A Watertown City Council meeting Tuesday night was stopped for more than an hour as a team of State Police investigators questioned council members in a back office. One or more members of the council are the focus of what’s now a criminal investigation, Mayor Sarah Compo-Pierce said Wednesday.

While no official reason was given, one council member believes he is one of the targets.

“Before we move on to the remainder of the agenda here, I need to ask the council members to join me and my office briefly. We will be right back,” city Compo-Pierce said Tuesday night at the council meeting.

With that, the Watertown City Council meeting Tuesday night took a very strange and confusing turn.

“Yeah, it was. It was a surprise. I had no idea that this was being done,” Watertown City Council Member Cliff Olney said.

Inside the mayor's office were a number of investigators from the New York State Police.

“I can confirm that there is an ongoing state police investigation that concerns members of council, their activities and certain private individuals,” Compo-Pierce said.

She said she could not confirm who or what the investigation is about. She referred questions to State Police.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to police, but have not yet heard back.

However, Olney believes he knows exactly what this is all about. He said he thinks he is one of those council members being looked at.

“I think what they did was they decided to have this as a standalone opportunity to smear me and to go after the people again, because this is an election period again,” Olney said.

Compo-Pierce said investigators informed the council Tuesday night that the criminal investigation is separate from an ethics complaint filed against Olney in September of 2023 regarding the city's purchase of the Watertown Golf Club.

Olney believes that everything is connected.

“I wasn't told last night the scope of the investigation. I didn't know who brought this investigation. They said it was an anonymous tip. I doubt that,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

When investigators Tuesday night asked members of the city council, including the mayor, to turn over their cell phones, he refused.

“I will talk to my attorney. I said, I want to fully cooperate with this investigation everywhere, can and have it move forward,” Olney said. “They wanted the showmanship. They wanted the orchestrated scene that you saw last night. It's pretty much the case.”

He said he still doesn't understand what investigators are looking for, and no one wanted to tell him.

Compo-Pierce said she did have some advance warning of the investigation, and before the meeting, put together a resolution that would legally allow all council members current and past to discuss with investigators conversations that happened in executive sessions, and that would fall under city attorney client privilege.

"I think that is one of the most important jobs that elected officials have, to be open and transparent about their activities and that is what that resolution aimed to achieve," Compo-Pierece added.