Elizabeth Wood McDonald Since city council voted on June 28 to sanction Mayor Mike Bradley, no letter writer in support of the mayor, evidently, has read the Integrity Commissioner’s report.
Elizabeth Wood McDonald
Since city council voted on June 28 to sanction Mayor Mike Bradley, no letter writer in support of the mayor, evidently, has read the Integrity Commissioner’s report.
It deals with three issues – workplace/gender harassment, dishonesty, and acting in contravention of the Municipal Act.
Local media have failed in not outlining the report’s contents in detail and been completely silent on the most egregious issue – skirting the Municipal Act, which delineates the powers of elected municipal officials in Ontario.
The Integrity Commissioner’s position was created to hold municipal officials accountable, and is incorporated in the amendments introduced by former MPP Caroline DiCocco.
Of nine department heads in City Hall, four of them, all women, have complained. Top officials do not belong to a union but, rather, are on contract. The only recourse for a third-party intervention is Human Resources or the Integrity Commissioner. The City Manager chose HR, “has sought legal advice” (Integrity Report page 5), and the investigation is ongoing: this is why Councillor Bruziewicz said any investigation by another outside source would uncover further “victimization”.
In her submission to the Integrity Commissioner, the City Clerk included 50 pages of documentation to support her case, details the “insulting and abusive” behaviour of the Mayor towards her (page 2), stating that “the Mayor fosters and promotes a poisoned work environment where fear is the corporate culture” (page 3).
To date, three careers have been sacrificed.
The dishonesty issue arises out of the Mayor’s unilateral action to meet with the three union police presidents. In his verbal remarks on June 28th, the Commissioner said for this action alone he would recommend the maximum penalty. Negotiations with the city unions are the mandate of the City Manager.
By meeting, the Mayor invariably broke confidentiality of in-camera positions. When interviewed by the Commissioner “he admitted that he had no training or education in relation to labour relations”… (and) made “no report to Council or the City Manager as to what the meeting discussed. I asked him what was discussed and he said “moving forward”” (page 7).
The third issue is acting in contravention of the Municipal Act. Until recently the Mayor had read, edited and often “unilaterally direct(s) staff to make substantive changes in reports through the City Manager before received by the rest of Council.”
The Code of Conduct and the Municipal Act state specifically that “only council as a whole and no single Member has the authority to direct staff” (page 9).
The six Councillors showed great courage and did their duty.
Free copies of the report are available at the Clerk’s Counter, City Hall, on request.
More on this topic is available at Elizabethmcdonald.net. The Table of Contents is found by scrolling to the bottom of the home page and clicking on ‘sitemap.’
Elizabeth Wood McDonald is a former Sarnia City Councillor and retired high school teacher of history, geography and political science.
