Over the past several weeks, multiple concerns-- directly related to public safety and forcefully

articulated by the former city engineer -- have come to the attention of the Troy City
Council. As such, I have convened a series of public hearings in order to gain a better
understanding of the circumstances that had led to the resignation of our City Engineer and his
assistant.
It is our fundamental responsibility to conduct these hearings as we are entrusted with our
Cities and communities welfare. Moreover, it is our responsibility to conduct the hearings in a
manner that is thorough, transparent and fair. We have chosen to abide by these imperatives
as they relate to both our role and the process by which we fulfill these obligations.

These hearings, require us, by law to be held in public and they have served as an open process
where we, the representative body of the City government, can diligently be informed of what
had occurred and bring critical information -- which the public also has a full right to know -
- out of the darkness and into light.
We do not fulfill our responsibilities if we dismiss the warnings of the former City Engineer as
being an over-reaction or a turf war. The fact is that there is significant support for his concerns
as the testimony, given so far at the hearings, directly and materially reinforces the alarms that
Mr. Reeves first sounded.

At this point, the testimony has led us to infer that there is not only likely to be more to these
stories, but also that organizational and structural problems lie at the heart of these basic
public safety issues. We wish to see the administration's full cooperation and support.
A formal and fair process requires that we issue subpoenas in order to ensure that the
information we elicit is fully public, comprehensive and without reservation. I hope that all
council members and elected officials can stand beside me in a bipartisan manner as we get to
the root of our problems and solve them.