Councillors to the rescue.
My suspicions were now confirmed, and I had clear evidence of dishonesty at the Senior Center which was jeopardizing the health and safety of patrons.
I couldn't be sure that this was just a single bad apple in the barrel, since the person carrying out this disgraceful conduct appeared not to fear any repercussions. Perhaps there were other employees within the city administration who had promised to help cover up the abuse.
To make sure this dangerous situation could be brought to the attention of the concerned public without further delay, I drew up a complaint addressed to our elected councillors. Since they were ordinary citizens like myself, I felt they would be less likely to be susceptible to threats and inducements offered by corrupt colleagues and managers, if these were present among the administrative staff of the city.
(If you open any of the following documents, just click the 'back' arrow in the top left of the frame to return to this page.)
I wrote a covering note addressed to all the councillors, which you can read here.
Since I knew that a couple of councillors sometimes attended the Senior Center in person, and might therefore be exposed to danger before they could read my report if its delivery were subject to normal administrative delays, I also wrote a letter to Jac Siegel, the deputy mayor, which you can read here, and one to John Inks, which you can read here.
The letters to Jac and John were in separate envelopes, addressed to each individually.
In each envelope, I enclosed a copy of the complaint, the full text of which you can read here.
I delivered these by hand to the office of the City Manager on February 16.
The Code of Conduct of the City specifies three options for handling a written communication addressed to the City Council. The City Clerk must either (a) forward it to the Council with their agenda packet, or (b) place it on an agenda with or without a staff report, or (c) directly respond to the citizen with a copy of the communication and staff letter to the Council.
Well, that seemed clear enough. I waited for three weeks, and by March 8, I had received this in response.
That's right. On that page you can read for yourself exactly what I received by way of response. (These people actually receive a salary for their sterling work on our behalf, by the way.)