DeWitt Town Board Member Jack Dooling caused a slight political stir recently when he sent a flyer for a political fundraiser to a handful of town employees using their town email addresses.
Dooling, a Democrat, sent the flyer advertising a $50 per person Town of DeWitt Democratic Committee fundraiser for town clerk candidate Angela Epolito to about 20 town employees from his personal email account on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Most of the emails went to the employees’ personal email addresses, but for those whom he did not have personal emails he sent it to their town email accounts.
The email contained no text from Dooling, just the flyer as an attachment.
Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko, who has called Dooling’s email “inappropriate” and “unfortunate,” sent an email to town employees the following day, Oct. 8, apologizing for their receipt of Dooling’s email.
“Town money, labor and resources should not be used for political purposes,” Michalenko wrote. “As supervisor I have tried to remove politics and political pressure from town hall and the workplace. … Town employees should be able to support whatever political candidate and political party they choose off of town time and in private.”
When asked why he sent the political flyer to town employee work emails, Dooling said he did not think he was doing anything inappropriate.
“I did not send any wording; it’s a flyer. I honestly did not know there was anything wrong with that,” Dooling said. “If it is, I apologize; I didn’t mean to do that.”
Matthew Wells, chair of the DeWitt Republican Party said he was concerned about the incident. “Anytime you discover government resources being used to the direct benefit of one political party, it is troubling,” he said. “It’s hard to believe the conduct in question was an honest mistake and, obviously, it should not be allowed to continue.”
Michalenko said he believes the incident was the result of a fairly new board member who did not understand the potential impact of his action. The supervisor said he has spoken to Dooling about it, and has no intention of taking the matter any farther.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Eagle Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected].
