An Open Letter to Mayor Donchess

Let's talk about credibility, specifically yours.

Your own Corporation Counsel, Mr. Bolton, testified under oath in deposition that I have used "extremely vulgar language" repeatedly, over many public meetings, for years. That's a serious claim, made under penalty of perjury. So I have a simple question for the City: where is it? Where are the videos of these "dozens" of instances? Where is the record of enforcement, the warnings, the transcripts Mr. Bolton apparently has personal knowledge of but the public has never seen? If this has been going on for years, as sworn testimony claims, it should be trivially easy to produce. I'll wait.

And here's what I find fascinating: the one time I actually did use vulgar language directly in the Chamber,  July 1, 2026,  InkLink ran it as a headline. Curious. If this is such old, well-documented news, why did it take an actual instance for anyone to report it? Either Mr. Bolton's testimony was accurate, in which case the City has been sitting on years of footage it never acted on, or it wasn't, in which case I'd ask the Board how much confidence it has in the legal advice steering its decisions on this ordinance in the first place. Both possibilities are a problem for you. Pick one.

While we're on the subject of credibility: how many times is this administration prepared to be caught saying something that doesn't hold up? You claimed, on the record, that City employees required trauma counseling because of me. No documentation. No specifics. Just an assertion, delivered from the dais, in the same breath you used to argue you had every right to engage a public commenter mid-comment, which, incidentally, your own rules of order don't permit. I'd like to see that record too. I've asked for it.

You and this administration have spent years attacking women who have worked for or supported this City, professionally, personally, publicly. Katerina Liti is one of the finest advisors and strongest allies I have, and I don't think it's a coincidence that she and I have ended up on the same side of this fight. You didn’t lose an enemy, you fired an ally and lost one of your biggest supporters. You don't get to grind down the women who raise the standard in this City and then act surprised when they stop being polite about it.

For the remainder of your term, I intend to keep asking exactly these kinds of questions, publicly, pointedly, and, when I judge it appropriate, in language you find distasteful. It is a description of my constitutional rights, which the Supreme Court has upheld for people ruder than me. If you want the criticism to stop sounding like this, the fix isn't a new ordinance or a warning label on a video. It's answering the questions, producing the records, and explaining, under oath, if that's what it takes, exactly how many times this administration is willing to say something it can't back up.

Laurie