One fact has emerged from the festering online flap between City Councilmember Michael Nelson and his former deputy chief of staff Robert Varley: the two won’t be adding each other to their buddy lists any time soon.
The feud began with posts critical of Nelson on the blog GerritsenBeach.net—comments Varley said the lawmaker blamed on him.
Varley insisted he had nothing to do with the posts, and said it stung to be made the fall guy.
In a scathing retort posted on the online forum of the Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association, SBPBCivic.org, Varley said that Nelson is no Mr. Nice Guy.
Varley revealed that during his time with Nelson, he was “explicitly directed” to respond to a chorus of online critics—over a host of issues—under the name ‘City Insider.’
On the Gerritsen Beach blog as well as the civic association’s forum, Varley said he was Nelson’s virtual hatchet man.
“Mike, you can’t blame me for the fact that you obviously have numerous enemies with deeply rooted opinions against you,” Varley wrote.
Where once he looked at Nelson as a “second father,” Varley said he now feels “pain and disappointment.”
“If you have a problem, then say it,’ Varley wrote on the forum to his former boss. “Stop trying to hide and be a man.”
Nelson told this paper he has no time to post or read blogs or online forums.
“I never get involved with this whatsoever…at all,” he said. “To me, it’s a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands. It’s like junior high school.”
“It can be a wonderful means of communication. It can also be a way for people to rant,” Nelson continued.
Nelson would not disclose the reasons Varley was fired after nearly three years of service.
“All he wants to do is sully my reputation,” the lawmaker continued.
He said he took critics and their comments in stride. “When you’re in politics long enough, you get people [upset with] you—otherwise, you’re not doing anything,” Nelson said. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Varley, who worked briefly for Queens Councilmember Joseph Addabbo, now works in the private sector.
Varley said Nelson knew what he was doing every step of the way. “For a boss to say he had no knowledge of what their employees are doing just doesn’t pass the logic test,” he told this paper.
He said whenever he posted as City Insider, “it was printed out and put on Mike’s desk for him to see.”
He said he tried to get in contact with his former boss once he learned that he was being blamed for the negative posts. “I did the manly thing, and my phone calls were not returned,” he said.
Days after he called, Varley said Nelson’s chief of staff left a message, but the two have yet to speak.
He said the firing came as a “complete and total shock.”
“For Mike, who is always such a family values man—he did it the week after my grandmother died and right after I found out my wife was pregnant with our first child,” Varley said.
Varley offered this assessment of his former boss: “He is a deep caring guy who has certainly tried his hardest in politics and certainly…doesn’t get everything done.”
