To put it lightly, the February 8 City Council meeting was contentious. It’s no secret that Mayor Doug French and Councilman Joe Sack have not seen eye-to-eye, but the vitriol bubbled over Wednesday evening as the two Republicans traded verbal blows.

 

To put it lightly, the February 8 City Council meeting was contentious. It’s no secret that Mayor Doug French and Councilman Joe Sack have not seen eye-to-eye, but the vitriol bubbled over Wednesday evening as the two Republicans traded verbal blows.

 

Their remarks, aimed squarely at one another, were the result of the decision leveled recently by the Board of Ethics, which determined the Mayor did not receive preferential treatment as it related to building violations at his 13 Richard Place property and the improper STAR exemption he collected for the residence. The complaints were originally brought to light by Hen Island provocateur Ray Tartaglione.

 

On Friday, Mayor French e-mailed the following to The Rye Record:

 

“There was a clash of philosophies the other night at the Council meeting. Joe was a regular critic of the last administration under Mayor Otis and that has carried through to this administration – and criticism is welcomed. But he continues to take it to a level that questions the integrity of the people he works with who are simply trying to get things accomplished; the people who work at City Hall and those that serve on this board. And he has taken it to the degree in his comments, letters to the editor, and Council communications over the years that assumes that people have the wrong motives – comments that parrot much of the ones made by the regular critics of our City for the past four years.”  

 

He continued, “Rye is too small of a community to have that kind of destructive discourse to the point that we are unable to pursue the real important business at hand; like flooding, infrastructure, and fiscal matters. Our management and administrative employees are spending hour upon hour wasting time and tax dollars responding to issues of a very vocal minority.  We had gotten past that last year, but now it is again being supported. The City is moving forward to work together and put the interests of Rye first. I hope everyone joins us.”

 

When reached for a reply, Councilman Sack responded, “My reputation speaks for itself. I was just re-elected by a large majority of Rye voters because of my reputation. The Mayor’s comments are beneath the office of the Mayor.”

 

— Jim Byrne