The unsigned draft has generated considerable discussion—during the special meeting of September 15th when Mayor Smith decided, on his own, to release a confidential unsigned draft, at the September 18th City Council meeting, in the media, online and among city residents.
As a City Councilwoman who is also a mayoral candidate, I believe the manner in which this draft is being exploited is a textbook example of dirty politics.
As I stated in a prior post (The Unsigned Draft), I supported the purchase of the Watertown Golf Club because it makes sense for the City to own this property, and the City was purchasing it at a fair price.
If the former owner of the golf course negotiated a deal with another businessman to make the sale meet his needs, that is between those two businessmen. Any possible agreement between them has no bearing on the value of the property the City purchased. Additionally, the business between two businessmen is not my business as a government official, or as a city resident. Even former City Attorney Bob Slye said the draft was irrelevant.
There are, however, government officials who I believe have made this their business—for the purpose of damaging my campaign. How else can the timing of the draft’s appearance be explained?
December 2022: Former City Attorney Robert Slye inadvertently receives the draft; responds to Watertown Golf Club Attorney Mike Young as he is ethically bound to do; recognized he should not have received it; and agreed to keep the document confidential and not discuss it with his former client (the City).
May 2023: City Attorney H. Todd Bullard (former interim City Attorney) received the confidential draft from former Attorney Slye.
August 21, 2023: Mayor Smith receives the confidential draft from Attorney Bullard, and the draft is discussed in executive session that evening. A decision was made to send letters of inquiry to the two businessmen named in the unsigned draft.
September 5, 2023: City Council entered executive session for further discussion which produced more questions.
September 15, 2023: Mayor Smith decides to, without any authorization from City Council, proceed to share this confidential draft with the public online, and via radio, television, and newspapers. He did so even after Attorney Bullard received two letters from Attorney Young threatening potential ethics violations and litigation.
With permission from Attorney Young, two letters are attached that he sent to Attorney Bullard. These documents offer more of the details of this confidentiality breach—as well as Attorney Young’s belief that the timing of this draft’s appearance indicates this is “nothing more than a poorly disguised political ploy by Mayor Smith and Ms. Compo to attempt to use this irrelevant matter to advance Ms. Compo's mayoral campaign and attempt to discredit Ms. Ruggiero in that campaign.”
I agree with Attorney Young and that ploy couldn’t be more obvious. The correct protocol for an attorney when they receive something in error is to notify the other party and then either send the materials back to the sender or destroy the materials. Attorney Slye did neither. He held onto this draft that he admitted he shouldn’t have received and promised to keep it confidential. Attorney Slye, who is now Supreme Court Judge James McClusky’s law clerk, decides to share this draft with Attorney Bullard in May 2023. Attorney Bullard decides to withhold this information from the Mayor and City Council for 3 months. Attorney Bullard waits until the end of August to disclose this draft. Why?
On August 21st, there were depositions scheduled at City Hall and PJ Simao was to be deposed. As explained in detail in the attached document (Letter to Bullard 8-29-23), the depositions never took place. But Attorney Bullard decides to share the draft with the Mayor since both were at City Hall for a good part of the day.
Was Attorney Bullard planning to ask Mr. Simao about this draft while deposed, because there were no depositions. Did Attorney Bullard believe now was the time to reveal this draft? It’s been said that Attorney Slye told Attorney Bullard he might have a use for the draft. Was it to use against certain Council members? Many questions remain.
I even asked Attorney Bullard to forward the email he supposedly received from Attorney Slye containing this draft since Attorney Bullard says he got it from Attorney Slye by email. To date, Attorney Bullard has refused to provide that email. Why is that? Is he protecting Attorney Slye? Does he not want Attorney Slye’s message to be made public?
Attorney Bullard claims he wasn’t interfering with the election, yet he continues to keep this email secret. There is certainly more to this, and because Mayor Smith just had to quickly reveal this draft, he may very well cause the City to be involved in litigation.
In fact, Mayor Smith ran to a radio station at 5pm right after he revealed the draft at City Hall. He went into great detail on the air for almost one hour and said several times that elections have consequences and how there was an election coming. For Mayor Smith, it was all about politics and he is willing to do anything to get his protege, my opponent, elected. He puts politics above the City and has been a very negative devisive person.
My opponent supported making this public before we had all the answers. Why? Because this truly was a political move to help her campaign and she went along with the Mayor, as usual. Again, she and Mayor Smith put politics number one over the City’s needs. Is that what Watertown deserves in a Mayor?