Telling Timelines
I have been reading on the NP forums today about the speculations of how Terry Stewart is involved with the ongoing Rosado debacle. Some residents seem to be concluding that Mr. Stewart is somehow engineering this information release.
Not being one to let things fall where they may, I set up a brief phone interview with Mr. Stewart today. First, I wanted to nail down the time frames on a few critical pieces of data. According to his recollection, it had been at least 9 months since he last had a meeting with Mr. Rosado.
During that time, every week, Mr. Stewart asked for an appointment with Mr. Rosado. Mr. Rosado REFUSED the meeting. This jives very closely with the ‘approximately 1 year’ that Mr. Boyd referenced during Monday’s council meeting. We’ll stick with Mr. Stewart’s more conservative figure.
Next, I asked Mr. Stewart to relate the rough time frame around when Mr. Rosado approached him about slowing the Zemel annexation. He shared that the conversation had taken place prior to the loss of communication. He shared that he “didn’t have a log with exact dates and times”. Instead, Mr. Stewart was offering advice to the council member, explaining to him that this would have been unethical, and dropped the subject.
Lastly, the cellular card issue only came to Mr. Stewart’s attention at the end of last week. Well after Mr. Rosado returned from Puerto Rico.
This is not a “Stewart vs. Rosado” event. Our City Manager warned Mr. Rosado that it would have been unethical to slow down the Zemel annex, and dropped it at that point. Mr. Rosado was a political neophite, and Mr. Stewart was simply explaining to him that it was innapropriate. The direct question was posed by the News-Press, and Mr. Stewart answered it truthfully. It took place prior to Mr. Rosado’s self imposed isolation.
In addition, Mr. Stewart’s recollection of the timeline on the wireless card shows a clear intent on Mr. Rosado’s part to violate the charter. He intentionally circumvented the City Manager in order to requisition equipment, for his personal use.
