Gladstone’s Investigation into stolen, confidential documents was pretty conclusive; question the motive of those who claim otherwise

A lot — most of it negative — has been said by the Council and individual Councilors about Gladstone’s investigation into leaked confidential documents by the ousted Traffic & Safety Advisory Board member, failed Clackamas County Commission candidate, and two-time failed Gladstone City Council candidate Willy Osburn. Stop the narrative that the report was disappointing, inaccurate, a waste of money, or that it had spelling errors and look at the people hiding behind these claims. After reading the report and laying out a timeline, it is clear to any and all critical thinkers.

The Council should hold the Mayor and Councilor Alexander responsible for Bill’s actions, and block Neal Reisner and Bill Osburn from ever serving the city in an official capacity again. Without one single person to point to, send a message to everyone that leaking confidential documents is serious and will not be tolerated. These four have broken the public’s trust and at least Bill has admitted he’d do it again, “in a heartbeat”. Even if the Mayor, Councilor Alexander, and Neal Reisner are in fact innocent, as leaders in our community they are responsible for standing by someone so reckless with confidential documents.

It seems most are comfortable with this all going away. The theft of City Property; leaking private and confidential personnel documents to the public without remorse or consequences. Seems to me, they’re betting you all won’t take the time to read the actual report, so here’s the Cliff Notes version:

The second page of the report starts off with a timeline of events. The ‘uncomfortable conversation’ that started this entire ordeal happened on July 13th, 2020. Betz hand wrote a complaint about Matt Tracy because she knew Gladstone is leaky and turned it into Gladstone Human Resources who scanned it and sent it to the City Attorney, Chad Jacobs.

Two weeks later on July 27th, City Attorney Jacobs sent a memo via email to City Councilors and the Mayor, HR, and another Attorney in his office with options to address the event between Betz and Tracy. Betz and Tracy met and resolved the issue ten days later (24 days after the confrontation). Betz asked the Council not to proceed further with her complaint. This was actually well publicized with an email to the Gladstone staff and to the Council.

On page three of the report City Administrator Betz is quoted as saying the Mayor and Councilor Reisner asked if they could use the information to embarrass Council President Matt Tracy. Betz claimed to ask them not to.

Five months and a week later (or 6 months after the confrontation), the new Council met to elect their Council President, who previously was Matt Tracy. He was elected again by the majority of his peers even though the Mayor tried to derail his nomination with secret ‘HR issues’ that made her uncomfortable — alluding to the resolved confrontation between Betz and Tracy almost a half year before. After the meeting where they elected Matt Tracy for the second time as Council President, Councilor Alexander requested documents from the City Attorney’s office to understand what secret issues the Mayor had brought up. He reads them and admits to deleting them because “it was none of his business”.

Sometime between February and April 2021 (two to four months after Greg Alexander deleted the documents) he told Betz that Bill Osburn was looking for info on her complaint. In his interview with the investigator, Alexander denies that Osburn asked him about anything — Osburn never spoke to him about the issue at all. BUT he did hear a rumor from someone that Osburn was asking why the mayor was so upset about Matt Tracy’s nomination as President of the City Council.

On April 7th, 2021, Councilor Alexander requested another copy of the confidential documents — which he had already read and destroyed because “it was none of his business” four months earlier. When the investigator discovered Greg Alexander requested the documents twice she asked to speak with him again, but he refused.

Then Billy leaked stolen City property, a part of Betz’ confidential complaint against Matt Tracy made almost ten months before, that was already resolved.

The investigation report made some mention of how there continues to be a leak at least to the Clackamas Review, and it documents how Bill was thrown out of the Traffic & Safety Advisory Board because the community no longer trusted him, but suffice to say you can skip to the fifth page of the report for the investigator’s bulleted and precise breakdown of the known people who had access to the confidential documents:

On page 7, the investigator lists her conclusions clearly:

1–4. It is highly unlikely the City Attorney or their staff leaked the confidential documents with Bill. The Investigator doesn’t believe Matt Tracy or his Attorney, or Jacque Betz leaked the confidential documents with Bill. Ripley refused to participate. Tracy Todd, Linda Neace, Tom Mersereau, Annessa Hartman, and Mindy Garlington are unlikely to have leaked the confidential documents.

5. Page 8 continues the conclusion with her concerns about Greg Alexander’s actions.

6. If a third-person’s eye witness account is true, the Mayor may have known before the confidential documents were leaked. Reisner and Stempel did want to use them to “embarrass Tracy”, according to City Administrator Betz.

7. It is more than likely someone on the Council leaked the confidential documents to Billy and/or feeds Raymond Rendleman of the Pamplin Media, Council business.

The report is clear to any and all critical thinkers. When you peel back the layers, the investigation and Investigator and any sane person, can clearly deduce who supplied Will Osburn with the confidential papers he released to the public.

Focusing on the cost and nit-picking the report’s spelling mistakes is an attempt to misdirect the public’s focus.

Ex-Councilor Neal Reisner originally tried to air-out Betz confidential, personnel matters to the public right after it happened, he had access to all the documents that were leaked, he is quoted as wanting to use Betz personnel matter to “embarrass Tracy,” and he is friends with Bill.

Councilor Greg Alexander requested the confidential documents from the City Attorney a second time after he originally deleted them — a month before Willy leaked them. He is friends with Bill and refused to meet with the investigator a second time but felt compelled to seek out and take a personal polygraph test to “prove his innocence”. He was awfully shaky in his Business Report to the Council…

The Mayor had access to all the confidential documents that were leaked. She was quoted as asking if she could use private personnel documents to “embarrass Tracy.” She brought up the resolved confrontation five months later out of the blue, in public and at every turn in the investigation she has tried to re-litigate the resolved event, and she rallies about the cost and time the investigation took. She is admittedly friends with Bill.

Stop the narrative that the report was disappointing, inaccurate, a waste of money, or that it had spelling errors and look at the people hiding behind these claims. Ask yourself, Gladstone, what their motive is and how their actions in the past have shown them to be trustworthy. Doing the same, myself, and reading the report — to me, it is clear. The Council should hold the Mayor and Councilor Alexander responsible for Bill’s actions, and block Neal Reisner and Bill Osburn from ever serving the city in an official capacity again. Without one single person to point to, send a message to everyone that leaking confidential documents is serious and will not be tolerated. These four have broken the public’s trust and at least Bill has admitted he’d do it again, “in a heartbeat,” and remove any incentive for it to happen again. Even if the Mayor, Councilor Alexander, and Neal Reisner are in fact innocent, as leaders in our community they are responsible.

Gerry Blakney

Resident of Clackamas County, living two houses from the Gladstone city boundary. Greg’s cereal box, secret decoder-ring Polygraph administrator.