Sections in this post (click to jump to that section):

• Races and Candidates

• Countywide candidates, and their party affiliations

• Saratoga County Supervisor from Saratoga Springs

• Saratoga Springs City Council races

• Elections stories in the Dispatch

• Voter Resources (Registering to vote, early voting…)

The races and candidates

Saratoga Springs voters head to the polls in as little as four weeks, and vote on 11 positions, four of which are uncontested.

Con. = Conservative; Dem. = Democrat; GOP = Republican; One = One Saratoga; WFP = Working Families Party. An “I” indicates the incumbent, if there is one. (One Saratoga is not a political party but a group of about 16 people who have gotten a line on the ballot. Their purpose is to endorse the best candidate regardless of party, their website says. They are included here because they have a line on the ballot.)

Names in bold red are linked to the candidate’s campaign page, if available.

Countywide candidates, and their party affiliations:

Saratoga County District Attorney (vote for one):

• Robert J. Logan III (Dem.)

• Brett R. Eby (Con., GOP)

• Stories about this race:

  • Saratoga County DA candidates speak on animal abuse, discovery laws and experience (Times Union)

  • Dems. and Conservatives on D.A. race (Dispatch)

  • DA Candidate: More ankle monitors (Dispatch)

  • Dems have a DA candidate (Dispatch)

County Clerk (Vote for one)

• Craig Hayner (I), (Con., GOP)

• Uncontested

County Sheriff (Vote for one)

• Ryan Mahan (Dem.)

• Jeffrey R. Brown (Con., GOP)

• Stories about this race:

  • Mahan leaves Saratoga County for Hoosick Falls (Saratogian)

  • Mahan arrested more than two decades ago, but accusations still alive for Brown

County Coroner (Vote for two)

• Susan M. Hayes-Masa (I), (Con., GOP)

• Anthony Perniciaro (I), (Con., GOP)

• (Uncontested)

Supreme Court Justice, 4th Judicial District

• Chris Obstarczyk (Con., GOP)

• Kris Singh (Con., GOP)

• Uncontested

Saratoga County Supervisor from Saratoga Springs (Vote for two)

• Minita Sanghvi (Dem., WFP)

• Sarah Burger (Dem., One)

• George Ehninger III (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Democrats from larger communities could gain power on Saratoga County Board of Supervisors (Times Union)

  • Springs Supervisor candidates address homelessness and more (Times Union)

  • Burger highlights closing times in campaign speech (+Dispatch)

  • Saratoga County residents to vote in new sheriff, DA (Daily Gazette)

  • Supervisor candidates face off during LWV debate (Saratogian)

Saratoga Springs City Council races

Mayor

• Michele Madigan (Dem.)

• John Safford (I), (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • A look at Michele Madigan, mayoral candidate

  • Carpenters support Madigan in Mayoral race

  • Mayor Safford speaks with Gov. Hochul

  • Mayor hits major themes at rally

  • Saratoga Springs election features all 5 council seats up for vote (Daily Gazette)

  • Saratoga Springs mayor’s race pits incumbent against former finance commissioner (Times Union)

Commissioner of Accounts

• Dillon Moran (I), (Dem. WFP)

• Jessica Troisi (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Moran launches campaign talking about homelessness, the economy and short-term rentals

  • Troisi enters campaign for Accounts

Commissioner of Public Safety

• Tim Coll (I), (Dem., GOP)

• Uncontested

• Stories about this race:

  • Coll launches Public Safety re-election bid

Commissioner of Public Works

• Charles “Chuck” Marshall (I), (GOP, One )

• BK Keramati (Dem.)

• Stories about this race:

  • Saratoga Springs’ political leaks of a different sort (Dispatch)

  • Fundraising, outside money, in DPW race (Times Union)

  • Accusations that Loughberry Lake report was hidden (Saratogian)

  • The Dispatch had the story of the Loughberry Report first (in August!)

Commissioner of Finance

• Shafer Gaston (Dem., WFP)

• JoAnne Kiernan (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Elections round-up, the week that was (Oct. 17)

Elections stories:

To see all our elections coverage:

• Elections 2025 Section

• Other stories with some elections focus

• Competitive races set for 3 Saratoga Springs City Council seats (Times Union)

• ‘No Kings’ protest in Saratoga Springs in 11 photos (Daily Gazette)

• Times Union voter guide (scroll down or click menu for Saratoga County

On Oct. 16, 2025, the Appeals Court held a law Constitutional that will allow the state to move most local races to even years, which could cut short some of the terms below.

Read more about this:

• Appeals Court upholds even-year elections (Dispatch)

Voter Resources

• Registering to vote in the General Election, 2025

• Early voting in the General Election, 2025

• Saratoga County Board of Elections main page

• New York State Board of Elections main page

Dems to control county board?

A story in the Times Union says that this may be the year that Democrats take more control of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors. If all the county’s endorsed Democrats win, nine of the 23 town supervisors will be Democrats, but they would hold 120,387.5 of the 235,509 weighted votes in the county, a majority of the voting power. Democrats could choose leaders on the board and committees and more say in the county’s budget. One tiny potential problem for the Dems: GOP voters in the county outnumber them 68,386 to 56,830, with 56,439 unaffiliated voters.

To support the present and future of daily, original reporting in Saratoga Springs, please consider a paid subscription of only $6/month or $50/year.

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MSF vs. Gaston

Shafer Gaston, the Democratic-endorsed candidate for Commissioner of Finance has been the target of the Facebook page Moving Saratoga Forward, a conservative website. The MSF group has highlighted Gaston’s foreclosure information about the house Gaston and his ex-wife Tara Gaston, the former County Supervisor from Saratoga Springs, owned jointly.

MSF contends that Gaston was choosing to support candidates in races while he should have been paying his mortgage, but in an email to the Dispatch, Gaston said the paperwork they are citing is just the process of moving the responsibility for the mortgage from Tara to Shafer.

The VA Mortgage he holds means that modifications move at the speed of the Veterans Administration, Shafer Gaston wrote to the Dispatch.

“Well, we needed to have a foreclosure conference [with the VA] to modify the mortgage to being under my name, and that required consent from the VA. October meetings turned into December, and then into February, and finally in May of 2025 everything was in order,” he wrote.

The loan is caught up with a new schedule of payments, and Shafer Gaston is now the party responsible for paying the bill, he wrote. Gaston faces JoAnne Kiernan, an independent who has won the endorsement of One Saratoga. She is also the current deputy mayor under Mayor John Safford, a Republican.

Sit-down’s with the candidates

District Attorney: A Times Union story highlights the differences between the GOP’s Brett Eby and the Democrat’s Bobby Logan in their race for County District Attorney. Eby says he has experience as a defender, a prosecutor and as a legal aid to judges, and having that experience from all views of the courtroom has prepared him for the county’s top prosecutor’s job. Logan cites his 16 years experience especially as an Assistant District Attorney, the story says.

Mayor’s race: Another Times Union story highlights the differences between incumbent Mayor John Safford, endorsed by the Republicans, and his opponent Michele Madigan, endorsed by the Democrats. She is a current county board supervisor and the former Commissioner of Finance. Madigan is looking at an AI future for the city and hopes to reignite the Smart City initiative that she spearheaded as commissioner. Safford, completing his first term as mayor, is running on a record of civility, bringing calm discourse to the oft-times raucous city council meetings and reinvigorating some of the smaller committees such as the Arts Commission. He also has been working on police Civilian Review Board, which he says is now operational.

While I was out on vacation, a couple big stories dropped at other news locations. Here’s a rundown of a couple of them. We’ll have more tomorrow. —Steve Thurston

From the Daily Gazette, we have the story of the revised indemnification law. The new law attempts to clearly define when a city council member, an employee or an official volunteer working for the government on a committee or task force would expect to be reimbursed for legal fees they paid if the person must hire an attorney to help in a legal case. The new version passed the city council, 3 to 2 on Oct. 7. The old law could only indemnify those people in a civil action, not in a criminal one. (Read our coverage about that here.) It also was not clear when the city council might say no to paying for legal fees. The idea is that officials working or volunteering for the city government sometimes are drawn into lawsuits through no fault of their own, or must defend their official actions while in office or on the job. There has always been the expectation that the city would pay legal fees. (Read more about all of that here.) Then as now, legal bills accrued because of illegal activity are still not covered by the law. Mayor John Safford was joined by Commissioner of Public Works Chuck Marshall and Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Coll in voting for the new law. Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran and Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi voted against. In the Gazette’s article, Moran said he wanted an independent, outside legal counsel to offer feedback on the law before it was approved. Sanghvi wanted to discuss ongoing litigation surrounding this law before voting. (Read more about the lawsuit that instigated the revision here.)

In her campaign launch event last April, Michele Madigan struck on a number of themes that have become the focus for her on the campaign trail to be mayor of Saratoga Springs.

“Our city stands at a crossroads, and it’s imperative we unite to address the challenges ahead,” she said, adding later, “I can do this job as mayor.”

She highlighted her 10 years as commissioner of finance, responsible

Read more

Early voting in Saratoga Springs lasts just eight days, beginning Saturday Oct. 25 and ending on Sunday Nov. 2. The General Election is Tuesday Nov. 4.

In-person, early voting

In-person, early voting means that the voter shows up at a poll location on the days and times given, and votes on a ballot at that location. Voters may choose any of the early voting locations (they may vote near their homes or near their jobs, whichever is more convenient).

Early, in-person voting locations

Saratoga County voters will be able to vote at any one of the following sites during Early Voting:

• Board of Elections (Main level): 50 West High St, Ballston Spa

• Saratoga Springs Rec Center: 15 Vanderbilt Ave, Saratoga Springs

• Gavin Park: 10 Lewis Dr, Saratoga Springs

• Greenfield Firehouse #1: 13 S. Greenfield Rd, Greenfield Center

• Malta Community Center: 1 Bayberry Dr, Malta

• Clifton Park Center Mall (movie theater entrance): 22 Clifton Country Rd, Clifton Park

Days and times:

All the locations above are open on the same days and times as shown below. Please note the time change for Monday Oct. 27 and Wed. Oct. 29.

• Sat. Oct. 25, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Sun. Oct. 26, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Mon. Oct. 27, noon – 8 p.m.

• Tue. Oct. 28, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Wed. Oct. 29, noon – 8 p.m.

• Thu. Oct. 30, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Fri. Oct. 31, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Sat. Nov. 1, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Sun. Nov. 2, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Early Voting and other resources

• Request a ballot through the state’s portal.

• Track your ballot through the state’s Poll Site Search, Voter Registration, and Mail Ballot Tracker.

• Military voting procedures.

• Request an accessible ballot (for people with troubles reading or filling in ballots)

Early mail-in ballot voting

This is different, technically, than absentee voting, but the rules are largely the same. Any registered voter may request an early, mail-in ballot from the state (even for local elections).

Mail-in voting requires that the voter request a paper ballot that is mailed to them and then returned as an official vote via United States Postal Service mail or hand delivered to one of many locations.

Deadline to request a ballot: Oct. 25 by 5 p.m. The Board of Elections must receive the request by Oct. 25, 2025. (That includes mailed-in requests, requests dropped-off at the board of elections, or online requests).

Deadline to vote using a mail-in ballot: Nov. 4, at 9 p.m.

Your options for a submitting a mail-in vote:

• Mailing: Place the complete ballot in the mail ensuring it receives a postmark no later than November 4th. Must be received by the County Board of Elections no later than November 12th.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to the Saratoga County Board of Elections Office (click to see the map), no later than November 4th by 9 p.m. Office: 50 W High St, Ballston Spa, NY 12020, (518) 885-2249.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to an early voting poll site (see the list of locations and times, above) in your county between Oct. 25 and Nov. 2.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to a poll site in your county on Nov. 4, by 9 p.m.

Absentee voting

Registered voters may request an absentee ballot. Absentee voters may also designate a specific person to pick up a ballot for the voter and deliver a ballot to the correct location for the absent voter.

Your options for a submitting an absentee vote:

• Mailing: Place the complete ballot in the mail ensuring it receives a postmark no later than November 4th. Must be received by the County Board of Elections no later than November 12th.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to the Saratoga County Board of Elections Office (click to see the map), no later than November 4th by 9 p.m. Office: 50 W High St, Ballston Spa, NY 12020, (518) 885-2249.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to an early voting poll site (see the list of locations and times, above) in your county between Oct. 25 and Nov. 2.

• Hand delivering: Bring it to a poll site in your county on Nov. 4, by 9 p.m.

• Absentee voting allows the voter to designate a person to mail or hand deliver the ballot for the voter (make sure to read the rules, here).

Please make sure you read the full regulations and procedures for absentee voting:

• Rules and guidelines for absentee ballots.

• Request an absentee ballot here.

Military service members and overseas civilian voting

Deadlines for military service members to request an absentee ballot: Oct. 25, if they are not registered for the election, or Oct. 28, if they are registered.

The rules regarding this are laid out clearly on this page of the New York State voter information pages. Please refer to that page to ensure you have properly voted.

No changing your mind

Once you have voted early, you are done voting. Your early vote in-person, absentee or mail-in cannot be changed by trying to vote in-person on Election Day.

Call 518-885-2249 for more information.

Register by Oct. 25

The last date for new voters to register: Oct. 25 (that is the legally-required 10 days before Election Day). That is the date the registration must be RECEIVED at the Board of Elections.

• Check the Registration and Voting Deadlines page for all important deadlines regarding your General Election registration.

Registering resources

• Find the State Voter Registration Process webpage here. It has all of the information voters need in order to register.

• There are other pages on the state’s voting site regarding registration, but most merely link to the page above, which includes information and further links about: Qualifications to register, register online, registration forms, register in-person, register by mail, make changes to your registration, and request a Voter Registration Card.

Use the Poll Site Search, Voter Registration, and Mail Ballot Tracker (also called the Voter Lookup Page) to check your current registration.

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Sections in this post (click to jump to that section):

• Races and Candidates

• Countywide candidates, and their party affiliations

• Saratoga County Supervisor from Saratoga Springs

• Saratoga Springs City Council races

• Elections stories in the Dispatch

• Voter Resources (Registering to vote, early voting…)

The races and candidates

Saratoga Springs voters head to the polls in as little as four weeks, and vote on 11 positions, four of which are uncontested.

Con. = Conservative; Dem. = Democrat; GOP = Republican; One = One Saratoga; WFP = Working Families Party. An “I” indicates the incumbent, if there is one. (One Saratoga is not a political party but a group of about 16 people who have gotten a line on the ballot. Their purpose is to endorse the best candidate regardless of party, their website says. They are included here because they have a line on the ballot.)

Names in bold red are linked to the candidate’s campaign page, if available.

Countywide candidates, and their party affiliations:

Saratoga County District Attorney (vote for one):

• Robert J. Logan III (Dem.)

• Brett R. Eby (Con., GOP)

• Stories about this race:

  • Saratoga County DA candidates speak on animal abuse, discovery laws and experience (Times Union)

  • Dems. and Conservatives on D.A. race (Dispatch)

  • DA Candidate: More ankle monitors (Dispatch)

  • Dems have a DA candidate (Dispatch)

County Clerk (Vote for one)

• Craig Hayner (I), (Con., GOP)

• Uncontested

County Sheriff (Vote for one)

• Ryan Mahan (Dem.)

• Jeffrey R. Brown (Con., GOP)

• Stories about this race:

  • Mahan leaves Saratoga County for Hoosick Falls (Saratogian)

County Coroner (Vote for two)

• Susan M. Hayes-Masa (I), (Con., GOP)

• Anthony Perniciaro (I), (Con., GOP)

• (Uncontested)

Supreme Court Justice, 4th Judicial District

• Chris Obstarczyk (Con., GOP)

• Kris Singh (Con., GOP)

• Uncontested

Saratoga County Supervisor from Saratoga Springs (Vote for two)

• Minita Sanghvi (Dem., WFP)

• Sarah Burger (Dem., One)

• George Ehninger III (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Democrats from larger communities could gain power on Saratoga County Board of Supervisors (Times Union)

  • Springs Supervisor candidates address homelessness and more (Times Union)

  • Burger highlights closing times in campaign speech (+Dispatch)

Saratoga Springs City Council races

Mayor

• Michele Madigan (Dem.)

• John Safford (I), (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • A look at Michele Madigan, mayoral candidate

  • Carpenters support Madigan in Mayoral race

  • Mayor Safford speaks with Gov. Hochul

  • Mayor hits major themes at rally

Commissioner of Accounts

• Dillon Moran (I), (Dem. WFP)

• Jessica Troisi (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Moran launches campaign talking about homelessness, the economy and short-term rentals

  • Troisi enters campaign for Accounts

Commissioner of Public Safety

• Tim Coll (I), (Dem., GOP)

• Uncontested

• Stories about this race:

  • Coll launches Public Safety re-election bid

Commissioner of Public Works

• Charles “Chuck” Marshall (I), (GOP, One )

• BK Keramati (Dem.)

• Stories about this race:

  • Saratoga Springs’ political leaks of a different sort (Dispatch)

  • Fundraising, outside money, in DPW race (Times Union)

Commissioner of Finance

• Shafer Gaston (Dem., WFP)

• JoAnne Kiernan (GOP, One)

• Stories about this race:

  • Elections round-up, the week that was (Oct. 17)

Elections stories:

To see all our elections coverage:

• Elections 2025 Section

• Other stories with some elections focus

On Oct. 16, 2025, the Appeals Court held a law Constitutional that will allow the state to move most local races to even years, which could cut short some of the terms below.

Read more about this:

• Appeals Court upholds even-year elections (Dispatch)

Voter Resources

• Registering to vote in the General Election, 2025

• Early voting in the General Election, 2025

• Saratoga County Board of Elections main page

• New York State Board of Elections main page

The Real One Saratoga, the political group in Saratoga Springs with the tagline “City before Party” sent an email Thursday with the subject line “Setting the Record Straight.” In it they assert that a letter written by the city’s Democratic committee on Sept. 13, is misleading and that One Saratoga is still, as it has been, nonpartisan.

What makes this a bigger political dust-up this year is that One Saratoga petitioned for, and gained, a line on the November ballot. Along with the Democrats, Republicans, Working Family, and Conservative parties, the ballot will also contain a line for One Saratoga’s endorsed candidates.

One Saratoga is not a political party but a small group of about 16 people who endorse candidates they feel are best for city positions, regardless of party. This gives some voters cover, leaders of One Saratoga and the Democrats said. And Democrats say that is all part of a Republican ploy to tip the scales their way.

Giving voters cover

Voters who do not like Republicans generally, or who do not want to support the MAGA movement, might still like a candidate who appears on the Republican line.

The One Saratoga line allows the voter to vote for the candidate without supporting the GOP, or any other, party.

“Clearly, this is not a nonpartisan exercise, and the reason that, tactically, the Republicans need an additional line is because there’s so many people that regard the Republican brand as toxic, they don’t want to vote for Republicans on the Republican line, so they, you know, present this, this mask, this alternative, to give them a different place to vote for Republicans,” said Gordon Boyd, a Springs’ Democrat and a member of the New York State Democratic Committee.

Not so, says Courtney DeLeonardis, the head of The Real One Saratoga, and a former Democrat and party leader.

“If [voters] are not comfortable voting on the Democrat or Republican line, it’s, you know, an option,” for them to support the candidate without supporting the party, she said. It was not an effort to support one party or another but to support the strongest candidates.

“They’re wonderfully qualified,” DeLeonardis said of the One Saratoga endorsees. “They are not extremists on either end. They are moderate people that want to work together and get government done.”

This year One Saratoga has endorsed three Democrats, three Republicans and one person who is unaffiliated with any party.

Which party is which?

But the rub is that

Read more

Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran’s reelection campaign will center around helping the homeless in the community, supporting small businesses, and regulating short-term rental properties, he told the two dozen or so who gathered to hear him at the Night Owl in downtown Saratoga Springs on Maple Avenue, Thursday evening, Sept. 11.

He was first elected to the city council in 2021 in a race that saw Democrats win three of the four council seats and the mayor’s chair. He and Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi are the only two remaining from that time.

Moran, a Democrat, has been working against the city’s new “No camping” law since it was approved in July, and his speech to those gathered reflected that.

He touted the work that a Democrat-majority board did to move homeless people out of the city’s parking garages and into a low-barrier shelter on Adelphi Street.

Although the first attempt at creating the shelter at the former Saratoga Senior Center fell through, the city was able to work with RISE supportive services to create the shelter and get more people off the streets, but he said that with a new Republican-controlled board, the city has "backpedaled."

“I'm very concerned

Read more

When Bahram Keramati built his home on the west side of Saratoga Springs, he specifically asked that a basement be dug for it. And when Witt Construction hacked through the granite, water came in, and it did not stop, he told the Dispatch in a recent interview. He worried over how he would have a basement that was more of a pool than storage and he wondered whether some traditional techniques such as French drains around the foundation would be enough to stop the flood.

And then they tested the water. It had fluorides in it. Therefore, they knew it was not spring water but processed city water.

Witt and Keramati worked with the city, and the Department of Public Works to find the leak. Once the pipe was plugged, his basement and some others nearby, dried up, he said.

“BK,” as he is known, is running for Commissioner of the Department of Public Works, trying to unseat incumbent Commissioner Chuck Marshall who won the seat in a special election in February.

“When I'm thinking about my campaign issues and what they are, one of the major things for me is water and the fact that most people around here are not familiar or aware of how at risk we are with our water infrastructure,” Keramati said.

“It's really interesting because we may be forced, in the future, or soon, to make a decision about alternate water sources for the city, like bringing water from the Hudson River, like, like, digging more wells or whatever. Those are all very expensive,” he said. “And what I'm saying is that, hey, before we consider anything about expanding our water source and what we're going to do, let's figure out what this is.”

One place to look is to stop the leakage. On average nationally, 11% of water is lost to leakage, Keramati said, but it is tough to know just how much leakage Saratoga Springs has.

Just under one-quarter of the city’s water is unaccounted for once it leaves the city’s water treatment facility. That is, last year, the city pumped 1.6 billion gallons, and 380 million gallons — nearly 25% — did not make it to the meters in homes, businesses or other buildings.

However, it’s not all leakage. City buildings, fire stations and hydrants do not have water meters. The city flushes water mains each year for cleaning and that water is unaccounted for.

Marshall agrees: There’s leakage. And both men said that it could easily be 11%.

However, people have to understand the system, Marshall said.

According to the 2024 annual water quality report, the city supplies 28,000 people through 9,680 service connections to buildings. The 142 miles of pipe in the system is created using 20-foot-long sections. Each connection in the pipeline is a potential leak.

“That means there's roughly 38,000 connections,” Marshall said, adding, “anytime there is a connection, there's going to be loss.”

Read more

The Conservative Party of Saratoga County has filed suit against the Democratic Party and the county board of elections declaring the certificate of nomination of Robert J. Logan III as a candidate for Saratoga County District Attorney is “invalid.”

They claim that Logan “is not qualified to be designated for nomination for Saratoga County District Attorney on the Democratic Party line” and ask that the court strike Logan’s name from the ballot.

According to the suit, the rules require a seven-day notice of a meeting that will nominate a candidate for office. They allege in the suit that the Democratic committee did not meet at all, let alone give the required seven-day notice and therefore, without a meeting, there could be no quorum for a meeting in which a person would be nominated.

Saratoga Springs Democratic Party Chair Otis Maxwell said the committee met Thursday evening Aug. 14 and established a fund to fight the case and that they believe a meeting held in February was enough to allow the nomination

Read more

At a political rally last week, Mayor John Safford told supporters in the basement bar of Whitman Brewing Company that his re-election campaign is running on three facets: Civility, safety and the economy. It is a theme he has mentioned in other situations.

Read more

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Jessica Troisi, a local photographer and housing contractor, launched her bid in a campaign to unseat incumbent Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran. She spoke to a crowd of about 40 supporters at Bailey’s Cafe on Phila Street in downtown Saratoga Springs on Tuesday July 8, 2025.

“From the outside, it's so easy to overlook the importance of the Accounts Department,” she said during her launch speech, “but anything you try and do in Saratoga, you quickly realize that your ambitions flow through the Department of Accounts,” she said.

In an interview earlier in the week, she explained that she has been both an event photographer and a developer of single-family homes. She said she has bought, renovated, lived in and then sold four houses. She is living in the fifth.

“I usually hang onto them for a few years and then sell them,” she said. Moving through the planning process and into the permitting process introduced her to the importance of the Accounts Department.

In her speech she said that the city needs a “thorough and ethical administration of our vital records, our contracts, our permits, they're all critical to the operations of a well run city, and our city deserves a commissioner of accounts that builds that office with integrity and accountability and civility.”

That last line drew the largest applause from the group during the short four-minute speech. It was a clear dig at Moran, who has a reputation with some in the community for belligerence. He can be a bulldog in city council meetings.

“Our city deserves transparency and decorum, and when elected, I promise to be the Accounts Department in a manner that is deserving of our great city,” she said.

As a developer, her first public foray into politics was during the discussions in recent years of the Short-Term Rental regulations that Moran led through the city council. It was here that she felt the tug of public life, she said in the interview.

“The final draft is far from perfect,” she said regarding the regulations, adding, “A lot of the really onerous parts at the beginning are gone now. She said in her speech and in her interview that she is new to public life and has preferred to remain a relatively anonymous person in the city, but she felt she had to work on the STR regulations.

“It ended up pretty good,” she said.

Asked during the interview about the new “no camping” ordinance that passed during a contentious Saratoga Springs City Council meeting last week, Troisi said that she agrees generally with the law.

Its official name is the "Camping prohibited on certain public property" law, and she bases her support on her time as a professional addictions counselor, she said.

“I will tell you, as you well know, homelessness is not a lack of affordable housing. It is a result of mental health and addictions," she said during her interview. That is the sentiment of many people who supported the law.

The law would allow police to give people an appearance ticket if they place camping equipment on the sidewalks or streets in the city, if they sleep or sit on sidewalks or curbs in the city or if they fall asleep on park-type benches.

Proponents of the measure say that this will get the people who need help the most into the system and get them the services they need to get healthy. It is expected that many, if not most, would go before Judge Francine Vero in what is called “Community Outreach Court.”

“I see it as pushing to try to get people into treatment. It’s a difficult situation,” Troisi said during the interview.

“Can we give it some time and see? I think there were a lot of people talking,” she said of the process of getting the law approved. “A lot of people angry about it.”

She added later: “If it were my family member and there is some way to push them into treatment, I might want to give it a try.”

During her speech she said she has started taking the state courses to become an assessor as required under city code. The commissioner of accounts also acts as the city assessor and therefore must complete the assessor training within three years of assuming the role, state law says.

She is endorsed by One Saratoga and the Republican Party, although she first attempted to win the support of the Democratic Party, she said.

“Deep in my heart, I felt the call of public service, and hopefully, with your help and support, I can step out from behind the camera and answer that call,” she said at the end of her speech.

Related:

• Coll launches Public Safety re-election bid

• Springs primary Tuesday

• Primaries: Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls results

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Tim Coll, Saratoga Springs’ commissioner of public safety, highlighted three major accomplishments that he says have defined his first term — the safe handling of major events such as the Belmont Stakes horse race; a new focus on traffic safety especially regarding commercial trucks in the city; and homelessness — to a standing-room-only crowd that came for his official launch of a second term.

Endorsed by the Democrats, Republicans and One Saratoga parties, Coll filled the room with about 70 people, a smorgasbord of Spa City politicians, in the mezzanine bar room of Mittler’s cafe in downtown Saratoga Springs. The event was held at 5 p.m. July 7, 2025.

“We did accomplish an awful lot in all these 18 months,” thus far in his first term, he told the crowd.

On the Belmont he thanked many of the local, county, state, and federal law enforcement partners that he worked with, some of whom were in the room.

“That is a very significant, very difficult special event for the size of our city, and it's national in scope,” he said.

“Thank you for your collaboration. I know you don't want to be recognized, but thank you,” he said to some of the law enforcement people in the room.

He said he reinstituted the traffic safety unit in the city.

“We started that this year. It was cut because of budget cuts several years ago,” he said, adding, “We are focusing on commercial truck traffic every day. We're taking trucks that should not be on the road off the road, and that is really, really important for our city.”

He added in an interview that he hopes to move forward with a change of the speed limit to 25 mph in most of the “inner district” downtown and in some other traffic hotspots in the city.

He ended on the issue that has become a political sore spot for the city: homelessness, saying that the city needs a comprehensive plan to address the issue, an issue he says is being needlessly politicized.

“I wanted to approach it in a comprehensive, systematic way,” he said of the changes made regarding homelessness during his first term. “And the first thing we did is we installed the 200 new donation boxes downtown with the message that no one should be giving money directly to panhandlers.”

The lockboxes, originally installed during a previous administration, collect money to be delivered to the city’s nonprofits aimed at homelessness — Shelters of Saratoga and RISE. They also have messaging on them to avoid giving directly to individual homeless people, which some leaders fear just adds to the panhandling problem.

He said that under his watch, the city embedded peer-to-peer counselors with the police department.

“We were going out to our community and addressing those who are mentally ill and have substance abuse issues,” he said.

And he highlighted the “no camping” ordinance that passed during a contentious Saratoga Springs City Council meeting last week, “so we could have safe and accessible sidewalks and public spaces for all.”

“That is the balance that we need, I believe, as a community,” he said, and received a healthy applause from the room.

Asked in an interview if he feared that the new law would expose the city to lawsuits, a concern for some members of the public who spoke against the law at the recent city council meeting.

He said he did not think so, that he drew up the "Camping prohibited on certain public property" law with the help of a Constitutional attorney practice Hinman Straub. They delivered “legal work on Constitutional issues,” the city’s invoice says. The cost was $7,925.

He said that the police department is putting together new policies and procedures to best implement the new law, and they should be available in the next two weeks.

He contends that the city will be targeting the hardest to reach people who need homeless services the most.

In an interview he said that he will continue to push for a new police station. He said the old one, in the basement of City Hall and originally built in the 1800s has run out of space.

The station is another hot button issue. The City Council is sharply divided on whether the station is needed, especially at the cost of tens of millions of dollars.

“It's just really, really out of date,” Coll said.

As well, he said that a newer police station would have a “sally port” or entryway for police vehicles to bring prisoners directly into the building. An upper floor bridge would connect the new station to City Hall across the street so that prisoners do not go out onto Lake Avenue when arrested or going to court in the City Hall building, adding that the city’s insurance company said that might be needed.

“You know, Saratoga Springs is a beautiful place. It's a great place to live. It's a great place to work, and it's my job to keep it that way to keep it, the gem, that it is,” Coll told the audience at the end of his launch speech.

Related:

• Springs primary Tuesday

• Primaries: Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls results

With just 80 registered voters in Saratoga Springs’ Working Families Party, voting on Primary Day was expected to be light, and at the Saratoga Springs City Center, just six people had voted in person by about 8 p.m., an hour before the polls closed.

Dillon Moran the WFP’s endorsed candidate for Commissioner of Accounts defeated Joseph Levy 10 votes to 5. (The party is abbreviated WOR on ballots and WFP in most campaign references.) In the November General Election, Moran will appear on both the Democratic and the WOR ballot lines.

Moran is the current Commissioner of Accounts and was originally elected in 2021, but had run and lost before that.

The primary included two voting locations, the city center and the County Board of Elections in Ballston Spa. The Dispatch did not reach out to the Ballston Spa location for turnout numbers, and the unofficial results as posted on the county’s Board of Elections website do not differentiate between voting locations, early voting, or absentee voting.

Glens Falls Mayoral primary sees strong win for Palmer over Collins

In Warren County, the race for Mayor in the Democrats’ primary has been closely watched by politicos and others.

Incumbent Mayor S. William “Bill” Collins, in his first term, lost by about 2-to-1 to Ward 3 Councilor Diana Palmer, with Democrats choosing Palmer 694 votes to Collins’ 277. The city, just four-square-miles, has an estimated population of 14,455 and leans Democratic.

Palmer is in her second term as a councilor and is term-limited to two terms. Her name will appear on the Democrat’s line in the November General election.

Palmer ran on a platform that included data-driven decision-making, transparency and focus on core needs of the city. She has been a budget hawk over the past two years, with an eye toward the city’s debt and the long-term “legacy” costs associated with some decisions, especially the creation of some full-time positions in the city.

“It’s not always easy to be the one challenging the status quo or asking the tough questions, but tonight’s results confirm what I’ve always known: I’ve never been alone,” she wrote in a text to The Dispatch. “I haven’t been afraid to speak up, and I’m grateful to have earned the trust of so many who want thoughtful, transparent leadership.”

Collins is expected to stay in the race, and his name will appear on the Conservative line of the ballot.

Despite passing a budget that did not raise taxes this year, a nod from the New York State Conference of Mayors for his work on the city’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, and an improved bond rating from Moody’s Analytics, the mayor could not hold the party’s nomination.

“Nothing important is accomplished without hard work and it’s very clear that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me,” he wrote in a text to The Dispatch. “I look forward to continuing the public conversation on all the accomplishments of the city, and I will turn my focus now to the general election in November.”

Saratoga County Republican primary

Saratoga Springs did not hold a Republican primary, but elsewhere in the county, the races for local positions were determined:

Ballston Supervisor (vote for one person), with 385 ballots:

• John Antoski 207

• Eric Connolly 177

• Write-in 1

Greenfield Supervisor (vote for one person), with 571 ballots:

• Kevin Veitch 288

• Daniel Cochran 46

• Michael Gyarmathy 232

• Write-in 3

• Two ballots were not counted since one ballot had an “over vote,” meaning the voter voted for more than one person, and one ballot had an “undervote,” meaning the voter did not vote for anyone.

Hadley Councilmember (vote for two people), with 199 ballots (and 388 votes cast):

• James Brewster 117

• Tina Ladd 117

• Cecil Hayes 77

• Freemont Young 77

• 10 undervotes

Providence Highway Superintendent, with 231 ballots

• Randy Hunter 144

• David Winney 86

• Write-in 1

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Voters are asked to vote in one primary on the Saratoga Springs City Council ballot.

Early voting has come to a close in the June primary for the Working Families Party in Saratoga Springs, and Primary Election Day runs Tuesday June 24 6 a.m to 9 p.m.

Commissioner of Accounts

Two people are vying for the Working Families Party line for the chance to represent the WOR party in the general election in the race for Commissioner of Accounts.

• Dillon Moran

• Joseph Levy

Moran is the current Commissioner of Accounts, first elected to that position in 2021. He is the endorsed candidate for the Democrats and for the state Working Families Party.

Levy recently switched to the Working Families Party from the Green party, a move he said he was forced to take when many smaller parties were often denied access to ballots under changes to New York State election laws in 2020. He switched from the Green Party, he said during a candidate forum.

The candidates faced one another in a League of Women Voters forum earlier in June, in which they discussed their plans for the Accounts Department, their reasons for running, their qualifications and more.

Registered WOR voters who live in the city may cast a ballot in the election. New York is a closed primary state meaning that all people who vote in the primary must be registered members of that party.

According to the Saratoga County Election Board website, in-person voting for all districts of the city will be held at from 6 a.m to 9 p.m. at:

• Saratoga Springs Recreation Center, 15 Vanderbilt Ave.

• Saratoga Springs City Center, 522 Broadway.

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