A spat between Mason
County officials on what constitutes appropriate use of tax dollars
went public Thursday, when the county public works director hit
“reply all” on his criticism of a press release from the Sheriff’s
Office lauding the sheriff for an award.
Detective Bill Adam, who is also the office’s public information officer, sent the first email, letting the media know that readers of Mason County’s weekly newspaper voted Sheriff Casey Salisbury the “best elected official.”
Included in the release was a photo of a smiling Salisbury holding the unframed certificate, along with a direct quotes from the sheriff which contain a number (5) of exclamation points.
Brian Matthews, public works director, took issue with the press release, and hit “reply all.”
Bill,
Stop wasting County resources with this crap. Take me off
your email list as of now. Brian
In fairness, not many tax dollars were likely wasted. How many tax dollars were wasted by me writing this? The answer will shock you! (none)
Later in the day, Adam responded with another statement from Salisbury, lamenting the response as “unfortunate,” and cited a line from the county “mission statement” that says the employees of the county are the foundation on which county services are provided.
Salisbury also apparently shot back at Mathews:
It is also unfortunate that people, who do not live in this community, do not support the community the way I do.
The friction between the officials was aired before multiple news outlets in Western Washington, including Seattle television stations and daily newspapers such as the Sun and others from Port Angeles to Olympia.
Mason County has had other interesting email incidents in recent months. In August, Adam accidentally sent out a restricted bulletin about a dangerous suspect wanted by police.
Realizing the error, Adam sent out another note to the media contact list, asking journalists to destroy the email, claiming that publishing it “could cost an officer his or her life.” In case there was any confusion about what email Adam was talking about, he sent the restricted email again.
