Re: Mayor Doughty takes no blame for budget shortfall, Huntsville Forester article, April 9.

If the account of your reporter’s meeting with the mayor is correct, he named three former senior officers as largely responsible for producing erroneous information which obscured the town’s grim financial status and prevented timely corrective actions.

In my opinion Doughty has violated the longstanding cardinal rule that no elected official should publicly chastise any civil servant, for any reason and by any means. As a result, the professional reputations of the named individuals have been seriously compromised. That they are no longer in the Huntsville service does not in any way mitigate or excuse the mayor’s actions. As a matter of elementary fairness, his allegations should not be allowed to stand unchallenged.

Consequently, I intend to appear at the next meeting of town council to formally call on the mayor to publicly retract his statements and apologize to the offended individuals, as well as for bringing the office of mayor and council generally into disrepute.

That is, unless he can otherwise demonstrate convincingly that the article was substantially incorrect.

Terry Russell,
Huntsville