Moran trial begins. Spoken's new locale.
We have the dish on the clothing store's new digs in Ballston Spa.
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TOP: Moran on trial.
BELOW: These clothes are Spoken (for). Clothing store leaving Spa City for Spa Village, and we had a chat with the owner.
Brief: Moran on trial
One witness takes the stand in a trial that will continue Tuesday.
By: Steve Thurston
Just one witness has taken the stand thus far in the trial of Dillon Moran, the commissioner of accounts for the city of Saratoga Springs. He is accused of three counts of failure to disclose information under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. The maximum penalty is 15 days in jail or a $250 fine. That law requires public people to release documents, texts, emails and other communications regarding city business if someone asks for that information in a written FOIL request.
Assistant District Attorney Joseph Frandino attempted to show that McFee was an expert witness who has little power to confirm any of the contents of the responses to the requests, that she relies on truthful people to deliver all of the requested materials.
She maintained that the law requires disclosure of city business whether the information is on city-owned or privately-owned equipment.
In some ways, the trial is at heart a question of the right to free speech and just how much information a public person is required to release.
Defense attorney Ben Hill, of Capezza Hill, LLP, was able to show that in some cases, such as under attorney-client privilege, information might be collected in response to a FOIL request but not released to the requestor. McFee admitted that she should have held back some of what was collected in the FOIL cases.
The attorneys hinted at the idea that the trial will come down to whether or not private text messages on Moran’s personal cell phone are admissible as evidence and the contents of the texts should have been disclosed in the FOIL request.
The trial stems from three FOIL requests brought by Michael Brandi the chair of the Saratoga Springs Republican Party. The court under Judge Jeffrey Wait picks up again at 1 p.m. Tuesday. We are expecting three more witnesses. We’ll have a more complete story tomorrow.
Correction: The original posting of this story said that Moran faced one count. He faces three. We revised that in the story and apologize for the error.
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Saratoga’s Spoken is thriving in its new home in Ballston Spa
The clothing boutique’s owner, Tina Powell, reveals what's different about her store's new locale — and what has stayed the same.
By: Abby Tegnelia
As Spoken boutique’s owner Tina Powell motions me to sit, two things jump out at me: Her daughter Victoria, 9, has floated off [next door, as I’ll find out soon], and I’m in an extremely comfy chair — in front of the dressing rooms.
“It's not always so comfortable if you're standing over [a customer asking them], ’How does it fit; what do you think?’” Powell says. “Instead, they come out and I’m just sitting here, comfortable. I dive right in like we’re best friends.”
The sitting area is one of many attributes that long-term Spoken customers will recognize from the clothing boutique’s former space in downtown Saratoga — while some of the relaxed vibe might seem new. (The store is now at 89 Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa, in the former home of Petal + Hive, which has moved to Saratoga.)
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“Almost everything came from our store in Saratoga,” says Powell, who purchased Spoken from its original owner, Pam Worth, four years ago. “This huge table? This was our counter, and we brought it here. Everyone thinks it's always been in this building, because it just fits perfectly.”
Powell is celebrating two months in her chic new locale, and it’s clear that she’s settling right in. “It's a little not real,” she says. “I have two girls — Victoria and Ivy, who’s 7. They'll go next door to talk for a while. They'll go across the street. There’s always a police officer around who knows their names. It's it is a little old fashioned here. I love that.”
“You don't even have to go through a roundabout to get here.”
The family (her husband, James, works in marketing) moved to Burnt Hills about a year ago, which ended up helping to facilitate the move. “I needed to be closer to my family, first and foremost,” Powell says. “I also wanted more of a community.”
In June, everything fell into place.
“I had already signed my lease to stay in Saratoga,” she says. “And that next Thursday, I was driving home and stopped in front of here. I was just daydreaming, and I looked over and saw that it was still empty.”
By the next day, she was inside with the real estate agent. “I knew immediately,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is happening.’”
Yada, yada, yada…she was let out of her lease and moved out of Saratoga within days. “We moved on Wednesday and opened here on Friday,” she says. “My aunt and uncle, and my dad, they all grew up in Ballston Spa, and this front part used to be a barbershop — where they used to get their hair cut.”
Powell loves how hospitable the town is and encourages Saratogians to head on over. “We're only seven minutes away,” she laughs. “You don't even have to go through a roundabout to get here.”
When you arrive, you’ll be greated with some immediate must-have fall looks: from a bright red J. Society sweater and comfy Dear John jeans — to the racks of mix-and-match staples in the telling colors of brown, orange and dusty pink. Powell’s store is definitely ready for its first fall in Ballston Spa.
Back in Saratoga, Powell felt that Downtown’s growth (“We were off the beaten path, so we were getting kind of lost as Broadway was expanding and growing”) was causing her business to seemingly shrink. “With all these big skyscrapers going up,” she says, “we were becoming smaller and smaller.”
But now in her new digs, the business owner feels powerful. “It's been pretty amazing,” she says. “There are a lot of women-owned businesses here. And I don't mean women-run businesses — they are in the trenches.
“Not me, because I'm the new kid on the block, but they say that women cut a powerful business corner here. Everyone here is like, ‘If you succeed, we succeed as a community.’”
Visit Spoken at its new location, 89 Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa.
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