As a consistent reader of the Leader, and ardent supporter of local media in general, I am greatly disappointed by the recent canards pasted recklessly on your newspaper’s front page slandering John Mauro during each of the past three weeks. For the record, Mauro is a committed, passionate, collaborative and critical public servant who toils tirelessly in support of all things good about Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula. We should be so lucky as to have him working on behalf of this town.

Yet, while even today’s children are taught the importance of providing evidence in their grade-school writing, your paper is giving space to defamatory, vague and anonymous claims from a small-town has-been who seems to think stepping down from the PT Mayor post should come with a permanent mouthpiece. It wasn’t until turning deep into the paper after the jump of your first article, titled “Former mayor files complaint against city manager,” that I could even fully understand what Brent Shirley was accusing Mauro of; after following the writing that far I could still find not a shred of credible evidence provided by your reporter to substantiate the claims.

Surely reporting school provided the Leader with details about the importance of providing names, details, and descriptive prose to accompany accusations against another party. So, where are they? Next time please do the research before, not after, you go to print, especially when fueling the fires of controversy regarding someone working hard on the behalf of the rest of us. I’m not sure what your work culture is like in the offices of the Leader, but clearly everyone down at City Hall has plenty more to do than defend themselves from fuzzy accusations from third-party complainants, and your reporters should have more to do than print them.

Greg Reed

Chimacum