Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

PREVIEW: Mayor acknowledges e-mails to woman were "not appropriate"

Mayor Chris Montgomery has been engaging in intimate conversations with a local woman using his town-issued e-mail account, public records reveal.

Mooresville Weekly interviewed the mayor about a chain of e-mails that span from Nov. 10 to Dec. 9.

“Because of your reporting, you’ve nipped something in the bud that should have never gone on in the first place,” Montgomery told Mooresville Weekly. “This is not spin or damage-control. I’m being as sincere as I’ve ever been in my life in thanking you for doing that.”

Montgomery said he has no intentions of stepping down as mayor. He is also still considering a bid for re-election in November. “Of course this is a big factor,” he said of the exposure of his e-mails.

Read more about how these e-mails affect Chris and Lisa Montgomery’s marriage, as well as his role as mayor, in the Friday, Jan. 7, print edition of Mooresville Weekly and on The Gatton Report.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only people that this will shock are the people that voted him in for Mayor. He was incompetent to begin with. How could anyone be this clueless?

Anonymous said...

Looks like it's clear sailing for Mayor Atkins in November. Or should we call him Mayor Deep-Throat?

Anonymous said...

Et tu, Brute?

Anonymous said...

Whats wrong with this...everyone gets a little horny ever once in a while.People say its always better away from home.

Anonymous said...

Wait on the facts, people.

Anonymous said...

Ok, Chris.

Anonymous said...

Who is the girl? Did he get a Monica in the [rectangular] office? Would hate to be the K-9 unit doing that investigation.

Anonymous said...

7:13 - are you saying that Miles Atkins dropped a dime on Montgomery?

Anonymous said...

What a sad situation. Also very bothersome.

Anonymous said...

How smart is this guy using his town e-mail address? How could he not know every e-mail is public record? Man, what a doofus.

Anonymous said...

Good luck getting re-elected Mr. Mayor. Tisk Tisk!

Anonymous said...

maybe sheriff redmond will hire him,it happens in their office but the hard drives get cleaned up???????????maybe he can take tommy adams job

Anonymous said...

At least it's a girl. He's a Republican politician, so I figured he preferred boys.

Anonymous said...

Irony, huh?

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding! And he's a guy we expected to lead Mooresville out of the abyss!

Mr. Mayor, you have shown a lack of good judgment, lack of character and common sense! Just because we elected you, doesn't mean you can use your office for your own predatory and salacious affairs. Maybe you think this is appropriate behavior for a politician but it is NOT!

How utterly dumb! Using a Town's email system to have intimate conversations.

Boot this guy out of the Mayor's office. Get the broom, no, kick him in the ass on the way out. There is no room in Mooresville Town Government for a guy who can't give himself 110% to the job without be distracted by an affair. We are paying for a full time Mayor who will be the Leader of the Town and set an example of exemplary behavior.

Last year, the Town enacted a Ethics guidelines. Surely, this steps over the line and are a cause for immediate and rapid dismissal. NOW!

Anonymous said...

Let's see if the other council people have the gonads to speak out and/or impeach him. The ones that Montgomery has dirt on will stay silent.

Anonymous said...

8:38

Immediate AND rapid dismissal? Is that the same as double secret probation?

Anonymous said...

Redmond is Republican.

Anonymous said...

You have to remember that a certain blog writer and a councilman that wants to be mayor (he will never get my vote) are very very close just wonder who told her

Anonymous said...

Why do you wonder? What difference does it make?

Anonymous said...

How would a councilman know what was in the mayor's Inbox? Really, think about what you write before you write it and save yourself looking like a fool.

Anonymous said...

I think the new Mayor is going to want either a new keyboard or a big can of Lysol.

Anonymous said...

Friends in the Tech Dept! I have been told by people who work at City Hall that they do not like the Mayor. That they liked Thunberg and wanted him to stay because he did not do anything at the town hall he was to interested in his store so the people at town hall got to play with no one to check up on them and Huseman would never know because he would not come out of his office

Anonymous said...

What I don't understand is why the Mayor will not step down. It seems like that would be in the best interest not only of his Family and this. He should reconsider.

Anonymous said...

I meant so say his Family and this Town. Sorry.

larry gregory said...

Very sad for the family, but at least he didn't give us a debt of $93 million.

Anonymous said...

He has betrayed his wife, his children, his constituents and his public office...if he has so little judgement as to break all of these confidences, and to do so (foolishly) on a public and discoverable medium, what confidence can we have in him? This is not a man of character...and certainly not of intelligence!

Anonymous said...

Let God be the judge of this man's character and his eternal destiny. My heart breaks wide open for his wife and beautiful children. Let also his misjudgement be a lesson to others who are doing the same thing or considering doing the same thing.

John Kindley said...

Let the man who has not sinned cast the first stone. I will wait to get all the facts before I form an opinion, however I am sick and tired of elected officials being so arrogant and thinking they are above the rules and laws that the rest of us are expected to follow. Power does corrupt.

Anonymous said...

Lets see Miles Adkins wants to run for Mayor, his neighbor is Jamie Gatton...Hmmm. What the Mayor did was wrong no doubt but what Jamie and Miles are doing for their personal gain is wrong too....beware citizens of Mooresville.

Anonymous said...

Glad to be in the County ! Wow In the last Two Days Mooresville has made the News ! What is going on in Downtown Mooresville ? The mayor is right , Everyone has problems but not everyone uses Public/Town Email to carry on with a Woman. If our Hardworking Police and Firemen did this along with Town Employees their Job would already be gone , They would be FIRED. I cannot wait to see how the Board handles this ONE , I hope that they handle it the same way they did the Town Manager , ask the Mayor to Resign. The Mayor should RESIGN ASAP ! This is certainly an embarrassment for Mooresville ! Again I say Glad to be in the county . I will be waiting to see what happens NEXT !

Anonymous said...

I don't get it...why do people run for PUBLIC office and then do these foolish things. All eyes are on you. Everything you do and say is going to be scrutinized. If you want a private life...Do not go into PUBLIC service. Fair or not...it is what it is. What a huge embarrassment for his family. Montgomery’s actions are inexcusable. Is it really so hard to be faithful, to your wife, children, and the office you ran for?

Anonymous said...

8:36 re-written after a dose of sodium pentothal:

Glad to work for the county! Wow! I'm so glad that Mooresville has made the news! Look at what is going on in Mooresville and forget about the Sheriffs Office! The Mayor is right, everyone has problems, but he should be as good as us at covering them up! We don't bother with public/County email to do our dirty stuff, we just drive right out there in broad daylight and sometimes even use the moblie command unit! If our hardworking Police and Firemen did this along with our Town Employees their Jobs would have already been gone, but the Sheriff looks out for his! This was most inappropriate for THE MAYOR! Yiou have to be Sheriff to get by with stuff! I'm glad this isn't me that is getting ready to be called on the carpet! I cannot wait to see how the Board Handles This One! I hope it is just like they Handled the Town Manager and they ask him to Resign instead of moving him to another position until things cool off like we do! The Mayor should do the right thing and Resign ASAP, things like this bring attention to other corruption in government and we don't want that! What an embarrassment to The Town of Mooresville I'm glad redmond hasn't been caught red-handed! Again Glad to work for the County! I will be watching to see what happens next so I can egg this on to keep attention off us!

Anonymous said...

This is typical immature behavior of the Mayor. He makes a comment about his wife being "Grown Up" and he needs to grow up too. At least he made one factual statement. This man is a joke, using Facebook to get elected, has not a clue of local politics or a decent education. Mooresville elected a local newspaper ad salesman for mayor.
This is a great example of voting for Change for Change Sake, well look what you have now Mooresville...an Idiot for Mayor! and even bigger Idiots of a Board if he is allowed to keep his position.

Anonymous said...

So, who would you like to see as Mayor? What about looking at the Town Charter as a whole? It hasn't been changed since the population of the town was 3,500. How can we address these larger issues of which this is just a symptom of? This is definitely worth reacting to for the moment, but this has been a continuous problem. It didn't start with Montgomery, so just removing him isn't the solution to the much larger problem.

And does anyone here think Miles Atkins would do any better? He's part of the same system and therefore still part of the problem. If he was the solution doesn't anyone think he would have done something by now?

So we replace the mayor and the whole board, what then? The same situation and the same temptations exist for the next band of candidates because we haven't solved the real problem. This is a symptom of the problem but there is a very deep underlying issue here. Something that lies at the very heart of the way our town is organized and governed. Maybe we should be taking a long hard look at the Town Charter and asking ourselves if it needs to be updated. It hasn't been since 1975. The population of the town has increased exponentially since then. Maybe we need to re-think the system itself.

Anonymous said...

We need to take a good long look at how the town charter organizes our local government. And I do propose that we start discussing as citizens how we can improve on that antiquated system. We have the power to do that. If we don't like what is happening now we have the power to change the system as a whole. I've heard it is a good ol' boy system time and time again, and that the mayor and city council are all corrupted by the system. Well, if that is the case, replacing the boys does not correct the defunct system. It simply puts new boys in to the same defunct system. What if instead we considered how we could change the system itself? So how do we do that?