Editor, The Smithfield Times:

While the optics are bad, it is unfair to assume that Mayor Steve Bowman’s intentions were nefarious. My personal belief is that they were not. 

I think his biggest mistake, supported by council members, was the plan to withhold information long enough to control the narrative. Had the council been overly transparent from the beginning and let the constituents make up our own minds, this level of mistrust would not exist.  Smithfield may be a small town, but we are not living in a Hallmark movie where we blindly trust anyone, including our beloved mayor. If what the whistleblower disclosed is the truth, and it sounds like it was, then I applaud them. 

It was shameful to see the council gathering pitchforks and torches to attack the “leaker” who distributed information to taxpayers. Their loyalty should be to the citizens who elected them, not to one another.

 

Angela Cusick

Smithfield