- A candidate for mayor, current city councilman Ray Slone filed a complaint on Oct.16 stating that his signs were ripped in half and or thrown to the ground.
Slone also called police Sunday after he received a call from councilmember and fellow mayoral candidate Kenneth Henning who claimed to witness Slone’s signs being removed. Police later determined that the signs were removed from private property because the owner did not want the signs there, according to Clayton’s director of public safety Richard Rose.
If a person is caught tampering with a campaign sign, they could be charged with criminal mischief, Rose said.
Slone’s complaints to police follow a letter being sent to the community earlier this month by a Deitering supporter that Slone said paints him in a negative light.
The letter, dated Oct. 5, was signed by Mary Westrich, an Englewood resident, who describes Deitering’s challengers as being an adult web site operator, a 22-year-old boy and a woman associated with former Clayton Mayor Ted Gudorf.
Westrich refused comment before hanging up.
Slone, Councilman Kenneth Henning and Councilwoman Beverly Smith, the other candidates for mayor, said they have seen the letter and all three believe Westrich is referring to them.
Slone said Westrich’s letter suggests to the public that he is running a pornographic website, a claim he said is not true.
Slone also said that he had not been able to make contact with Westrich, but spoke with Deitering and asked her to make Westrich stop sending out copies of the letter to the community, but said Deitering refused to do so.
Deitering said she would not ask Westrich to refrain from sending the letter.
“I said, she’s the one who wrote the letter and as far as I know it’s all true,” Deitering said.
The website in question was a MySpace account that was Slone’s company’s first social networking web page. The page says that Slone has not logged in since 2009. But Slone said any photos in question were posted by other people who are listed as friends of the account.
Deitering countered Slone’s comments with criticisms of his campaign brochure, which she said questioned the financial security of the city and some leadership decisions including sending former City Manager Dave Rowlands to Copenhagen, Denmark for a conference.
Deitering said that Rowlands paid for the trip with the exception of $600 of airfare. Rowlands resigned this summer to take a job in California.
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