Havin' a bad day

Ron Kim should do himself a favor and leave Friday’s paper on the front stoop; maybe even refrain from turning on the television, answering the phone or logging onto the Internet for a while. In fact, the best thing for him to do at this point is to stay in bed with the covers pulled over his head; or tuck into a Snuggie with a good trash novel, 'cause he's havin' a bad day.

After nearly four years of abject neglect, Ron Kim's failure in office is finally starting to bite him on the ass. Last week, he was told his overspending and the city’s budget deficit is prompting more than a dozen layoffs in his department. This week, he learned that his politicking with the Police Department’s lack of a ladies room was going to cost the city $80,000 –twice what the city had initially expected. And then just when things looked like they were settling down, Kim caught word of a the legal proceeding filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union over the city's failure to release the police department’s Taser usage records.

Thursday's host of surprises started off with word of the settlement, ending the well-documented debacle over the female bathrooms; one Kim was keenly aware of when he first came to office in 2005. In fact, it was well enough known that the city even allocated money to correct the situation long before the female officers ever filed suit. But the police brass –namely Chief Ed Moore –wasn’t interested in correcting the problem because they were busy stumping for a palatial Public Safety compound. And they had support from Ron Kim, who decided to join the rally cry for a new station instead of monitoring the performance of his department.

Editor’s note: As the Saratogian reporter asserts in the comments section, this might not be true. Andrew Bernstein says Moore did try to rectify the situation by converting a jail cell into a female locker. He was allegedly blocked by the dynamic duo of Curley and Dreyer. There is no written confirmation of this in published accounts, but Bernstein is a fairly straight-forward reporter, so we'll take his word for it.

Given the facts, the state Human Rights Division’s doubling of the award should come as no surprise. After all, it’s hard to sympathize with a city police department that built its first employee ladies room nearly four decades after hiring its first female officer. In truth, it’s a miracle that the city escaped the whole case with a paltry $80,000 fine.

As could be expected, Kim tried to shift the blame for his own mismanagement onto other people and entities. He argued the fine wouldn’t have been nearly as steep had the city simply built a new station. This assertion was promptly shot out of the sky by division spokesman Jim Mulvaney.

“If there is a continued problem, we assume there will be a subsequent complaint,” he told the Daily Gazette Thursday.

Kim might be able to avoid much flack from the Taser action –at least among those voters with memory issues. Saratoga Springs Police received the electric “nonlethal” weapons last year under Kim’s stewardship, and took no time in putting them to use. By some accounts, the weapons have electrified the nightlife on Caroline Street; something that subsequently caught the attention of the NYCLU.

At this point, it should be noted that the NYCLU isn’t against the use of Tasers, per se. Instead, the organization wants officers to use them under circumstances when they would use lethal force. They have targeted several Taser-happy departments in the Capital Region, including the Guilderland and Glens Falls police; both of whom have some pretty hellacious tales about zapping unarmed and non-violent suspects. In other words, including the Spa City cops with these departments is not a vote of confidence for them or their Taser policy.

The legal proceeding is also a blow to one of Ron Kim’s main campaign slogans: Open Government. Admittedly, the Taser records were not released by long-time Assistant City Attorney Tony Izzo under the advice of Chief Moore. But Kim, as it happens, was the only city commissioner aware of the NYCLU’s request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

Oddly enough, Moore’s reasoning for not releasing the Taser records is almost identical as the reason Ron Kim gave for not releasing the police department’s manual or contract to the Saratogian in June: Such documents could jeopardize the department’s safety.

“They constitute intra-agency materials that are exempt from the Public Officer’s Law,” he told the Saratogian Thursday. “Those records are also exempt under that law as they could endanger the life and safety of persons if disclosed.”

Well how about that? The so-called “open government” candidate for mayor is openly allowing a subordinate and the largest department he presides over to duck into the shadows so they can avoid public scrutiny.

These are messages that voters should keep in mind as they make their choice for mayor next month. Kim’s tenure in office would be wrongly characterized as being rife with mismanagement. After all, you have to try to manage something in order to fail at doing it. Kim’s nearly four years in office have been marked by his refusal to uphold a single responsibility of the public safety commissioner. And while some would argue the city couldn’t do much worse by re-electing Mayor Scott Johnson, Kim seems destined to prove them wrong.