Back in 1997, new City Manager Julio Avael was in a full court press to fire Police Chief Ray Peterson— a promise he had reportedly made to then-Mayor Dennis Wardlow and others in return for getting the City Manager's job.
One of his major charges against Peterson was that he had allegedly read and approved a controversial letter-to-the editor that Police Lt. Tom Chapp had sent to the newspapers— although both Peterson and Chapp denied that Peterson had seen the letter before it was published.
Avael also blamed Peterson when Chapp, on his own time and in civilian clothes, asked Avael to see phone records to refute Avael's claim that the letter had generated "dozens" of complaints from the public. Avael called Chapp a "rogue cop" and accused him of launching a "corruption investigation".
Avael said this "proved" that Peterson couldn't control his troops— and that he should be fired.
Chapp was subsequently fired and Peterson was forced to retire.
Chapp argued that he was wrongfully fired and hired former City Attorney Diane Covan to represent him. When Covan told the City that Chapp wouldn't sue— in return for a financial settlement— Avael called that "extortion". And he called in the FDLE to investigate.
Throughout the Peterson ordeal, Tom Oosterhoudt was his major supporter, organizing rallys and speaking out in an effort to save Peterson's job.
Oosterhoudt lost that battle, but some say that his link to Peterson is one reason he was elected to the City Commission last November
His election may have seemed "dangerous" to Avael, who, in 1993, had been fired from his job as Lee County Administrator after he got sideways with too many County Commissioners.
This week, Commissioner Oosterhoudt called the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Tuesday and reported that City Manager Avael's "special projects" manager had threatened to ruin him politically unless he "joins the team."
"Paul Clayton, who works directly for Avael, came to see me last week," Oosterhoudt said, "and told me that unless I became more of a `team player', I would lose the support of City Staff and be isolated by the other Commissioners. And he told me that would guarantee that I would be a one-term Commissioner.
"That seemed to me to be a pretty heavy threat coming from a City employee," Oosterhoudt said.
"He seemed to be there representing Avael. In fact, he spent a lot of time at our meeting defending the City Manager.
"Clayton told me that Avael's 1997 firing of former Police Chief Ray Peterson was `ancient history' and that I had failed in my efforts to stop that from happening, and that I should just forget it," Oosterhoudt said.
"He also denied that Avael might be now building a book of charges against Police Chief Buz Dillon."
Oosterhoudt said that Clayton came to the meeting with a file of clippings with some of Oosterhoudt's quotes highlighted.
"He said those were the quotes that bothered him and others in City government," Oosterhoudt said. "I don't know if he has also built dossiers on any of the other Commissioners."
Clayton told Key West The Newspaper that he is a contract employee with the City, providing computer-related training. But he also wears a number of other hats, including liaison to the gay community, chairman of Avael's Trust In Government Committee, co-anchor on the City's "Point To Point" cable TV show, and City ombudsman.
"I went to see Commissioner Oosterhoudt wearing my Trust In Government and gay liaison hats," Clayton said. "I was concerned that he has been disseminating incorrect information and I wanted to ask him not to do that.
"Those of us on the Trust In Government Committee have worked hard to put out factual information about City government," Clayton said. "I felt that he has been undermining that effort."
Oosterhoudt said that Clayton also told him that he would "take him on" in the press.
In a scathing commentary scheduled to run in Celebrate, a local gay-oriented newspaper, today, Jan. 7, Clayton is reportedly critical of Oosterhoudt, suggesting that he does not have the slightest understanding of how government works. He also publicly "corrects" information gleaned from Oosterhoudt's regular column in Celebrate.
But Oosterhoudt called Clayton's examples of incorrect information "nitpicky at best."
"If I get something wrong, I'm always willing to make it right," Oosterhoudt said. "But I don't intend to be lectured by one of Avael's underlings—or by Avael himself, for that matter. He works for the Commissioners, not the other way around. I consider Clayton's efforts to intimidate me inappropriate, at best, and, at worst, illegal. That's why I have asked the FDLE to investigate.
"I can't imagine that Clayton undertook this `project' without Avael's blessing," Oosterhoudt said.
But Clayton denied that Avael had assigned him to "send a message" to Oosterhoudt— "although I did inform Mr. Avael about the meeting after the fact. He didn't seem to have a problem with it."
Clayton also denied that Avael had read and approved his column criticizing Oosterhoudt.
At presstime, Avael had not responded to a request for comment.
Did Avael assign Paul Clayton to "monitor" Oosterhoudt and to find ways to discredit him— to ensure that he is only a one-term Commissioner? Oosterhoudt said that Clayton's file seemed to contain copies of every article he had written since the election.
"He didn't start building that file yesterday," Oosterhoudt said.
Did Avael read and approve in advance Clayton's editorial attack on Oosterhoudt?
Clayton says he thought up the idea of building a file on Oosterhoudt, confronting him and writing about his "shortcomings" in the newspaper on his own. He said that Avael had nothing to do with that. But when Chapp made the same argument in 1997, Avael wouldn't buy it.
Clayton works directly for Avael. Do Clayton's seemingly "rogue" actions "prove" that Avael can't control his employees? Or does it "prove" that he can? Clayton has admitted that Avael approved of his meeting with Oosterhoudt. Did he also approve, even encourage, the use of veiled threats in an effort to bring Oosterout "in line"?
Stay tuned.