‘I DID MY BEST’
Ron Kim reflects on his 2-year tenure as Spa City Mayor
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >>
After two years Ron Kim’s time as Mayor of Saratoga Springs is drawing to a close, and upon reflecting on his tenure as the head of Spa City the legacy he hopes to leave behind is that of a mayor who accomplished a lot and cared for his city.
“In a short two years, we got some things done that had been major issues that were challenging the city,” Kim said when reflecting on his time in office, pointing to things like addressing the increasing homeless population and moving forward with implementing bike lanes. “I wasn’t perfect, but I did my best.”
While this had been Kim’s first time as mayor it wasn’t his first time on the City Council, having held the position of Commissioner of Public Safety from 2005 to 2010. It was his desire to be involved in local government that led him to get involved in the race for Commissioner of Public Safety, but it was what was going on globally at the time that attracted his eyes to the mayor’s seat.
“I had signed off on politics pretty resolutely,” Kim explained. “It was what happened on a national level in 2016 and the realization that if you don’t step up, bad things can happen. So I thought, ‘Well, I had been asked by some people involved in the Democratic Party to consider’ and went back and forth a couple of times and I decided to step up.
“I’m glad I did. It was a good two-year run.”
While this had been Kim’s first time as mayor it wasn’t his first time on the City Council, having held the position of Commissioner of Public Safety from 2005 to 2010.
Kim highlighted several goals he had upon taking office, one being ensuring and expanding avenues for free speech at City Council meetings. Kim said City Council meetings are the “epitome of our political speech and our First Amendment rights,” and it was his goal to prevent interference with these rights, which he believed had occurred in the past with previous administrations.
To safeguard this, he extended the time people could speak during the public comment, even if, as Kim put it, “some of the results may not have been pretty as a result of that.”
“This is sort of interesting because maybe the public has done 180 degrees on it, but we were coming out of 2020 and 2021, and the protests by Black Lives Matter,” Kim explained. “There were a lot of raucous City Council meetings, there were arrests in the City Council meetings for disorderly conduct — I think because of my experience, both as a Commissioner of Public Safety in the past and also essentially that I had a view, and I still do, that the police were being misused.
“I still believe this and I’ll continue to believe this, even if it was one of the reasons I might have eventually lost this election. My experience is the reason I believe the City Council meetings are not an issue of policing, they’re an issue of making sure that people are heard, even if we don’t necessarily like what they’re saying, even if it’s not the King’s English that they’re expressing themselves in.”
When asked what his biggest accomplishment was in office, the answer was a nobrainer for Kim — helping to establish the 24/7 lowbarrier homeless shelter on Adelphi Street.
“When I got into office, well actually even during the campaign, I remember somebody asking me about the homeless situation, particularly about Woodlawn Garage, and I remember thinking that I had no good response to it,” Kim shared. “The realization was that this was such a difficult issue and, to my understanding, for the last six years people had been basically living in that garage.
“It instilled a lot of fear because I wasn’t sure what we could do, but I got to know some of the key people at RISE and Shelters of Saratoga and some other people involved in taking care of and addressing the homeless situation throughout Saratoga County. They were sort of a knowledge base and their encouragement helped me define a pathway forward.”
The Adelphi Street shelter was something born out of a failure according to Kim, whose location pivoted following community feedback prevented the conversion of a Senior Citizen Center near a school into the shelter and led to legislation requiring a 1000foot buffer between education facilities and homeless shelters.
Kim sees this switch as a positive one, and while the Adelphi Street Shelter isn’t a permanent fix for the homeless issue in Spa City, it provides time to develop a lasting solution.
At Kim’s final City Council meeting earlier this week, the members voted unanimously to give the shelter a one-year extension.
“It’s also successful in the sense that we have we’ve gotten the (Woodlawn) Garage cleaned out and we’ve been able to put people in a more humane setting,” Kim added when discussing the shelter. “My understanding from the reports of people that work at RISE is not only are these people in a better, safer, more humane situation, but they (RISE) have been able to place some of these people out into the community into temporary apartments and find them jobs.
“So, that’s ultimately what we all want to do get people who’s life may have taken a different turn onto a productive pathway. That’s what we want and that’s what they want. It’s just a matter of giving that opportunity.”
Kim ultimately lost the 2023 election for mayor, some of which he attributed to the fact that two Democratic candidates were facing off against one Republican candidate resulting in splitting the vote. Christian Mathiesen, a former Commissioner of Public Safety, lost to Kim in the Democratic primary but ran in the general election on the One Saratoga party ticket.
Republican John Safford, meanwhile, was elected, with 46 percent of the vote, followed by Kim (37 percent) and Mathiesen (17 percent).
Kim acknowledged some of the inter-party drama, for example, Commissioner of Public Safety Jim Montagnino endorsing Safford and Kim endorsing one of Montagnino’s opponents — independent candidate Kirsten Dart, may have contributed as well. Republican Tim Coll went on to win the election for Commissioner of Public Safety.
“Essentially, having a Democratic candidate who continued after I beat them in the primary, probably ensured that (John) Safford was going to at minimum be a close race and of course having people crossing parties and endorsing didn’t help,” Kim said. “But the reality of the two is I felt like it was important to stand on principle.
“I do not think that City Council is the appropriate place to arrest people for disorderly conduct because of shouting, I think the proper response at that point is what I did, which was to adjourn and come back 24 hours later. People said that was wrong, but I think arresting people because they’re at a City Council meeting and shouting is a question of First Amendment rights.
“I didn’t think it was appropriate and the Commissioner of Public Safety did. Ultimately, those important principles, were where it became important for me to step up and say I don’t agree with that.
“Unfortunately during the race, other events happened, and I felt that the current Commissioner of Public Safety no longer was reflecting what I think are democratic values. So ultimately, I think you have to make those choices, those principal choices — did it hurt? Sure.
“It absolutely did hurt in terms of the reelection possibilities.”
Leading up to the transfer of power Kim and Safford have been communicating and Kim has been doing what he can to help prepare his successor to take office. Kim says Safford seems very involved which is a good thing because if there was one thing that surprised him coming in as mayor was how it truly is a full-time job that demands a lot of attention and time.
“We’re all Saratogians and if the mayor succeeds, Saratoga succeeds,” Kim said. “So I certainly don’t wish him ill, and I think he’s going to be very involved which is a good thing because the city demands it. Meeting with the public and meeting with people who come into our city, etc. — it is very comprehensive.”
Kim’s favorite part of being mayor was the contact with people he was able to have, be it full-time residents or visitors, and while it was sometimes less than pleasant he said 95% of the time it was positive.
“The one thing about residents is, for the most part, they love the city. They support it and come together when there are needs to be addressed,” Kim said. “Visitors absolutely adore the city and they’re always very positive and when they learned that I was mayor, I would get comments and stuff which was also as always gratifying.
“I always told them I can hardly take credit for the great city. It’s been 30 years of teamwork by not just the local government, but also the residents and the businesses, that’s what’s made this city exceptional. That part of being mayor was a very gratifying thing and going to the ribbon cuttings and the public appearances was always a lot of fun.”
While he enjoyed his time as mayor, there are things that he is looking forward to once his time officially concludes, like having more free time to visit his children, all of whom grew up in Saratoga but none of whom currently live here, as well as visiting his grandchildren. Having the flexibility to be able to travel is something Kim said he is looking forward to, although there are things he is going to miss — like the staff he has worked with for the past two years.
“I’m going to miss the staff. We had a great staff,” Kim reflects. “It took a while to assemble it all, but Angela (Rella), the Deputy Mayor, has been excellent and my executive assistant, Melissa (Briggs), and Jessie (House) the Communications Coordinator — it was just a really good staff, and the planning staff, code enforcement we oversee.
“It’s just a really good bunch of people I think I’ll miss. That and moving important issues forward for the city.”