In response to Mr. Rosenquest’s 6-page manifesto, please accept this as my official response:
“The timing of Mr. Rosenquest’s 6-page manifesto to the media is all about timing: early voting for the City of Plattsburgh Mayor begins tomorrow, Oct. 26, 2024.
By making claims and accusations of wrong-doing against Councilors who support the candidate who won the Democratic Primary in June–and even suggesting a nefarious connection between retired Lieutenant Jarrod Trombley and that same candidate–Mr. Rosenquest seeks only to further his vendettas and abuse the power of his office to do so. He wants to harm Wendell Hughes’ candidacy for his own benefit.
I have been the most vocal, fierce, and unrelenting critic of Mr. Rosenquest during his entire administration. He has proven over and over that he will bear a grudge and hurt anyone who gets in the way.
Let’s start in reverse: the Sept. 8th email Mr. Rosenquest references was addressed to Council to provide context and truth to what happened in the Executive Session where we discussed a matter of employment. There is no expectation of privacy on City email. Therefore, communicating on that platform is open government. If I had wanted to hide my communication, I would have done so on private email or text messages.
What happened in that Executive Session was a confidential matter. In his manifesto today, Mr. Rosenquest violates the confidential nature of the meeting, reveals confidential elements of Mr. Trombley’s settlement, and attempts to draw a nefarious relationship between Lieutenant Trombley and Mayoral Candidate Wendell Hughes.
In that Executive Session, I asked Chief Mitchell one simple question: at any time, did you direct Lieutenant Trombley to stop doing these things. Chief Mitchell’s response was clear: no, he never did.
Mr. Rosenquest goes on to vilify retired Chief Racicot and make ridiculous claims of a nefarious relationship that was formed. Let’s set the record straight on that, too.
In 2019, then Mayor Colin Read invited Chief Racicot to become a consultant for Public Safety. Mayor Read held many meetings, inviting Chief Racicot to advise on police, fire, and code enforcement matters. His involvement helped provide real solutions for the problems and even helped shape the rental registry law that was passed later. When the Butchino incident became public in 2020, Chief Racicot was asked to advise by Mayor Read. But let’s be clear: the incident happened, Chief Racicot was not in charge of the police department at the time, and the officers involved were disciplined. Chief Ritter’s removal was not a witch hunt: what I brought to the Council in 2020 as concerns were NOT fabricated. They were met with a unanimous vote from every Councilor present to conduct the investigation. The investigation happened and action was taken.
Mr. Rosenquest also received advice from Chief Racicot during the early part of his tenure. But, Mr. Rosenquest doesn’t want the public to know any of those facts.
Another lie Mr. Rosenquest makes in his manifesto is his statement about trying to mend our working relationship following a very public confrontation, to which Councilor Jeff Moore was witness. That confrontation happened exactly as I stated in 2021. His attempt to wave the incident away as trivial or small does not hold up to the facts: putting his finger in my face, using the ‘f’ word repeatedly, and yelling at me because I was asking for budgetary information that he refused to supply. After that, we were supposed to have a mediator work with us, to which I only agreed if the meeting would be recorded. The individual who was supposed to do that for us would not participate if it were recorded. He offered to find another mediator to do that work but never followed through.
I have defeated Mr. Rosenquest in the Democratic Primary, which clearly has eaten at him, and I have continued to be an outspoken critic. He takes aim at me as another way to silence me and–by association–derail Wendell Hughes’s campaign. I am confident the public will see this for what it is: a carefully timed attack to derail Wendell Hughes’s campagin to favor Don Kasprzak.”
Thank you,
Elizabeth Gibbs