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I read Mayor Bagley’s farewell message to Longmont in the City Line utility bill newsletter. Clearly, he crossed the line when he included in his good-bye message his biased perspective on the city mayoral race.
The City Line is published with taxpayer dollars and should not be used as a soapbox for the mayor’s partisan political views regarding the election. In his message, Mayor Bagley decries the inclusion of “party ideology” in Longmont’s City Council, then proceeds to use conservative buzzwords to castigate the supposed offender in the mayoral race.
It’s no secret who Mayor Bagley is rooting for, and against. Mayor Bagley used some of the same coded language in his opinion piece and Letter to the Editor as he did in this farewell message.
So why did the city editor allow this language to be published in the utility bill newsletter in the first place? Apparently, someone on city staff is asleep at the wheel.
More oversight should be provided by city managers including the top manager at city hall so that inappropriate uses of city resources, such as Mayor Bagley’s diatribe, do not happen again. As for Mayor Bagley’s exit from city council, I wish he had done it a lot sooner.
Ruby Bowman
