(The mayor's full letter can be read at the bottom of this article.)

NORWICH – The City of Norwich Mayor’s Office responded to recent stories published by The Evening Sun Friday, issuing a scathing 4-page letter through the city’s social media website.

The condemnation comes after recent stories about an overturned cat-feeding ban and revelations of a state audit.

Mayor Christine Carnrike publicly thanked The Evening Sun for its coverage at a public hearing on Tuesday, saying it helped get the public’s attention over a proposed law the would have fined people for feeding stray cats. The ban, for which the mayor had voiced support, was defeated by a strong public response that included more than 30 public speakers making critical statements of the law.

On Friday however, the mayor issued a letter of condemnation over the paper’s coverage saying she was above reproach. The mayor’s full letter can be found at the bottom of this article.

It is not the first time the mayor has sought to single out The Evening Sun or its staff. She has previously publicly insulted, criticized and complimented the newspaper and its staff at public meetings, depending on her approval of the current coverage.

Though Friday set a new precedent: for the first-time City of Norwich resources were used to openly discredit the newspaper and its staff.

Though the mayor made several claims in the letter she did not point out any errors of fact in the previous stories, nor did the city respond to an opportunity to correct any errors when offered the opportunity last week.

In the letter Carnrike also discussed previously unknown details from recent investigations relating to the city.

Investigation of

HR director

In June 2018 the city accepted the resignation of its human resource director after launching an investigation. The investigation, along with the concerns and costs that led to her ultimate resignation, was never revealed by the city.

An information request filed with the city in summer of 2018 was returned with the city saying it kept no financial records of the investigation and it had no final report. Though on Friday the mayor said the investigator had not billed the city for more than 8 hours of work.

On Friday Carnrike said the investigation was conducted by someone from outside Chenango County with experience and expertise in the area of Civil Service.

“The condition of the HR Department warranted an outside review. During the time of paid administrative leave, the city’s HR director found employment in the private sector and vacated the position in early June 2018,” she said.

The mayor said the city has been under audit since fall 2018. She confirmed her office had issued an email advising city employees to keep quiet about the audit.

She said one of the reasons the state was auditing Norwich was in order to better understand how great a job the mayor was doing.

“The dramatic change from a negative to a positive in such a short period speaks well of the City under my time in office and perhaps contributed to a visit by the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Office to find out what we did to make such a positive change for the good of the City of Norwich.”

At contention are several unresolved stories the newspaper has been following since 2018, which were brought back into the spotlight by the recent revelation that the city is under audit by the New York Comptroller’s Office.

Off-the-books water for private employer

“No More Free City Water For Mayor’s Private Employer After Public Outcry,” was a headline of a story The Evening Sun published on July 20, 2018, which was the last time the city offered any information on the subject.

At the time Carnrike was forced to admit the existence of an undisclosed and informal agreement with her private employer, Burrell’s Excavating, that gave the company access to city water at no charge. The mayor said the employer ended the deal, not the city, after the paper ran a story and members of the public complained.

Carnrike is full-time employee of the company. At the summer public meeting the mayor said she had chosen to continue to offer her employer, which is based outside of city limits, free water as part of an established “handshake agreement” made years earlier by an employee who no longer worked for the city.

At the July council meeting some members said they had never been told about the agreement, and the city attorney was not notified about it.

Carnrike admitted her employer had been receiving free water and attributed it to an on-going, handshake agreement that was in place when Carl Ivarson was public works superintendent––an agreement that Ivarson said in July “...absolutely never happened.”

Carnrike took office January 1, 2016 and the undocumented agreement allowed the company access to free water until July 2018.

Carnrike said Burrell’s was only allowed to fill up a tank of untreated water in exchange for other unknown services to the city. The city has said the company now pays for the water.

When The Evening Sun requested paperwork over the agreement officials said there was none. Though the city did not keep track, officials would not say if the company had recorded the amount of water it was taking or if the city had requested that information. The city still has no public estimate of the usage or offered any further explanation since the July public meeting.

Acting DPW Superintendent charged by DEC

Another issue the mayor has complained about is a personal attack is over the reporting of a story involving her brother, who was a former city employee.

As Acting DPW head George Carnrike, was charged May 2, 2018 by the Department of Environmental Conservation for allegedly disposing of city waste, including drug paraphernalia, while he was working on behalf of the city. Investigators said he buried the waste on private property instead of taking it to a disposal site. He faces up to $15,000 fine and was the acting public works chief at the time.

The city has never offered an explanation as to why the superintendent was placed on paid administrative leave on June 12, 2018, and then his resignation accepted, in late Sept.

The Sherburne Town Court reported Monday that the case against George Carnrike was still proceeding, he is scheduled to return to court on May 13, at 3 p.m. He has pleaded not guilty.

George Carnrike is facing a $15,000 fine and, since he was the acting DPW head at the time, the city has also confirmed the municipality could be liable to lawsuits if he is convicted.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

From the Mayor’s Office: Yes, OSC is in Norwich and has been since late Fall 2018.

As a result of misleading headlines and articles in both printed and online editions of The Evening Sun regarding the City of Norwich, the Mayor of the City of Norwich, and an ongoing performance audit by representatives of the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC), it is important that I address the issue with the newspaper’s editor, readers and local residents.

A performance audit by the OSC has been ongoing in the City of Norwich since late Fall 2018. At my initial meeting with members of the OSC held in the Mayor’s Office at City Hall, I was told the audit was confidential in nature. I have honored the confidential nature of the ongoing audit. The audit being conducted was welcomed and I consider it to be a valuable resource for the current and future administration of the city.

When an article appeared in last week’s paper, I immediately contacted the OSC regarding what information, if any, had been provided to The Evening Sun regarding our confidential audit.

Direct from the Office of the New York State Comptroller Website – Audits of Local Governments:

“The Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Division of Local Government and School Accountability conducts performance audits of local governments and school districts. Performance audits provide findings or conclusions based on an evaluation of evidence against criteria. Local officials use audit findings to improve performance and operations, reduce costs and contribute to public accountability.”

The Evening Sun article was extremely slanted, misleading, full of salacious innuendo and void of facts.

I was told by phone and again in person by employees of the OSC that when contacted by The Evening Sun on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the call was directed to the OSC Press Office in Albany as are all calls regarding ongoing audits. As is standard with most government agencies, the OSC Press Office released a standard statement to The Evening Sun to the effect, “The OSC conducts performance audits of local governments and school districts and the schedule of the audits are based on risk assessment.”

I have been assured and reassured that at no time was the content of the audit or any other information regarding the ongoing audit provided to The Evening Sun by OSC.

With the publication of the article in The Evening Sun on March 30, 2019, I issued an e-mail to all members of the city council and department heads to advise them and in turn department heads to advise their employees, that the subject of the ongoing OSC audit remains confidential per the OSC and that they are not to discuss it with the public including no discussion or comment on the matter with the media. I personally spoke with one department’s employees as their department head was out of the office and had not yet relayed the subject of the email and this was done in order to fulfill my responsibility as mayor and to abide by the requirements of the OSC. I cannot control if a member of the council, a department head or an employee revealed the content of my email and/or remarks to the media on this or any topic; however, I abide by my directive 100 percent.

To have yet another article written in the April 4, 2019, edition of The Evening Sun with the continuing biased slant aimed at defaming me personally and professionally, members of my family, my private employer, and my leadership as Mayor of the City of Norwich, is beyond comprehension and serves no legitimate purpose other than to clearly mislead the public on matters and execution of policies that are of importance to residents of the city.

As Mayor of the City of Norwich, the content of the ongoing OSC audit remains confidential. When the OSC report and findings are complete and made available to the public, I would expect it to garner as much ink by The Evening Sun as the mere subject of the audit has received. I expect the residents and readers are above believing what has been printed on this topic.

There are many matters that are confidential in nature and there are personnel actions that cannot be discussed with the media. This is a standard practice in both the public and private sector. It is unfortunate that the local newspaper and its editor take the approach to a “no comment” to print something anyway and the truth be damned. The Evening Sun is not up to its former journalistic standards and has not been for years.

For the record, when I took office January 1, 2016, the city was in a fiscal crisis. The City of Norwich had been issued a “susceptible to fiscal stress” designation from the OSC in 2015. Under my leadership and a commitment to fiscal responsibility, the city no longer has any such designation and in fact, we have been proactive in adding to our fund balance (savings) as well as our reserves while keeping the budget and the corresponding property tax to 0 percent increase for 2017 and below the 2 percent property tax cap for both 2018 and 2019. The dramatic change from a negative to a positive in such a short period speaks well of the City under my time in office and perhaps contributed to a visit by the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Office to find out what we did to make such a positive change for the good of the City of Norwich.

I cannot stress enough how important and necessary it was for me when I took office to reign in fiscal actions that had resulted in budgets being balanced by taking money from reserves and the fund balance (savings) to keep annual property tax increases at a level that was still over and above any rate imposed during my time in office.

Please take a look at this newspaper’s own headline from mid-December 2015, when the City adopted a, “Balanced Budget with a 5.4% Property Tax Increase for 2016.” I inherited that 2016 budget adopted before I took office and it is important for the residents to know that that 2016 budget failed to fully fund key positions. With the retirement of the deputy city clerk scheduled for December 2015, that position was no longer funded for 2016 and the budget only partially funded the community development position through the third quarter of 2016 because this employee was also in line to retire. This is just a snapshot of what I inherited – these are facts. Key positions were not funded and the property tax increase was still at 5.4 percent. Perhaps an investigative reporter should look into City decisions made prior to my time in office and realize the error of recently published articles aimed at my time in office.

Have there been changes in city personnel since I took office? Yes, there have been a number of retirements in Police and Fire as well as resignations, including the retirement of the assistant public works superintendent in March 2017 and the public works superintendent who officially retired December 2016 but was contracted for one additional year through December 2017 because the City had failed for years to have in place a plan to legally operate our Waste Water Treatment Plant in compliance with NYS DEC regulations should the then superintendent retire. The Director of Finance appointed in July 2015 resigned in July 2016 and the finance department endured changes with the appointment of a new director of finance from within and the trickle-down effect of changes in titles for other long-term City employees in that department ensued. This all occurred while we were bringing the city into the 21st century with a financial software package that was not DOS driven (some of your younger readers and residents may have to look up what DOS even was/is).

Did the city conduct a review of the Human Resources Department and place the HR Director on paid administrative leave in order to do so in late April 2018? Yes, we did, and I stand by that Council approved action. The brief review (investigation) was conducted by someone from outside Chenango County with experience and expertise in the area of Civil Service, not a private investigator, as erroneously reported in this newspaper. The condition of the HR Department warranted an outside review. During the time of paid administrative leave, the city’s HR director found employment in the private sector and vacated the position in early June 2018.

It is not within my position or anyone in the city administration to share the details and/or conclusions of the HR review other than to say the review was less than an 8-hour task in duration. The director of finance was appointed on an interim basis to cover HR Director duties and the finance office and deputy city clerk assumed tasks associated with HR including civil service and processing the city payroll with an outside payroll agency (an outside payroll agency that was already being utilized by the City since 2012). Interviews are now being scheduled after the arduous task of recruiting qualified applicants for the human resources position.

I could write a book on the many things I encountered, inherited and have had to deal with in my time as mayor of the City of Norwich. Unfortunately, most of the issues cannot be discussed publicly and many happened long before I took office and I am simply in the position to address them and handle them the best way possible for the city.

I have served and continue to the serve the City of Norwich to the best of my ability. I am above reproach and if this newspaper wants to challenge my positions or my words in or out of context from public meetings, please do so. If you want to go after me personally, members of my family and my employer, you have removed yourself from all reasonable journalistic standards.

This past week I have received many messages of support and the calls continue at the disbelief of our local newspaper viciously attacking my character, commitment and ethical standards as Mayor of Norwich. The personal attacks and an implication of financial misdeeds printed for all to read are beyond belief. My disgust at what has been published has only been reaffirmed more times over than this newspaper has subscribers by the residents of the community and beyond who see The Evening Sun for what is has now become – a tabloid.

In conclusion, I am available to any and all who wish to discuss matters of concern to them and also matters of concern brought about from misleading headlines and articles.

I am and remain,

Christine A. Carnrike

Mayor of the

City of Norwich