WESTFIELD, Ind. — A feud between Westfield mayor Andy Cook and the city’s clerk-treasurer Cindy Gossard reached a boiling point at a Westfield city council meeting Tuesday night.
During the meeting, Daniel Smith, a representative of Veracity, detailed a report compiled by the company essentially accusing Cook’s office of spying on Gossard’s office with software downloaded by city IT workers to computers used by city workers.
The two forms of software are called BeyondTrust and PaperCut.
“What is your conclusion here. What are you saying?” Cook asked Smith directly during public comment of Tuesday city council meeting.
“The conclusion of this investigation with the data that I have is I don’t see any plausible use of the BeyondTrust and PaperCut software as a plausible, legitimate IT use,” Smith replied. “It does appear to be used for the sole purpose of looking at the activity of the clerk treasury’s office on their computers.”
“Wow! That is a huge legal accusation you are making,” Cook said in response.
The city says the software was downloaded to workers’ computers so IT workers can remotely access computers in order to fix problems, perform maintenance, and keep track of how much paper is being used. The clerk-treasurer believes the mayor’s office used this software to spy on a meeting between her and her legal counsel.
Three lawsuits have been filed and several internal investigations have been taking place since the accusations of spying came to the surface. City councilors said Tuesday night that they will no longer approve taxpayer money to pay for lawsuits filed by either side.
