COPIED FROM TIMES UNION

TROY — The City of Rensselaer is preparing to sue the city school district over accusations that the district has not paid its share of a city-provided school resource officer’s salary for almost a decade.

City attorney Ian Silverman claims Rensselaer has footed $258,616.29 of what the school district should have contributed to the officer’s salary over the past eight years. The hiring agreement automatically renews every year unless either organization opts out or requests a change to the contract.

The agreement has been in place since 2016 and stipulates that “the cost of the SRO Program shall be paid by the parties as set forth in Exhibit A.” Superintendent Joseph Kardash said “no one” can find the referenced exhibit to calculate the total school resource officer fees owed. It’s unclear how organizations were supposed to split the salary costs. Kardash said the contract has not changed since it was put into place.

Last week, the city’s Common Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor John DeFrancesco to pursue litigation to recover funds owed for the 2018 to 2026 school years.

Silverman said he may file a lawsuit by the end of this week, seeking $517,232.58 in restitution. He said that figure — which is higher than the amount he said the city is owed — takes interest into account and is being pursued under a legal theory known as quantum meruit.

“Unless something happens in the next several days where the school district pays us, we likely will initiate litigation,” Silverman said in a Tuesday interview.

DeFrancesco, who took office in January, said he believed the agreement has been favorable to the school district. DeFrancesco said he is not going to kick the issue down the road.

“It seems like the school is trying to do is just let us roll into another year and add another year to the pile,” DeFrancesco said.

Asked about the payments, Kardash said the school district “went a number of years without being invoiced.” Kardash said that when the missing invoices were brought to the district’s attention in 2024, the city began sending bills that would not have passed the school’s audit process, as timesheets for the officer and documentation for “Exhibit A” were missing. As a result, the invoices, which Kardash said were improperly dated, were not paid.

“Since then, there’s been a bit of a back-and-forth stalemate on that to try to get the paperwork correct,” Kardash said.

In a June 11, 2026, letter Kardash sent to DeFrancesco and provided to the Times Union, he contended the city owes the school district $430, 290.51 in taxes. During a Wednesday interview, Kardash could not recall exactly which years the city purportedly owes the taxes, but claimed it stretches back to before he became superintendent in 2018.

According to Kardash, the city used to collect school taxes and then transfer the collected funds to the district. But now, Kardash said, the school directly collects taxes while the city handles overdue collections.

DeFrancesco disputed that the city owed the district any taxes.

“We do not owe them a cent,” DeFrancesco said.

Kardash’s letter outlines other grievances against the city. He claimed the city stopped servicing a sewage pit and pumps in 2022, which cost the district more than $25,000; charged residents excessive fees for overdue taxes in 2024 and 2025; and, most recently, stopped providing the district with salt to keep its roads safe in the winter.

In the letter, Kardash proposed that the district and city “do a full reset” to facilitate the two organizations’ relationship, writing that the district is willing to forgive the amount of taxes owed, not pursue legal action “for documented unlawful late tax fees,” and negotiate and sign a new school resource officer contract. 

But his proposal was contingent on whether the city would forgive the outstanding school resource officer payments, provide a lawful fee calculation for back taxes, resume sewage maintenance, continue to maintain the road and fence line of Van Rensselaer Drive, and resume providing salt in the winter.

Kardash said he wants to resolve the matters without going to court.

“It sounds like our hand is going to be forced,” Kardash said.