Mayor’s behaviour not confined to recent years Sir: After much consideration I feel compelled to add my voice to the findings of Robert Swayze, the Integrity Commissioner, and Lauren Bernardi, the Human Resources Lawyer.
Mayor’s behaviour not confined to recent years
Sir: After much consideration I feel compelled to add my voice to the findings of Robert Swayze, the Integrity Commissioner, and Lauren Bernardi, the Human Resources Lawyer.
They provided independent and objective investigations into the conduct of Mayor Mike Bradley: the former under the city’s Code of Conduct and the latter under its harassment policy and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
I would encourage you, if you haven’t already, to read these reports. In the Workplace Harassment Report, the characteristics of bullying behavior found on pages 5 and 6 describe traits that fit Mayor Bradley’s behaviour and conduct.
The findings are not surprising to me, based on what I observed and experienced regarding Mayor Bradley during my time in public office.
This type of conduct is not acceptable, period. This behaviour was not confined to the last couple of years and would have continued. It was his way of dealing with staff or others who disagreed with him. This type of behaviour is corrosive and damaging to the City of Sarnia on many levels.
I want to thank the courageous women who bravely lodged the complaints. My thanks to city council, which did the right thing and acted on recommendations that flowed from the reports.
Any person hired by city hall that breached such policies and was guilty on so many counts would have been fired by now. As the mayor is not hired, but elected, only the public can remove him in the next election cycle. A much-needed change would benefit Sarnia.
As an aside, the mechanism used to call in the Integrity Commissioner comes from a section of the Municipal Act from my Private Member’s Bill, which was inserted into the Act in 2007 under Transparency and Accountability. It reads:
“To help ensure integrity and accountability in public office, Part V.1 of the act (sections 223.1 to 223.24) provides that municipalities may pass bylaws to establish:
* A code of conduct for council and local board members
* An Integrity Commissioner
* A municipal Ombudsman
* An Auditor General
* A lobbyist registry and registrar”
Caroline Di Cocco
Bright’s Grove
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Money wasted on witch-hunt
Sir: The Mayor Mike Bradley investigation/witch-hunt has cost the city $210,000.
Add to that the cost of renovating and isolating his office and the number increases.
I’d like to point out that the city is short $10,000 to pay for the Lawrence House repairs. The log cabin in Canatara Park is in dire need of repair. Jackson Pool remained closed during a sweltering summer because the city lacked the funds for the needed repairs.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this logic?
Lorene Wilson
Sarnia
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How many mayoral sanctions is enough?
Sir: City councillors’ repetition of “Legally bound to take measures to protect staff” needs clarification.
The recent reports did not specify the type or number of measures needed, so I’m asking how many measures will satisfy their legal requirements. Two? Twenty?
(1) Council appointed intermediary to liaise between mayor and staff. (2) Curtailed mayor’s access to city hall. (3) Requires mayor to take anger management training. Those alone should protect council from prosecution.
The mayor’s office is located away from staff, and the liaison needs no title, so why relocate his office, or appoint the liaison “Deputy Mayor”
I have been a victim. I do not condone harassment. I understand the repercussions and can empathize, but victims must make an effort to regain control, to reassert themselves. Amid councillors, on camera, seated elsewhere, with no opportunity for mayoral harassment, the city manager can fulfill her role on council. By choice, no staff member need face the mayor alone.
On receipt of the report, steps legally required to protect everyone were put into place, making further actions unnecessary. The victims have become council’s excuse for adding more sanctions, making them further victims by the injustices being perpetrated in their name.
What began as justifiable punishment got distorted by an anger that grew into rage, ending in revenge. Council has lost all concept of fair or equitable, which has fuelled a divisive, mob mentality among the citizenry.
Now, for all of us, how many precautionary measures satisfy council’s legal requirements?
Dorothy Allan
Sarnia
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What now for our city?
Sir: The kind of capitalism our society is structured on – one of private ownership, us versus them and winners and losers – is of very little help when attempting to solve conflict.
A societal structure that works on consensus, reciprocity and collective healing would serve us better in situations like the one now facing Sarnia city council. It’s one of the aspects of indigenous culture that colonialism had no use for and unfortunately discarded.
Harassment, abuse, demeaning behaviour has no place in any part of society, much less the workplace. Offering apologies, however sincerely meant, will not enable conflicting understandings to move forward.
The only legal choice Sarnia city council had to respond to and respect the results of the reports was to create a workplace that would provide safety for its employees. They have done that.
Council has also begun to separate policy-making, which is the elected officials’ responsibility, from the day-to-day operation of the city, for which the hired staff is responsible. For Sarnia to have an effective municipal government, that is something that should have happened many years ago.
The only legal choice the mayor has is to abide by the municipal governance structure.
As citizens, we care about what happens in our municipal government since the decisions made there often affect our communal life much more than those coming from provincial and federal legislation.
As citizens, it is also our responsibility to hold all our elected officials to account on a daily basis, not just every four years. This means we must be fully informed and not resort to innuendo, name-calling, taking sides or jumping to conclusions about things we choose to know little about.
Will we together spend the next two years with wild accusations, entrenched positions and personal attacks, or will we together find a way to work towards healing of the real human hurts that this situation has brought about on all sides?
We could do no better than to tap into the collective wisdom available within the neighbouring indigenous communities to show us how to move forward together.
Thea deGroot
Sarnia
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Make Remembrance Day a statutory holiday
Sir: Re: The Journal article about the dedication of a monument to Canadians who served in the Afghan war.
It is now close to Remembrance Day, Nov. 11. Quebec and Ontario are the only two provinces that do not have legislation in place to recognize it as a mandatory statutory Day of Remembrance.
This was taken away in 1982 by the Bill Davis government and Education Minister Bette Stephenson, with advice from the Provincial Command of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Their stand was that children should be in school on Nov. 11 to learn the part Canadians played in the two World Wars, Korea and Afghanistan.
They would have a better understanding attending a ceremony with their families.
Stephenson said in a newspaper article that the Legion has argued for several years that it is wrong to make Nov. 11 a public holiday, and she agreed that Remembrance Day should be dropped.
The Education Act said that Nov. 11 may be designated as a holiday or transferred to another month. This will never happen.
There have been thousands of letters and petitions to re-instate the status of Remembrance Day, so that all Canadians can attend ceremonies on Nov. 11 to respect and honour those who served and sacrificed.
We will remember them; the poppies still grow in Flanders Field.
Kathleen Hayes
Sarnia
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Kudos to MPP Bob Bailey
Sir: We had sponsored one of our employees for permanent residency (PR) through Ontario’s Provincial Nomination Program.
Our employee had met all the legal requirements and was expected to get his PR in due processing time. However, we were shocked to hear that his application was rejected. Devastated by this unexpected news, I called the office of MPP Bob Bailey. He was at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
Anthony Rizzetto in Bob Bailey’s office quickly caught up with him and made arrangements for me to meet Bob.
Next morning, I went to Toronto with an expectation to see Bob around 9 a.m. in his Queen’s Park office. To my surprise, he called me around 7:30 a.m. to say he had arranged for me to see Laura Albanese, MPP for York South-Weston and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
After explaining the issue to Bob, we went to the legislative assembly. Sitting in the visitor’s gallery I saw him briefly whispering to a lady and both of them looked at me.
Literally in two minutes Bob was introducing me to the minister. I explained the whole situation and showed her our file.
The minister was apologetic for her department’s mistake and the challenges I was facing to recruit speciality cooks in a small city like Sarnia. The minister assured me for her follow up.
I left Toronto that day with a clear appreciation of our elected officials and their hard work, and that they really try their best to help constituents.
Because the legislative assembly is in Toronto we don’t see it. But what I experienced that day is that they actually do work very hard to make the lives better for all Ontario residents.
Manjit Singh
Sitara Indian Cuisine
Sarnia
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Rotary Club says thanks
Sir: The Rotary Club of Sarnia Lambton After Hours is very grateful for the support it received from Sarnia and area businesses and individuals at our 5th annual Trivia Night on Oct. 22 at Degroot’s Nurseries.
Club’s members would like to thank everyone who sponsored, attended and contributed to the event. Because of your public-spirited support it was a rousing success.
The local community benefits directly from your generous support because Rotary provides community service-funding grants to local non-profit organizations for their projects and programs.
Thank you one and all very much, and we hope to see you again next year.
Bill Murphy
President, Rotary Club of Sarnia Lambton After-Hours.
