Man wants name redacted from profane video of mayor

Saratoga Springs leader recorded confronting police official over perceived threat

By WENDY LIBERATORE

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The police department’s release of the expletive-laced video of the mayor verbally attacking the deputy commissioner of Public Safety in the corridor at City Hall after the mayor claimed the deputy didn’t respond to his concerns over a perceived threat is causing more anguish.

The video, which has been up on the city police Facebook page since Friday night, names the person whom Mayor Ron Kim said allegedly threatened him and his family. Now the accused person wants his name redacted from the video and denies that an email he sent to Kim telling him to “just resign, it will be better for you in the end,” was a threat.

He also said he never threatened Kim’s family.

“I do not know who Ron Kim’s family is, and even if I did, I would never threaten him or his family,” the accused man said. The Times Union is not naming the man because no charges have been filed in the incident.

Kim said the posting of the video “has resulted in endangering my family even more” and that “the person who threatened him only lives two blocks away.”

By late Monday afternoon, the man’s name had not been redacted from the video, even though Commissioner of Public Safety Jim Montagnino said it would be.

The video in question shows an angry encounter between Kim and Jason Tetu in which Kim hurls the f-word at Tetu and calls him lazy for not responding to his emails about what he perceived to be a threat. Tetu shot back that he would arrest Kim if he ever banged on his office door like that again.

Kim said Tetu and Montagnino never responded to his concerns and that’s why he was angry. He apologized on Friday night and did meet with a city police officer to file a report.

Yet police spokesman Lt. Paul Veitch said they will not investigate.

“The email does not contain any threat to the mayor’s safety or that of his family,” Veitch said.

“As no crime occurred regarding the email, there is no active case to investigate. There is a case report on file with the police department for documentation purposes.”

Kim said the release of the video violates the city police’s policy to not use body cameras “to record conversations between employees without their knowledge during routine, non-emergency activities.”

On Monday, Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino said he disagrees with Kim’s interpretation.

“I am at a loss to understand why you chose to cite this provision,” Montagnino said.

“The encounter began with Ron’s loud and repeated banging on the glass of my office door. … It is likely that the noise of the banging was the reason for the activation of the body cam. Ergo, as the camera was not activated