Email story goes national

The National Post devotes a third of a page this morning to the Rowswell/Fratesi Email controversy.

Michael Friscolanti's article "Angry Mayor's Profane E-mail Stuns Staff, City" appears at the top of page eight in the Friday edition, due to arrive in Sault Ste. Marie around 11:30 a.m.

The article quotes Joe Fratesi, the City's chief administrative officer, defending his decision to caution the mayor about sending taxpayers' money to a private citizen in Russia.

"How do you secure that money?" Fratesi asked the Post. "What if that person says they did not receive it? How could we check that? We don't know the person from a hole in the ground."

The Post article also pulls Rowswell's wife Donna into the controversy. "If it was any other mayor," she told the newspaper, "they would say go ahead and do whatever you want. But because it's John Rowswell, forget it."

Meanwhile, the Sault Star develops the story further in its Friday edition.

The Star quotes Ward 5 Councillor Duane Jones, who was part of the Sault delegation to the Winter Cities Conference in Japan, as saying there were problems using the City's corporate Visa card there.

“We had to pay cash for a number of things, including some of the restaurants and taxis and shuttle buses,” Jones told the newspaper.

Both Jones and Rowswell were unable to get cash using the card, but Rowswell was taking care of the problem and there was little discussion among Soo delegates about the cash problems, Jones is quoted as saying.

Jones told the Star he knew nothing about the Rowswell/Fratesi Emails until he returned to the Soo late Tuesday.

In a separate article, the newspaper quotes another returned Sault delegate, Economic Development Corp. president Bruce Strapp, as saying the Japanese trip was a success, referring to undisclosed prospects in the transportation and food industries.

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