Saratoga Spa citizens, task force disappointed with police reform plan

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Despite another night of citizens pleading with the City Council to fully adopt police reforms as proposed by the city Police Reform Task Force, the council Wednesday night approved a cautious approach to reform with a decision to only review, not embrace, a civilian review board.

“It was extremely disappointing to watch our City Council dismiss the voices of city residences, especially Black people, as they patted themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum,” said Kristen Dart, a member of the Police Reform Task Force. “The first civilian review board draft was presented in early January and the city attorney provided no feedback at that time or at any time moving forward. These issues now being raised could have been addressed in the following months of committee work.  The comments at tonight's meeting prove the city will continue to drag its feet on the loudest, most consistent call for reform.”

The final resolution, rewritten twice over the past week, passed 4-1, with only Commissioner of Accounts John Franck dissenting. He did not comment Wednesday, but at the last meeting said the city should adopt the reforms as written and called the resolution rewrites “a dog with different fleas.” It also rejected the task force's recommended ban on no-knock warrants and military equipment and firearms entering the city.

The time for debate was over as the council had to pass a resolution Wednesday night because it has to hit the April 1 deadline to comply with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 on police reform.

The mayor and most of the officials taking part in the virtual meeting did not comment on the resolution. The only commissioner to speak on it was Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan, who asked the citizens to “stop threatening us.”

“The resolution is well done,” Madigan said. “It does exactly what was requested by the task force. It moves it along for their recommendation for action. I can’t understand the divisiveness or contrariness and why we are so berated by the commenters.”

She said that police reform takes comprehensive analysis, constructive dialogue and realistic deadlines and called the council “courageous” for adopting it.

However, when the council was about to take a vote, people on the Zoom call screamed out words like "racist" and "cowards." Mayor Meg Kelly knocked everyone off  except officials and the city attorney so the vote could be taken without interruption.

The resolution urges the mayor to create an advisory committee on or before June 1 “to assist in the implementation of the directives in the resolution, with periodic progress reporting to both the community and the council.”

City resident Elizabeth Zacks saw the vote as the council ignoring the will of the people.

“Are they just deaf to this and not taking it seriously?” Zacks asked. “We had three draft resolutions in the last week to deal with civilian review board. I feel like it’s a lot of stalled tactics on your end to not get this implemented. That’s a shame. Shame on you City Council. ... These are our voices. I’m a citizen here and I would like to see a civilian review board.”

Terry Diggory, a task force member, said the resolution language is “ambiguous” and that it could have a “broad interpretation."

Others spoke up, saying the unwillingness to adopt the task force’s 50-point plan for police reform further erodes trust between the police and the community. Adopting the plan would only benefit the citizens and the police, many said.

And still others were angry that City Attorney Vincent DeLeonardis, who was also a nonvoting member of the task force, told the council a civilian review board could not be created without further research and a possible referendum, something he did not bring up during the task force meetings.

Finally, the task force members were also upset that police Chief Shane Crooks, who was also on the task force, released his own 88-page report that questioned if the task force was in compliance with the executive order because they did not meet with the Saratoga County district attorney, the Saratoga County public defender or business owners in the downtown core where most policing in the city occurs.

"The irony of a majority Black task force doing extremely burdensome work for free, under unprecedented circumstances, only to have our collaborative work be sabotaged by civil servant task force members and 'thanks but no thanks' by the council itself is not lost on us," said Daesha Harris, a task force member.

Harris also said she is astonished by the council's vote.

"An all-white City Council has the audacity, during the national historic trial for the anti-Black murder that triggered Executive Order 203, to tell a Black-led task force and overwhelmingly supportive community, 'wait.' Wait is a word that has been used against people of color, abolitionists and civil rights activists for 400 years. It is a polite word for exercising systemic oppression, and no one is fooled by it."