Beleaguered Manzo demands Joe Fratesi's resignation

An eight-page brochure containing what City officials describe as "misleading" and "nonsense" information is actually 100 percent accurate, Ward Six Councillor Frank Manzo insisted Friday night.

Manzo acknowledges authoring and circulating the anonymous publication, which accuses the City of developing property owned by Algoma Steel "at the expense of the taxpayers."

At the request of Joe Fratesi, the City's chief administrative officer, two City staff have prepared reports critical of Manzo's circular.

But Manzo dismisses their findings, arguing that the two are just "covering up for Joe Fratesi."

Speaking to SooToday News late Friday night, Manzo said he now wants Fratesi to resign over the document affair, and he says he'll be calling for the CAO's resignation at Monday's meeting of City Council.

"Joe Fratesi has been a thorn in my side ever since he got elected in 1977," said Manzo, who believes the CAO had no right to put the circular issue on the Council agenda.

What Manzo wrote

Manzo's publication is titled "Attention Resident In the area of Baseline, Leighs Bay Road, Carpin Beach Road, Herkimer Road, Victoria Road, Hess St. Cottage Lane, Town Line Road."

"Algoma Steel officials want to have the City install water and sanitary sewers at City taxpayers' expense," the document states.

It also alleges that problems at G.P. Flakeboard caused damages to local wells in the Baseline area.

140 copies distributed

Bill Wierzbicki, the City's co-ordinator of current planning, says that Manzo acknowledged to him earlier this month that he wrote the document and circulated about 140 copies of it to area residents.

Fratesi circulated the document to numerous people for comment before learning it originated with Manzo.

The accusations and counter-accusations are complex and SooToday News has decided to present the relevant documents to allow our readers to decide for themselves.

We caution, however, that the facts as presented are clearly in dispute and that no conclusions should be drawn until all relevant documents have been read and all facets of the question considered.

The source documents

Frank Manzo's circular Letter to City Council from Joe Fratesi Response from City Solicitor Lorie Bottos Response from Co-ordinator of Current Planning Bill Wierzbicki Rick Talvite of Totten Sims Hubiki Associates

**************************************************************** Note: SooToday News wishes to advise that Ward Six Councillor Frank Manzo has been heavily lobbying our staff, management and owners in an attempt to have this story killed.

Mr. Manzo insists this is a personal matter between himself and his constituents that Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi has wrongfully forced onto the agenda of Monday night's City Council meeting.

Manzo argues that any attempt to report on this controversy before Monday's Council meeting would be "putting the cart before the horse."

He told us he now has no choice but to launch lawsuits related to this matter, and he's predicting that at least one person will lose his job as a result.