflict of interest to seek consulting work with anyone doing business with the city as it was considering the hospital’s $14 million proposal for a 75,000-square-foot office building and parking lot.

Bitterness resurfaced in 2017 and 2018 over proposed charter changes and questions about energy purchases. William McTygue asked the ethics board to investigate the relationship between city officials and an employee-formed LLC that acted as a broker for the city’s electric and natural gas services. The board took no action against the council members, who unanimously approved the energy contracts.

The McTygues are a frequent factor in the party’s skirmishes. William McTygue came to Yepsen’s defense, calling it “political retaliation,” when she was censured. Their involvement in a number of controversies prompted the opposition faction to blame them for the party’s woes. Both McTygues, whose father also served as a public works commissioner, call that notion ridiculous.

William McTygue said Brown, who chaired the committee from 2012 to 2018, allowed the schism to fester because he wouldn’t let the committee members discuss issues some thought were being handled poorly.

“The leadership was picking sides and never letting us discuss important, controversial issues,” William McTygue said. “He wouldn’t let us discuss bad public policy that the majority of Democrats were concerned about. Charley Brown wanted to maintain the status quo.”

Brown said he did allow for discussion, but would not allow voting on positions that could further splinter the committee. He also said the reason the committee is now healthy is because of his efforts.

“We focused on rebuilding unity … This objective of working together toward our goals in a unified manner set the tone for my entire tenure as chair and for that of my successor, Courtney DeLeonardis.”

Brown said he felt his job was to back the party’s endorsed candidates – including Madigan. That’s how the Democrats got to their current situation with the 16 defecting committee members sticking with Madigan despite her loss to Morrison.

“When the decision was made to leave the committee, we acted immediately so as to give new leadership the maximum time to reorganize and make key decisions,” Brown said. “I believe that resigning from such an organization was a painful, wrenching process for all of us who left. However, we felt that ethically it was our only choice.”

What it means

It is unclear if the Democrats will continue to dominate city elections, one of the few spirited contests in the Capital Region this fall. The city’s 18,515 voters are nearly split between the two parties: There are 6,802 are Democrats, 6,068 Republicans, and 1,419 voters enrolled in third parties. Another 4,226 are not enrolled in any party,

The new Republican city chairman, Chris Obstarczyk, sees an opening.

“Democrats are fractured,” he said, “and the direction they are going is not good for the city.”

Burger said Democrats are victims of their own principle, transparency. She is also looking forward.

“We anticipate our committee will be at capacity again shortly and are moving forward in a unified positive direction,” Burger said.

wliberatore@timesunion.com – 518-454-5445 – @wendyliberatore