Former City Administrator Takes First Step Toward Suing Mayor and Council Members for Defamation

by P.D. Lesko

In August 2021, former Ann Arbor City Administrator Tom Crawford resigned. Seven members of Ann Arbor City Council (Taylor, Disch, Song, Grand, Radina, Eyer and Briggs) had voted to terminate Crawford’s employment based on the results of a June 2021 “investigation” into anonymous complaints allegedly made by five, unnamed City staffers about Crawford’s allegedly inappropriate speech. While the report produced by local attorney Jennifer Salvatore did not recommend Crawford be dismissed, the members of Council, above, chose to do just that. They subsequently voted to release the June 2021 report to the public and, in doing so, publicly painted Crawford a racist, sexist, homophobe. Through his lawyer Mark Heusel of Dickinson-Wright, PLLC, Crawford this week sent City Council a 10-page letter in which he demands Council members retract various statements made about him during open meetings. Crawford also demands that Council correct and/or withdraw Salvatore’s Dec. 2021 “Crawford report,” a report released after Crawford was no longer a City employee.

Such a demand letter is a required first step when planning to file a lawsuit for defamation.

Crawford is not the only one who believes he was defamed and treated unfairly. Former Ann Arbor City Attorney Bruce Laidlaw is preparing to file a formal complaint with the Michigan Bar against Mayor Taylor, Postema and Jennifer Salvatore. Laidlaw alleges that the trio engaged in unprofessional conduct in their handling of the investigation into the anonymous complaints concerning the conduct of former City Administrator Tom Crawford. In his email to the Mayor, City Attorney Postema and Salvatore announcing his intentions to file a complaint against them, Laidlaw begins:

“When I was 13, I watched the Joe McCarthy hearings on television. When McCarthy tried to attack the reputation of a young lawyer. Attorney Joseph Welch said to him, “Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” I ask you three now: Have you no sense of decency?”

Laidlaw put Taylor, Postema and Salvatore on notice that, “As a member of the State Bar, I feel I have a duty to report highly unprofessional conduct by attorneys. The efforts of the three of you to attack the reputation of Tom Crawford were unprofessional. If you cannot rationally explain those efforts, I intend to file a grievance with the State Bar.”

In Michigan, such a grievance would be investigated by the State’s Attorney Grievance Commission and the Attorney Discipline Board. Possible disciplinary actions for unprofessional conduct range from probation to disbarment. For Taylor, any disciplinary action against him by the Attorney Discipline Board could then be used to petition Michigan’s Gov. Whitmer to remove him from office.

When asked why he is planning to lodge a complaint, via email Laidlaw responded: “Briefly I will say:

• The City has treated a long time employee and city resident very badly.
• That mistreatment will make it hard to hire and retain qualified staff.
• The City no longer has a permanent City Administrator. It has a 11 month temporary administrator.”

Salvatore’s first “Crawford” report delivered to Council in June 2021 (she ultimately produced three reports), which did not recommend terminating the City Administrator, was used by Mayor Taylor and his Council allies to force Crawford to resign. In Salvatore’s June report, five City staffers to whom Taylor and former City Attorney Stephen Postema promised anonymity to “protect them,” gave one-on-one conversation examples of Crawford’s insensitive comments. None of the individuals could corroborate the hearsay, and Salvatore’s report didn’t present any written evidence (text or email messages) to corroborate the individuals’ allegations.

None of the individuals whom Salvatore interviewed accused Crawford of any crime. According to state and federal law, then, none of the individuals whom Salvatore interviewed would be entitled to any whistle blower protections, including anonymity.

Council members, including Kathy Griswold (D-Ward 2), Elizabeth Nelson (D-Ward 4), Ali Ramlawi (D-Ward 5) and Jeff Hayner (D-Ward 1) not only refused to vote in favor of using the Salvatore June 2021 report to terminate Crawford, these Council members have repeatedly publicly questioned the accuracy and credibility of Salvatore’s work. Crawford’s lawyer Mark Heusel pointed this out in the 10-page letter:

“As has been publicly discussed over the past two months, the Report is surprisingly light on evidence, misstates key assumptions, and lacks the rigor necessary to evaluate” Mr. Crawford.

Heusel’s letter also alleges that Jennifer Salvatore’s work is “inadequate and incomplete.”

Council member Kathy Griswold told the A2Indy, “I voted against releasing the final Salvatore report due to factual errors that have not been corrected.”

Heusel’s letter then delivers a powerful allegation: He writes that City Council in releasing Salvatore’s allegedly flawed, biased and inexact work to the public “unjustifiably defamed Mr. Crawford’s character and potentially ruined any opportunity for him to obtain employment in the public sector (or any reasonably comparable employment for that matter.”)

Council member Griswold says she has had ongoing concerns about the Mayor’s lack of leadership related to his decision to target Crawford using Salvatore’s “flawed report.” Griswold said, “The Mayor is a lawyer and he accepted a flawed, poorly-done report from Jennifer Salvatore. He accepted from her the kind of work that he would never offer to his own clients, I’m sure.”

While Heusel’s letter focuses on the alleged mistakes, inaccuracies, missing evidence and shoddy work performed by Salvatore that was used by the Mayor and his allies to oust Crawford, Crawford is not the only person who has made claims of defamation related to Salvatore’s investigatory work and her trio of reports. In Dec. 2021, Salvatore delivered to City Council a third report which purported to investigate whether Council members Elizabeth Nelson (D-Ward 4) and Ali Ramlawi (D-Ward 5) had shared information about a closed session of City Council with Tom Crawford.

Nelson, in a written “response” to Salvatore’s third report, on Dec. 3, 2021 wrote in a blog post, “Prior to release of this report, I alerted the City Attorney’s office and the investigator that allegations in it were defamatory to me. Speculation in this report is factually wrong.”

Nonetheless, Salvatore’s investigatory work was used by the Mayor and his Council allies to justify the removal of Nelson and Ramlawi from Council committees, including the Budget and Labor, as well as the Council Administration Committee. This powerful committee functions as both an administrative and rules committee. As of January 2021, there were no Council representatives from Wards 1 or 5 on the five-member Council Administration Committee, thus effectively disenfranchising over 35,000 Ann Arbor voters in those Wards. Similarly, the Council Budget and Labor Committee has no representatives from Wards 2 or 5.

Of the June 2021 Salvatore report about Crawford’s alleged conversations with the five, anonymous City staffers, Council member Elizabeth Nelson, a lawyer, said: “A majority of Council would like the community to believe that the decision to terminate Mr. Crawford’s employment was supported by facts, consistent with recommendations, and dictated by city policy. None of that is true. A majority of Council introduced the idea of termination, based on disputed reports from five people. A majority of Council intentionally ignored other available information and rejected specific recommendations to seek out more information.”

While Jennifer Salvatore’s law firm website lists “investigations” as an area of practice, when asked if she had conducted investigations for other cities or businesses prior to her hiring by Ann Arbor’s City Attorney, Salvatore said in an email, “I stand behind my work product, my professionalism and my independence.” Salvatore also said, “I can assure you that I and my firm have conducted other investigations.” She declined to say how many.

On March 22, 2022, according to public records, Bruce Laidlaw filed suit in Washtenaw Circuit Court against the City of Ann Arbor. Laidlaw’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain an unredacted copy of the June 2021 investigatory report written by Salvatore was denied by City officials. A FOIA denial, according to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act statute, opens to the requester the right to petition a judge to force a governmental entity to turn over public record(s) which have been denied.

When asked in an email why he filed suit to obtain the unredacted June 2021 Salvatore report, Laidlaw said, “Knowing who talked to Salvatore may reveal whether there really was a group [of city employees] that on its own went to the Mayor. There is much to that story that doesn’t seem credible.”

Crawford’s attorney attempted to contact the Ann Arbor City Attorney by phone. Heusel says he received, “no meaningful response from the City.” Huesel writes in his letter that the City “does not share our interest to correct the record.” Through his attorney, Tom Crawford asks that City Council retract the Dec. 2021 Salvatore report released to the public in January 2022.

If City officials refuse to retract Salvatore’s Dec. 2021 report, and Council members who made comments at public meetings about Salvatore’s work being “100 percent accurate” and “only the tip of the iceberg” refuse to retract those statements, Crawford will have a clear path to file a defamation suit naming as a defendant the City of Ann Arbor. Crawford’s defamation suit may also name as defendants individual City Council members who voted to release the Dec. 2021 report and who subsequently defended Salvatore (and their own actions in releasing the reports to the public) by making the claims, above, concerning the accuracy of Salvatore’s investigation.

Plaintiffs have one year to file a defamation lawsuit, according to Michigan Compiled Laws section 600.5805(9), which sets this deadline for the filing of any “action charging libel or slander.”