“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” – Supreme Court Justice Brandeis
For too many years the City of Plattsburgh’s Police Department has been plagued with an undercurrent of manipulation and deceit, which has bled into the current political landscape. In my tenure as Mayor, I’ve taken numerous steps to expose and remove this malignancy but despite this effort more work is required and I refuse to sit silent and pass this problem to the next administration. Our residents deserve transparency and the truth. To be clear, I am not referring to traditional political speech, well protected by the first-amendment. Rather, this involves a years-long campaign by former and current City Officials who seem willing to take any actions they deem necessary to accomplish their own goals, regardless of the collateral damage it causes to good employees or the City as a whole. It must stop and the first step is to shine a light on the problem and the second step will be for this Council, which I’m requesting, to pursue a formal investigation. Despite substantial progress in driving out exploitative influences, it is clear the problem has not been solved. This is evidenced by recent actions taken by a vocal member of their contingent. On September 8, 2024, Councilor Gibbs sent an email titled “some information regarding the pd that you need to know” to the other five members of the Common Council making fantastical claims of wrongdoing, suggestions of coercion, assertions of burying discipline for personal gain, and retaliation against “oppositional” members of the police department. For context on its timing, this email was sent shortly after the Council was advised that Lieutenant Trombley had been placed on an administrative suspension. Among other claims, this targeted email goes on to make claims that the charges levied against former Lt. Trombley were intentionally fabricated and exaggerated. Neither myself or Corporation Counsel were included in this email nor were we asked to provide additional information or clarification on these claims by any of the recipients. Her email contains unfounded, fabricated, and defamatory claims against current and former members of the police department as well as allegations that former members of the Council hid information pertaining to departmental matters.
Although Councilor Gibbs represents her email as fact there’s been no evidence provided other than anecdote and innuendo. As will be set forth below, her sources for this defamatory “information” are apparent. Because these claims allege wrongdoing and illegal activity, and based on additional information uncovered during the Trombley separation, I’m calling on this Council to authorize and pursue a formal investigation pursuant to Charter Section C3-8(1). That effort will show what little truth is behind these troubling allegations and should finally shine light on this multi-year and ongoing campaign of manipulation, primarily focused on the police department. Plattsburgh residents and its police department deserve the truth and this investigation will accomplish that goal. I have nothing to hide to be confirmed by this Council investigation
ORIGINS OF TROMBLEY INVESTIGATION AND FURTHER DISCOVERIES
On April 20th, 2024, six months after Chief Nathan “Bud” York’s tenure ended, Councilor Gibbs spontaneously submitted an email demanding information on travel reimbursements made to the former Chief and questioned whether the Chief was provided a City vehicle. The intentions of this inquiry into Chief York’s vehicle assigned vehicle was misplaced as Section 406 of our Employee Handbook’s Fleet Safety Policy, provides that “the Mayor may authorize specific employees to bring their City vehicle to their residence in order to expedite emergency/off-hour calls for service.” In this case, that authorization was provided by my office as it has been for leadership in this and other departments where deemed necessary. However, while researching that inquiry we discovered aberrant behavior associated with the City vehicle assigned to former Lt. Trombley. GPS data confirmed this behavior included driving around the City without a clear assignment and parking at clearly “personal” locations: behind buildings, at friends, and political candidates houses for hours at a time, all while he was on-duty. Initiated by a review of this GPS information, Trombley’s city-issued cell phone was also analyzed and these records confirmed and corroborated that former Trombley spent an egregious amount of time on the City’s phone, again while on duty, making personal calls unrelated to police business. With so much time being spent on seemingly “personal business”, this led to a review of Trombley’s outstanding case files, which disturbingly confirmed a lack of any reasonable investigation effort for at least 16 serious cases. Based on this information, Trombley was served with disciplinary charges. Despite receiving a detailed description of this conduct, Councilor Gibbs’ September 8th email seeks to recast the discipline pursued against Trombley as “an innocent man targeted for termination”. Notwithstanding her efforts, and the fact that, within days Trombley signed a settlement agreement admitting neglect of duty and quickly retired, it is important to correct the record.
For one additional point, even after the entire Council was advised of the specific charges against Trombley, and even after he accepted responsibility for his admitted neglect of duties and retired, Councilors Baughn and Moore, and many of the other collaborators attended a “private” celebration of retirement party for Trombley. Following that event, Councilor Gibbs wrote the following message on facebook: “Congratulations to a superior human being, a fantastic officer, and a dedicated public servant. Only good days ahead from now on, my friends. We love you, Jarrod. <3”. Over 17 pages of City phone records clearly show flagrant disregard for his official duties while using this City owned property. This includes spending hours on the day on the phone to his wife, Mayoral Candidate Wendell Hughes, and among other personal communications, exchanging thousands of text messages with these same individuals and subordinate employees with no proper public purpose. The cell-phone used by Trombley for years is City property and upon his separation from the City the cell-phone was professionally analyzed. This information has numerous highly disturbing and completely inappropriate communications. Some of which are the basis for additional disciplinary charges and should be subject to a formal investigation. The information about additional discipline and disturbing content was obtained by my office in my official capacity which also deems it obtained confidentially. Under those circumstances, I cannot in good conscience simply release this content. However, I’m directly inviting the Council, through its investigatory subpoena power set forth in the City Charter, to demand and then review these additional communications for themselves. I too am exploring options for releasing this information in the appropriate way and I encourage the press or other interested parties to FOIL additional factual information.
DURING MY TENURE
However upsetting these events may be, it is important to place them in a larger context to show this is part of an ongoing pattern. When I took office as Mayor on January 1st, 2021 the process for former Chief Ritter’s separation was being finalized. Although categorized as my administration’s inability to secure a permanent chief, at the time I took office, the City PD department experienced a revolving door of police chiefs; first Parkinson, then Ritter. At the time I took office, the department was being run by then part-time by Captain Brad Kiroy without the support of any additional management staff. I recognized at the outset of my Mayoral term that a permanent police chief was long-overdue. I saw a demoralized police force who was well aware that there were two established “teams” within the department and outside influences impact department operations. One “team” was being controlled by former employees and political loyalists, who required a variety of loyalty tests; and the other “team” was composed of officers who simply wanted their good, dedicated service to speak for itself such that career advancements were based on skill and performance. From my perspective, a strong, independent chief would be able to right this ship.
In the Fall of 2021, I formed an independent search committee of local leaders closely involved in issues of public safety and community policing to search for a permanent Police Chief. Upon the Council’s rejection of the initial “outside” chief candidate recommended by the search committee the City was fortuitous enough to be introduced to Nathan “Bud” York. That is, after the failed Chief appointment of Cpt. Manley, several brave (and fed-up) city employees requested an opportunity to express their concerns under the protection of the City’s whistleblower policy. This process initiated the hiring of Chief York, a former NYS Bureau of Criminal Investigation officer and former Warren County Sheriff. Mr. York was initially brought on to help investigate, ferret out, and extinguish this subversive influence. within the department. But during one of our first interactions, he offered his services as Police Chief. I quickly advocated for this hiring because it was an opportune solution where he would be able to investigate and terminate this untoward influence and also provide his wealth of experience to overhaul and improve the department as its Chief. While his appointment was approved in February of 2022 (4-1-1), unsurprisingly, Councilor Gibbs was the sole negative vote.
Following York’s appointment, in addition to performing his duties as Chief, he followed up with claims provided to him from the whistleblowers report and documented and confirmed this outside influence and manipulation campaign. Chief York’s investigation confirmed the years-long influence and manipulation campaign and included a number of concerning communications between Councilor Gibbs and former Chief Desmond Racicot; and emails providing Councilor Gibbs questions and mechanisms to question Chief Ritter’s integrity and performance. These email exchanges were not isolated and have been ongoing. More recently, emails from Councilor Gibbs asking Mr. Racicot and former Mayor Jim Calnon for support and direction on how to subvert the Harborside Hotel project. The claims of manipulation and subversion by Gibbs and Racicot were also topics of discussion and concern by many of the whistleblowers who provided statements to my office and the City’s legal counsel.
Turning back to Ritter: With information and strategies likely provided by the same “shadow” contingent, Councilor Gibbs aggressively pushed former Mayor Read in her capacity as Councilor to pursue disciplinary charges in pursuit of ousting Ritter. On one of his last days in office, Mr. Read apparently relented and placed Ritter on administrative leave. When faced with the option of disciplinary charges versus retirement, Ritter chose retirement. With this information, a clear pattern emerges in which Councilor Gibbs will attack members of this department with information only provided to her which is more often than not exaggerated if not completely fabricated yet presented as the truth. Even now while the City is obligated by Civil Service law and is in critical need of a Chief of Police, Councilor Gibbs’, and her political cohort’s efforts to interfere and undermine the executive functions of this office and the Police department remains today, as it has occurred several times over the past few years of my tenure and years leading up to me taking office.
When viewed under this lens, the inability of the City to attract, appoint and retain a long-standing police chief makes more sense.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST MY OFFICE
Early in my tenure as Mayor, after having exposure and a better understanding of underlying intentions, I personally instructed Mr. Racicot to disassociate himself from City Hall. Shortly thereafter, I was publicly accused by Councilor Gibbs of “pointing my finger” towards her in a demeaning manner and have since faced numerous defamatory character attacks and unfounded accusations. Despite being subject to these unprovoked attacks I’ve, on numerous occasions, invited Ms. Gibbs to professional mediation, counseling, and to explore any other communication strategy to re-establish our working relationship for the benefit of our City. Councilor Gibbs never accepted these offers and frankly refused to communicate with me in any meaningful way, unless it was a short interaction on the Council floor, or by lobbing additional insults via the media or via covert communications. Despite my best efforts to foster a working relationship, I accepted her unwillingness to communicate meaningfully with myself or my office. The communication ceased but the attacks did not. Turning back to Ms. Gibbs’ September 8th email, she accused me of corruptly abusing my office. I will not allow that defamatory accusation to go unanswered because it is demonstrably false. Suggestions of such illegalities require investigation. In her email, she alleges that I had a pre-existing business relationship with Mr. Kiroy which corrupted my supervision of the police department and the chief selection process. To correct these accusations, my nominal personal relationship with Mr. Kiroy started after Chief York was installed in mid February 2022. Hiring Mr. Kiroy for flight training started at the end of February 2022, not during the time of Mr. Kiroy’s employment as falsely alleged by Ms. Gibbs. Ms. Gibbs’ email also alleges claims of retaliation against officers who publicly advocated for Trombley’s appointment for Chief during the December of 2021 Council meeting. Under a strict application of these Officers’ codes of conduct, such public political statements were improper, but there were no disciplinary charges pursued for these statements. Regardless, this provides another example of more disinformation intended to call my and other’s actions into question. As Ms. Gibbs is well aware, one former officer who was separated from City’s employment was done so following a review of caseloads initiated by Chief York and showed a clear pattern of incompetence and dereliction of duty. Another officer took a promotion with another department. And the third officer who made a public statement resigned and remains in good standing in the department.
When it comes to accusations of burying discipline or retaliating against supposed oppositional members of the department of the public for personal gain, again, Ms. Gibbs relies on miscategorizations and misinformation. This brings us back to my original goal: the Council should call for a formal investigation of Ms. Gibbs’ September 8th email, including its content, its sources, as well as any statement made in this document. Such an investigation will make it abundantly clear that this “shadow” contingent still persists and is actively engaged in conduct to undermine the fair and hardworking employees of the City. These and other falsehoods are intentionally being spread to introduce even the smallest amount of question of personal and professional integrity. To conclude, rather than sending a covert memo excluding those who can shed light on these accusations, I choose full transparency in the public view along with calls of a formal investigation to expose the truth. As the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Plattsburgh, let this publicly shared memo and my affixed signature serve as proof that the statements I make are indeed factual and backed up with evidence. Again, if there is any dispute as to the contents of this memo, or the veracity of Councilor Gibbs’ September 8th email, the Council should feel the full burden of their status as elected officials to launch an investigation into all claims made into ALL statements of wrongdoing.
Respectfully,
Christopher Rosenquest Mayor
City of Plattsburgh