OGDENSBURG -- A city councilor says that the controversy around a Knox Street property was turned into a "circus" due to a lack of leadership by Mayor William Nelson.

In a long and detailed statement, Councilor Nick Vaugh, in an attempt to lay out the circumstances of the controversy, says several people in city administration prolonged the improper occupation of a city-owned property at 819 Knox Street and mishandled their responsibilities.

Vaugh's statement follows:

Statement in regards to 819 Knox Street, Main Street Program, & the lead up to the City Attorney's Investigatory Report

Collectively, the entire City Council knows Justin Woods is lying about what he knows is the truth behind the directives from the City Manager in regards to the NSP housing program and the Main Street Program. On June (27th), the City Manager met in executive session with the entire City Council present along with the City Attorney, and told us that he had been directing Justin Woods not to expand the Marina District Main Street Program and had also directed him over several weeks to cease and desist with the Main Street grant to the Wade family. The City Manager told us in this session that he could not get Justin Woods to follow orders. City Council indicated that this insubordination, along with other instances of insubordination, were clearly grounds to terminate Justin Woods.

It was clear in this June 27th executive session that the City Manager had extreme displeasure with Justin Woods' insubordination. City Manager clearly did not approve or agree with Justin Woods' actions with regard to the Main Street Program. In Justin Woods' written remarks, which were read at the October 11th City Council meeting, he claimed that the City Manager did approve his actions and accuses him of lying. I know, as does the rest of City Council, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and the City Attorney know, that the City Manager never agreed or approved Justin’s actions but instead intended to terminate him with the City Council's blessing, for his gross insubordination. The entire City Council agreed, including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, that Justin Woods had to go. Also during this executive session, the City Council asked the City Manager to investigate and bring resolution back to us, in terms of the events surrounding the matter of 819 Knox Street.

At our City Council meeting July 11th, I asked the City Manager during the public session for an update in regards to the Main Street Program. The City Manager stated this had personnel implications, so we went into executive session. In the executive session we discussed 819 Knox Street and the Main Street program with respect to Justin Woods. The City Manager stated that he was continuing to see that Justin Woods was not obeying his directive to cease and desist with the Main Street Program. The City Manager pointed out that he had to remind Justin Woods that regardless of the fact that the Main Street Program is a Growth Fund project, Justin Woods still worked for him, as the City Manager was the CEO over all city departments and agencies. Once again the City Manager ordered Justin Woods to stop. The City Manager also stated that he was attempting to secure an extension of time for the Main Street Program funds, which was obtained in August. The City Manager stated he had also reviewed the 819 Knox Street matter, met with Jim O'Neil and Jen Ashley, along with Kathy Bouchard, and determined that several staff members had been involved with the matter of 819 Knox Street, including City Comptroller Cosmo, City Planner Woods, then City Attorney Wears and acting City Attorney Gebo. Then City Attorney Wears advised in a July 7, 2008 memo that Phil Cosmo had the ability and was in control of the bankruptcy proceeding of 819 Knox Street. Phil Cosmo as our Chief Financial Officer told the Burke family that the City was not in the rental business. However, according to the Burke family, Phil Cosmo never told them to get out. And an important point to be made is that Phil Cosmo never recommended or initiated an eviction.

At that time, the City Manager stated that it appeared that the matter had fallen through the cracks, but that he took responsibility for the matter. The City Council then directed the City Manager to get the matter resolved. City Council was satisfied that this matter had not been handled correctly and wanted the City Manager to get it straightened out. The City Manager was working to do this when the whole matter was brought out in the open by the Ogdensburg Journal in August. Also in the July 11th executive session, the City Council asked the City Manager when he planned to fire Justin Woods. The City Manager informed us he had received a memo from Justin Woods dated July 11th indicating he was planning to leave. The City Manager then stated if Justin Woods did not resign in a meeting scheduled for August, he would then fire him. The City Manager also stated he preferred that Justin Woods would resign. Following the June & July meetings, the City Manager shared with me and is also documented in the Ogdensburg Journal, that the Mayor attempted to pressure the City Manager to not terminate Justin Woods until after election petition submission period for Mayor was completed.

When the media coverage of 819 Knox Street occurred in August, and the Mayor personally made the decision to call for an investigation, I wrote an email (see below) to the entire City Council on August 22nd stating that the City Council had already given the City Manager direction to resolve the matter.

"Documents pertaining to the City's Main Street program have no purpose in the current review of 819 Knox Street. I will remind you all, that three meetings ago we sat in executive session discussing 819 Knox Street and we agreed that the City Manager would bring final resolution of the situation to the council for approval. Let our City Manager do the job we asked him to do. There was never any blame made on anyone. During that executive session we advised the City Manager of our displeasure with the City Planner on numerous issues. We unanimously agreed that it was time for him to go and that final decision was the City Manager's. So we fast forward to today. The City Planner has used 819 Knox Street as a smokescreen to divide the Council (sending his email to select members) in an attempt to save his job. I'm not going to let him manipulate us, distort the truth, and ruin the progress we have made over the last four years. We can get all the information in regards to 819 Knox Street, however its already clear based on emails we have seen either first hand or second hand (as I have), that the City Planner created this problem, and furthermore, it should not come at anyone's surprise based upon his past cases of abuse."

In his statement to the City Council on on October 11th, Justin Woods again asserts that the City Manager knew about his activities with the Main Street Program, that he agreed and approved. This is clearly not the case, Justin Woods knows that the City Manager never agreed to permit this allocation of grant funds to the Wade family. In fact, the City Manager issued a memo to the Justin Woods on July 28th indicating he was removing the City Planner's authority to encumber or expend any funds, previous to the memo or after the memo in order to shut down his attempt to disobey the City Manager's direct orders of which City Council had been apprised of back in June. Clearly, Justin Woods is not telling the truth. Also on October 11th, Justin Woods claims that the City Manager approved of his action to allow the 819 Knox Street occupants to remain in the property, while emails indicate that the City Manager had directed Justin Woods to secure a lease for anyone who was in city owned property. Clearly the City Manager was not in agreement.

Justin Woods' August 16th email (see below) along with his October 11th statement lists four reasons that he wanted the 819 Knox Street family to be in the property, even though it was contrary to the direction of the City Manager and policy set by City Council. Justin Woods’ August 16th email was sent to four members of the City Council, blind copied the editor of the Ogdensburg Journal, several candidates for city council, and county officials.

"The reasons for letting them stay include: 1) It let the family that was paying rent to the previous owner and working with us to buy the house, stay in their home, 2) It prevented us from triggering URA Regulations and having to pay their rent (while still making sure that the taxes were paid), 3) It allowed a very poor family to save money to pay their own closing costs, and 4) It kept a presence in the home, protecting our investment – All of the other NSP properties were broken into and vandalized, causing damage that had to be corrected with grant funds and resulting in us installing home alarms in rehabbed homes."

Further admission of guilt was seen in Justin Woods' October 11th public statement to the City Council in which he stated, "You may not agree with all the policy decisions we made, or with the compassionate, social justice, activist philosophy I bring to public administration..." I, along with others, certainly had no knowledge of this credo until his statement that evening.

Because of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor's actions we have not been able to have a rational discussion of this matter. Remember, this C-14 Investigation was intended to review the circumstances of the proposed sales of 819 Knox Street & 2 Grove Street to determine whether or not city policy has been followed for the sale of NSP properties. Many questions must be answered, including why our CFO failed to act on this property early on as our attorney clearly stated in 2008. Going back to June and July, the City Manager briefed the City Council on the Main Street Program and the matter of 819 Knox Street. Along with this, we were informed of the serious personnel issues with Justin Woods. It is clear that Justin Woods has misled the City Council and the public when it comes to the City’s Main Street Program and 819 Knox Street. Now that it is clear regarding Justin Woods' intentions and his deceit, what is most disturbing is that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor knew all of this too. They now claim they were not informed and now support what they know is not true. Furthermore, this whole matter could have been handled without this public circus if the Mayor had demonstrated some sort of leadership. Unfortunately, the Mayor has permitted and participated in this circus, all in his desperate and miscalculated attempt for political gain.