Monday November 26th Regular town council meeting

** Mayor DiCarlo was absent tonight**

Well, tonight was a full house….standing room only. This was it. The last and final meeting of the current council for this term. We laughed, we cried……well not really. There were a few tears, but I think there was more anger than laughter.

The meeting started off quite pleasantly, but rolled down hill fairly quickly.

RECOGNITIONS

Domenic Silvaggio – Windsor Essex Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

The Clerk read a prepared statement on behalf of the Mayor. It outlined Mr. Silvaggio’s accomplishments and acknowledged him as an ambassador to the Town of Amherstburg.  Mr Silvaggio gave a short speech and thanked everyone. They then took a picture of him, with the Deputy Mayor and the girls basketball team that he coaches. Congratulations!

Long Time Service Award Recognition 2018

There were supposed to be some recognition awards presented to a few members of town staff, however none were in attendance to accept them, so this got skipped over.

Supplementary Agenda

Certificates of Appreciation – 2014-2018 Term of Council

Each of the outgoing members of council were recognized with certificates of appreciation. The Clerk read a short, prepared statement for each member on behalf of the mayor. Deputy Mayor DiPasquale was recognized as well as Councillor Pouget, Councillor Fryer, Councillor Lavigne and Councillor Courtney.

Then, each of the outgoing members of council took some time to thank people in sort of a “good bye” speech. I’ll sum them up as best I can.

Councillor Pouget thanked her fellow councillors and administration. She thanked Chief Berthiaume, the Deputy Chief and all of the officers and members of APSB. She also thanked the public and acknowledged having met many amazing people. She thanked her family and friends as well as all of the candidates who ran in the election. She wished the successful candidates good luck, that it’s a big job, a lot of work and to be true to themselves. She told them “don’t drink the Kool-Aid”.

Councillor Meloche spoke briefly and acknowledged Councillor Pouget for her hard work. He wished her well.

Councillor Lavigne then spoke. He explained that he’d been involved in politics for 15 years and that this was his 3rd election. He offered his praises to Councillor Pouget and each of the various members of council. He advised the incoming council not to listen to the nonsense and to stay off of social media. He felt he would be leaving with his head held high. He also thanked Chief Berthiaume and felt that the highlight of his time was being a member of the APSB.

Councillor Courtney spoke and also thanked Councillor Pouget for her 14 years of service. She said that she admires her 14 years of service and that she has helped her to become the councillor that she is. She also thanked each member of the current council for their various strengths. She thanked the people that came regularly to the council meetings and thanked administration.

Concillor Fryer then spoke. He thanked each of the members of council. He thanked his father and expressed how happy and stress-free he is now that the election is over. He expressed his desire to move the town forward and thanked the public and members of administration, some by name. He also mentioned that people should get off social media and only use it to congratulate others, not to get them down.

So, it was all warm and fuzzy….everybody saying kind things to each other…..

And then, the meeting did a complete 180.

PRESENTATIONS

Bruce Ellman, Integrity Commissioner – File 17-09-2018, Final Report

Mr Ellman presented his report about “the leak”. For those that aren’t familiar, please read my pre-meeting blog, since he summed up the reasons for the investigation. I went live with my phone on Facebook during this time, so again, taking notes on my lap and holding the phone at the same time are somewhat difficult. (We were also packed in like sardines tonight. Thank goodness I just lost a bunch of weight, because I’m not sure what I would have done. And I’m not kidding.)

Mr Ellman even acknowledged that he kind of felt like the Grinch who stole Christmas after all these nice things were said. He explained his report, that he was tasked to investigate the in-camera leak.  It seems that the leak happened between September 10th and September 13th. It involved Mr Bob Rozankovick sending an email to council that contained confidential information. This part was all laid out in the report. Mr Ellman said he drew the conclusion that Councillor Lavigne was the person who disclosed the confidential information to Mr Rozankovick, the chair of the Amherstburg Police Service Board. Mr Ellman cited several times about the lack of cooperation from Councillor Lavigne and Mr Rozankovick. He acknowledged that the information was circumstantial, since neither party would agree to an interview. He cited two phone calls that Councillor Lavigne placed to the clerk, in which he seemed to clarify what constituted a breach of confidentiality and one in which he asked about the possible outcome to him. Mr Ellman again cited Councillor Lavigne’s failure to cooperate with the investigation process and cited the number of times he tried to get in touch with Councillor Lavigne. He also pointed out that Councillor Lavigne was the only member of council or administration not to sign the Statement of Assurance.

Mr Ellman also spoke of the unnecessary nature of the investigation and that it cost the town money and created anxiety. He felt there were two people privy to exactly what happened……1. the “leaker” and 2 the “receiver”…..He identified Mr Rozankovick as the receiver. Mr Ellman said that either one could have stood up, explained and apologized at any point. He felt that a breach of confidentiality is a serious matter and that sanctions should be imposed. He was recommending no remuneration for Councillor Lavigne for 45 days. He also felt the report should go to the new council so that they could refer to it when it came time for council appointees on boards or committees, since Mr Rozankovick is the chair of the APSB.

Councillor Pouget asked about the other part of the investigation….the one for an independent investigator to investigate administration. Mr Ellman explained that that is not his job. His purview is only to investigate members of council.

Councillor Pouget felt that council couldn’t act on this report without the other investigation being completed. She said something about Councillor Fryer working at CAO Miceli’s computer (I’m not quite sure what that was about?). She then spoke about Councillor Fryer’s failed motion to remove Councillor Lavigne and Mr Rozankovick from the APSB while the investigation was ongoing. She felt that Councillor Lavigne had been presumed guilty, that the report was premature and that council shouldn’t deal with it.

Mr Ellman explained that he was given a task by council and he did it. He felt that based on the balance of probabilities, if what Councillor Pouget was saying was valid, then there was no reason for the two gentlemen not to cooperate with the investigation. He explained that he just makes the report to council but council makes the decision of what to do or not to do, in terms of sanctions.

There was some back and forth between Mr Ellman and Councillor Pouget and Councillor Courtney. Councillor Fryer said that he never touched the CAO’s computer. He felt it was a good idea and had the motion prepared to temporarily remove the two from the APSB in order to keep things clean during the investigation.

Then it came time for a motion…..much back and forth…..at first it seemed there would simply be a motion to receive (which means no sanctions…..i.e. no punishment…..simply receive the report and that’s it). Then Councillor Meloche made a motion to receive the report and have Councillor Lavigne not receive one months pay. Councillor Courtney removed her second, but Councilor Fryer then seconded it. It went to a recorded vote :

In favour: Councillor Fryer and Councillor Meloche

Opposed : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale and Councillor Pouget

So……translation……no sanctions imposed, no “punishment”….no nothing at all…..some people in the audience clapped and cheered. Some didn’t. I will wait to see what the “silent majority” that some think doesn’t exist have to say on the big bad social media that we were told to avoid tonight.

Supplementary Agenda – 

Bruce Elman, Integrity Commissioner – Final Report, File 06-07-2018

This report involved a complaint against Councillor Pouget. Since this item was not on the regular agenda I hadn’t read the report ahead of time nor blogged about it in my pre-meeting blog. Here’s a link to Mr Elman’s report :

http://weblink8.countyofessex.on.ca/WebLink/11/edoc/22806/2018%2011%2026%20-%20Supplementary%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0QZ8p52fzukQduq1LP0-BBrPNHm7KvHU17SdsQrWAZ_u5h7FSoZUCTaYk

It’s only 8 pages, so it’s a fairly quick and easy read.

This complaint involved a complaint by the CAO against Councillor Pouget. It involved words said at 3 meetings, two of which were in-camera. Mr Ellman came to the conclusion that Councillor Pouget had used insulting words towards staff at two of the meetings, which is a violation of the code of conduct. He recommended that she issue a written apology to CAO Miceli. Mr Ellman explained that he could not reveal details since they involved in-camera meetings.

Councillor Lavigne was back and the first to question the Integrity Commissioner this time. He asked about the length of time it took to finish the investigation. Mr Ellman explained he received the initial complaint on July 6th. He said generally that it takes 3 to 4 months but since it was election time, he didn’t want the report coming in during the election. Councillor Lavigne then questioned if there was a moratorium for Integrity Commissioner reports during the election. Mr Ellman explained there is in Windsor but it does not exist in Amherstburg. There was some back and forth between Councillor Lavigne and Mr Ellman about this. Mr Ellman explained that the previous Integrity Commissioner would have looked at the code of conduct with council and advised.

(Side note…..I’m going to go back tomorrow and dig a bit on this……I’m 99% sure that this current council voted to make the new code of conduct and vote to hire an Integrity Commissioner……I’m also pretty sure that Councillors Fryer, Pouget and Lavigne had voted against getting an Integrity Commissioner at all and that the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Councillors Meloche and Courtney voted for it…..I’ll check tomorrow and edit….)

****Edited: Tuesday November 27th** I did some research and found the minutes and sure enough….November 9, 2015 meeting there was the motion and the recorded vote to hire an Integrity Commissioner…..In Favour : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale,  Councillor Meloche and Mayor DiCarlo. Opposed were : Councillors Fryer, Lavigne and Pouget*** And yes, this current council also updated the code of conduct at a different meeting. 

And I also found an old blog from July 18th 2016, where the Integrity Commissioner (Mr Swayze at the time) presented a training session to council. Worth a quick read if you’re interested…..he spoke at length about confidentiality and how council should treat town staff. Here’s the link : 

https://amherstburg2.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/monday-july-18th-special-town-council-meeting/

***Edit finished.**

Councillor Lavigne asked how many complaints had been filed against Councillor Pouget in 4 years time. Mr Ellman refused to answer. He said there are no reports to council about a complaint if it’s unfounded of if there’s no admonition.

Then Councillor Lavigne made a motion to simply receive the report and Councillor Courtney seconded it.

Councillor Fryer felt that if there’s a code of conduct in place and the conduct is habitual that the recommendation would not be different for anybody. He felt that it’s not popular to receive a report of wrong-doing and then do nothing about it. He felt it sent the wrong message to the public. He explained that council gets the reports on Wednesday and they have until Monday to read it and do their homework and he would not support simply receiving the report.

Councillor Meloche said he was party to the events and he thinks that Councillor Pouget owes an apology.

Councillor Lavigne then spoke loudly about cross talk and that people are violating the code of conduct on social media.

The motion was simply to receive the report (no sanction, no apology letter required):

In support : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale, Councillor Lavigne

Opposed : Councillor Fryer and Councillor Meloche

There was some loud clapping from some of the audience.

As much as there were some there supporting Councillor Pouget, I have a feeling that many members of the public won’t be happy about this. But I’ll wait and see…..

Two instances tonight of council members violating the code of conduct and yet absolutely no consequence for them…..

The rest of the items either went through or were deferred for the next council. Until….

Unfinished Business

I went live on Facebook again for this….

Councillor Pouget was concerned that many motions were made at the special meeting and that none of the reports came back tonight as was requested. She cited the motion about the money owed for policing at two festivals. The Clerk pointed out that the issue had been voted on previously, therefore the motion from the last meeting was invalid. It would have to be brought back by someone on the “winning” side.

(I have an example…..since I’ve been to a ton of meetings, this part I understand about the “rules”…..council had previously voted against buying Belle Vue and it had passed 3 to 2….Councillor Courtney had been one of the 3 and she then brought the motion back for reconsideration and then it passed 3 to 2).

The CAO explained that the report they requested was a procedural matter. He seemed surprised that Councillor Pouget had been a councillor for 14 years and hadn’t realized this. He explained that the meeting two weeks ago was a contentious one and that administration missed it at the time and didn’t realize until afterwards. (This was greeted by guffaws and noises in the crowd-the video doesn’t lie-….and I went live with the last meeting….it was contentious, even by what can be caught on the video…..)

Councillor Pouget noted that Councillor Lavigne and the Deputy Mayor had been absent from that other meeting when the motion was made, a month ago and wondered who could bring it forth…….well, only the “winners” can bring it back for reconsideration…..i.e. Mayor DiCarlo, Councillor Fryer or Councillor Meloche.

Councillor Pouget said the issue of this unpaid bill was brought to her attention and she researched the accounts payable. She also went to the APSB. She said there was a motion at the APSB meeting made by Pauline Gemmell and seconded by the Mayor about the amount of the bill. Councillor Pouget said that the Treasurer stated the bill was on his desk. Councillor Pouget felt that we need to find out about the bill, the total amount and who is responsible for it.

CAO Miceli said that the bill was not on anybody’s desk. He asked Councillor Pouget, if during her investigation she had found a copy of a signed contract. It seems the APSB was responsible to get a signed contract for services rendered but was unable to produce one. He again asked Councillor Pouget to produce a contract if she wants anybody named as being responsible.

There was some, what seemed to be angry, back and forth between Councillor Lavigne and the CAO about this issue, since it seems that maybe there isn’t even a contract or paper trail about services rendered?

Councillor Fryer said that council can’t tell the APSB anything. Council simply gets the police budget and that’s it. He said that the APSB didn’t sign a contract and that it’s their obligation to get the money and that the board is responsible to get the money…..so why didn’t the APSB go get the money.

There was more heated exchange between Councillor Lavigne, the CAO and the Treasurer about how bills and receivables flow through the town. The CAO said that APSB kept separate books and waited one year to approach the town about this outstanding issue.

And basically, the issue died right there…..Councillor Meloche (our numbers guy) pointed out that the burden of proof is not there……no contract……

Other new Business

Under “new business”, Councillor Pouget brought up Facebook posts that she attributed to Councillor Meloche and that she found offensive. Councillor Meloche apologized for one small item but the rest he would not apologize for.

She then quoted some words he had written about the meeting on November 13th where he called that meeting a “circus”. Councillor Meloche again said he will not apologize for those words. He said his lawyer was appalled at the behaviour she witnessed at the meeting (so were many others by the way) and that the meeting was quite a “circus”.

Then council was going to go in-camera again, but they deferred it for the next council.

And then it was over. It was finally over. The day I thought may never come. It’s a shame that the meeting took on a negative and confrontational tone during the better part of it. That will always be the lasting impression I’ll have of this council. In my opinion, it was not as volatile as the November 13th meeting, but it certainly wasn’t exemplary by any means. Regardless, it’s over, it’s done and we’re moving onward and upward.

I’m very much looking forward to our new council jumping into gear. I have high expectations of them! I’ll continue blogging…..maybe they’ll be so wonderful, accountable and transparent that I can retire after a little while……? LOL Either way, I plan to continue to blog, so I will see you on the flip side Amherstburg! I’m anxious to see if some of our outgoing councillors take their own advice and stay off of social media?

 

 

 

In preparation for Monday November 26th Regular town council meeting

Well, this is it folks. The very last meeting of our current council! At one time, this meeting seemed so far off into the distant future and now here we are. And boy oh boy, hold on to your hats, because it looks like this current council is going to go out with a bang…..and not in a good way, in my opinion.

First, council will meet in-camera to discuss:

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETING
That Council move into an In-Camera Meeting of Council at 4:30 p.m. pursuant
to Section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001, as amended, for the following
reasons:
Item A – Integrity Complaint – Final Report – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters
about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees.

And I’m betting that this meeting will be a real fireworks display!

As for the public meeting here we go:

RECOGNITIONS

Domenic Silvaggio – Windsor Essex Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

Mr. Silvaggio is being recognized by the town.

Long Time Service Award Recognition 2018
Looks like there will be some presentations to some long-serving members of our town hall staff.

15 Years of Service
Dwayne Grondin, Engineering Technologist
Elke Leblanc, Supervisor, Revenue

10 Years of Service
Anne Rota, Manager, Tourism and Culture
Annette Zahaluk, Manager, Parks and Naturalized Areas
Antonietta Giofu, Director, Engineering and Public Works
Janine Mastronardi, Planning Clerk
Lynette Sharon, Financial Services Clerk

PRESENTATIONS

After some very well-deserved recognition for the town staff, the public will get to hear a report about some consequences of leaking in-camera information……and not cooperating with an investigation.

Bruce Ellman, Integrity Commissioner – File 17-09-2018, Final Report

So it appears that Mr Ellman, our integrity commissioner, has completed his report about the “council leak” and will be presenting it to the public. Wait for it…..sit down and get ready to read. I’ll pull out the highlights and some quotes directly from the report. I’ll include the link as well, for those of you who are interested to read it in it’s entirety. It is quite an interesting read and I’m reluctant to paraphrase since well, this is extremely important, but the most likely source of the leak is revealed in the report….as well as a major lack of cooperation it seems from the main “witness” or recipient of said leaked information. Here we go…the quotes from the report are underlined.

“At a Special Council Meeting held on the 17th of September 2018, Town Council, by unanimous resolution, instructed the Integrity Commissioner to investigate a disclosure of confidential information which followed an In-Camera meeting of Council held on the 10th of September 2018. I was instructed to determine whether a Member of Council had disclosed information from the In-Camera Meeting to Mr. Bob Rozankovic, Chair of the Amherstburg Police Services Board, thus violating the provisions of section 6.12 of the Town’s Code of Conduct for Members of Council.

The Disclosure of Confidential Information:

The disclosure of confidential information from the In-Camera Meeting of September 10th came to light when Mr. Rozankovic wrote an email to Mr. John Miceli, CAO of the Town, on the 12th of September 2018. The email, with the Subject line “Council Meeting – In Camera – Monday, September 10th, 2018”, contained matters that were discussed at the In-Camera Meeting on September 10 th. Mr. Rozankovic`s email was cc’ed to all Members of Council including Members who had declared a conflict at the InCamera
Meeting and had, consequently, recused themselves as well as other individuals who had not been part of the In-Camera meeting at all. Further, in his email to the CAO, Mr. Rozankovic indicated that he had been approached by “a couple of residents” who, apparently, were also aware of the matters discussed at the In-Camera Meeting.

At the Special Meeting of Council on the 17th of September 2018, no Member of Council was willing to acknowledge having breached the confidentiality of the In-Camera Meeting. Further, Mr. Rozankovic, for some reason, known only to him, was unwilling to disclose the identity of the person from whom he had received the information.”

(So, basically, Mr Rozankovick was given some confidential in-camera information from somebody who had attended the in-camera meeting on September 10th, which I think that meeting was about the Windsor Police Contract…..he then sent an email about this information to all of council and the CAO about it……is it just me, but what the heck was he thinking???? Somebody leaked you information that they shouldn’t have and then you email council about it? I’m not sure what I’m missing here…..why would somebody do that?) The report goes on….

“I have concluded on the preponderance of information available to me:
1. THAT Councillor Jason Lavigne disclosed confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting of September 10th, 2018 to Mr. Bob Rozankovic, Chair of the Amherstburg Police Services Board (APSB) between September 10th – 13th, 2018. Although there cannot be complete certainty as the identity of the individual who disclosed the confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting due to Councillor Lavigne’s and Mr. Rozankovic’s lack of cooperation and candour, the circumstantial information indicates, on the balance of probabilities, that Councillor Jason Lavigne was the source of the confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting.”

(Yes, you read that right…..Councillor Lavigne is named as the one who leaked the information…..and Mr Rozankovic did not seem to cooperate with the Integrity Commissioner as he had stated he would……great…..tax money…..bye bye…..)

The Integrity Commissioner outlines how he went about his investigation. After that, the report continues :

“In the interest of concluding the Inquiry as quickly and expeditiously as possible, I decided to take the following steps which, I believed, would achieve a result in a cost-effective manner:
(1) Arrange to interview the person who received the confidential information – Mr. Bob
Rozankovic — in order to ascertain the identity of the person who had disclosed the information to him. I assumed that this would be straightforward. Mr. Rozankovic was not a member of the media who might need to protect his sources. In fact, he was a Council appointee to the Amherstburg Police Services Board and, furthermore, according to the media reports of the September 17th Special Council Meeting, he had indicated that he would fully co-operate with the Integrity Commissioner; (2) From my preliminary investigation, I decided to arrange an interview with the Councillor who, I believed, had most probably disclosed the confidential information to Mr. Rozankovic – Councillor Jason Lavigne. Council`s unanimously-supported Resolution – Seconded by Councillor Lavigne — at the Special Council Meeting called on all Members of Council to co-operate fully with the Integrity Commissioner. I hoped, indeed expected, that Councillor Lavigne would follow the direction of Council and co-operate in my Investigation; (3) Finally, I decided to ask Members of Council to sign a Statement of Assurance Regarding the Breach of Confidentiality. Three Statements were prepared: one for Members who attended the In-Camera Meeting, another for Members who declared a Conflict of Interest and did not attend the In-Camera Meeting, and a third for a Member who was unable to attend the Meeting for personal reasons. (These Statements of Assurance can be found in Appendix A to this Report.) I hoped that the Statement of Assurance would serve two purposes: first, it would allow me to narrow the scope of my inquiry; and second, it would emphasize to the individual responsible for the breach of the confidentiality, the seriousness of this type of violation of the Code of Conduct. This might, then, allow us to reach some negotiated settlement of this Complaint with the individual, saving the Town both time and money”.

(Preview here…..the investigation was not a smooth one…..seems there was a serious lack of cooperation…..bye bye more tax money….)

“The results achieved from this three-pronged approach were as follows: (1) Meeting with Mr. Rozankovic: Despite his assurance to the media that he would “co-operate fully with the Integrity Commissioner”, it took some time for Mr. Rozankovic to agree to meet with me without pre-conditions. This interview was, eventually, arranged for the week following the Municipal Election held on October 22nd, 2018; (2) Meeting with Councillor Lavigne: The Councillor initially agreed to meet with me during the week of October 15th. When I pressed Councillor Lavigne to arrange a specific time and place, the Councillor ceased responding to my emails. I had hoped that Councillor Lavigne would agree to meet during the week following the Municipal Election; (3) Statements of Assurance: Members of Council were generally cooperative with me. Six of the seven Members of Council signed the Statement of Assurance and all were witnessed – most by the Municipal Clerk`s office. The one individual who did not sign the Statement of Assurance was, not surprisingly, the same individual whom I had identified as the Member of Council most likely to have disclosed the information to Mr. Rozankovic and who had refused to respond to my request for a meeting – Councillor Lavigne.”

(Hmmmm……took quite some time for the Integrity Commissioner to arrange a meeting with Mr Rozankovick since he wanted “pre-conditions”…um, okay…….and then……Councillor Lavigne wouldn’t even meet with the Integrity Commissioner and stopped responding to emails…..wow)

“After the Municipal Election, I tried once again to arrange an interview with Mr. Rozankovic. He decided, in spite of his statements to the press on the evening of September 17th, that he would not agree to be interviewed by me regarding the identity of the person who provided him with confidential information from the In-Camera Meeting of September 10th. I advised him how disappointed and how irritated I was by his unwillingness to co-operate. I reminded him of his duty to the Town and of the extra cost that he had forced the Town to incur.”

(So, more games and no meeting? more tax dollars gone…..)

“I attempted, once again, to interview Councillor Lavigne. Once again, he did not respond to my request. I pointed out that his conduct violated the terms of the Resolution that he had seconded and supported that all Members of Council should fully co-operate with the Integrity Commissioner.”

(Just a side note…..Councillor Lavigne was available to sign a petition for a special meeting and attend the special meeting, yet couldn’t find time to meet with the Integrity Commissioner?? hmmmmm)

“Given the lack of co-operation displayed by Mr. Rozankovic and Councillor Lavigne, I decided to take one more step to “close the loop” on this investigation. I requested that all the Senior Staff in attendance at the In-Camera Council Meeting also sign a Statement of Assurance that they had not disclosed any confidential information. (This Statement of Assurance is appended to this Report as Appendix B.) These Senior Staff members were Mr. Giovanni (John) Miceli, CAO, Ms. Paula Parker, Municipal Clerk, Mr. Mark Galvin, Director, Planning, Development, and Legislative Services, Ms. Cheryl Horrobin, Director, Corporate Services, and Mr. Justin Rousseau, Treasurer. All signed a witnessed Statement of Assurance within 24 hours of my request. Therefore, six of seven Councillors and all five Senior Staff Members, who had attended the InCamera Council Meeting of September 10th , signed a witnessed Statement of Assurance that they had not disclosed any confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting. Only Councillor Lavigne refused to sign the Statement of Assurance.“

(Yes, you read that right…..the ONLY person not to sign the Statement of Assurance was Councillor Lavigne……hmmmmm…..)

“Although there cannot be complete certainty as the identity of the individual who disclosed confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting of September 10th, 2018 to Mr. Bob Rozankovic, the circumstantial information indicates that it was Councillor Jason Lavigne who disclosed confidential information from the In-Camera Council Meeting. What are these pieces of circumstantial information? First, there is the general context of the In-Camera Meeting and the nature of the confidential information. Only four Members of Council attended the In-Camera Council Meeting: The Mayor, Councillor Lavigne, Councillor Meloche, and Councillor Fryer. Councillor Courtney was absent for personal reasons and the Deputy Mayor and Councillor Pouget had declared a conflict and did not attend. Two of the four Members who attended serve on the Amherstburg Police Services Board: The Mayor and Councillor Lavigne. Neither Councillor Meloche nor Councillor Fryer would have any reason to contact Mr. Rozankovic with any information that may have been discussed at the Meeting. The
Mayor’s outrage at Mr. Rozankovic’s email and his insistence on an Investigation would tend to rule him out. That leaves Councillor Lavigne – the other member of the APSB – as the most likely person to have disclosed the confidential information to Mr. Rozankovic.”

(So, the circumstantial evidence all points to Councillor Lavigne as the leak…..)

“Second, a number of Members of Council and some others spoke to the Municipal Clerk in the minutes, hours, and days following the Rozankovic email containing the confidential information. Councillor Lavigne was one of these individuals. Councillor Lavigne called the Clerk twice: once on September 12th at 3:25 p.m. with the call lasting 8 minutes and a second time on September 14th at 2:18 p.m. with the call lasting 8 minutes. Ms. Parker’s recollection of her conversations with Councillor Lavigne is recalled in her log of the conversations she had in the aftermath of Mr. Rozankovic’s email. Ms. Parker reports Councillor Lavigne, on September 12th, as having said the following: “He asked me that if he had just shared the content of the information discussed and not the actual discussion, he wouldn’t be in breach.” After Ms. Parker reminded him that, at an In-Camera Council Meeting on “Integrity and Confidentiality”, I
had said that it was my belief that even confirming the subject matter of an In-Camera Meeting was a breach” of the Code of Conduct, Councillor Lavigne “asked what is the worst they could do to him — is it six months of pay they could dock me…” On the 14th of September, Ms. Parker’s asked Councillor Lavigne if his intention was to “own up to the breach of confidentiality…” Councillor Lavigne indicated that he was “unsure what he was going to do as yet”. 

(Yikes! Did Councillor Lavigne realize what he had done and was looking for a way out?….)

“Not surprisingly, after speaking with the Clerk and reading her log of the two conversations with Councillor Lavigne, I wanted to interview the Councillor regarding what he had said to the Clerk in those two conversations and about the disclosure of confidential information more generally. I wrote to him initially on October 9th. He told me he could not meet with me on “short notice”. He did say he could meet on “Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday”. I wrote back on October 10th that I would be happy to meet him “on Wednesday morning” and asked him for a definite time and a place. I received no response. I wrote to him on October 14th, 16th, and 24th , all without response. Councillor Lavigne’s reluctance to meet to discuss the disclosure of the
confidential information – the first time that this has happened to me in the eight years I have been doing integrity work – leads me to the strong inference that Councillor Lavigne was the individual who leaked the information from the In-Camera Council Meeting to Bob Rozankovic.”

(No response to the emails…..maybe his computer was hacked? LOL!…...)

“Finally, the inference that Councillor Lavigne was the individual who leaked the confidential information to Bob Rozankovic is strengthened by Councillor Lavigne’s refusal to sign the Statement of Assurance which all Members of Council (other than Councillor Lavigne) and all Members of Senior Staff signed. The Councillors and Staff who signed those Statements of Assurance acknowledged that they were “fully aware that the Matters discussed at the In Camera Meeting of Amherstburg Town Council, held on the 10th of September, 2018, were Confidential and were to remain so until disclosed by the Mayor or other individual authorized to make such a disclosure”; and further, they acknowledged that they knew “that disclosure of information discussed at an In-Camera Meeting constituted a violation or violations of the provisions of section 6.12 of the Code of Conduct of the Town of Amherstburg”. They went on to assure “Members of Council and the Residents of the Town of Amherstburg that, at no time, did they disclose the Matters discussed at the In-Camera Meeting of Amherstburg Town Council, held on the 10th of September, 2018, to Mr. Bob Rozankovic, to any other Member of the Amherstburg Police Services Board, to any Member of Council who had declared a Conflict of Interest and did not attend the In Camera Meeting or to any other person.” To emphasize what I noted earlier: Only Councillor Lavigne refused to sign the Statement of Assurance.”

(And again, the ONLY person not to sign the Statement of Assurance was Councillor Lavigne...)

“I was disappointed, exasperated, and somewhat irate at Mr. Rozankovic’s response and I
continued: “You could have ended this investigation before it began by disclosing the source of your information at the Special Council Meeting of September 17th, 2018, but you did not. You could have agreed to speak to me when I initially contacted you, but you did not. You could have spoken to me or simply advised me of the source of your information at any point in time over the last five weeks, but you did not. You have, at every stage over the past five weeks, increased the cost of this investigation to the Town of Amherstburg and introduced an element of uncertainty into its resolution. In my seven years as an Integrity Commissioner in Windsor and, of late, in Amherstburg, I have never had an individual refuse to co-operate with me. It is extremely disappointing.”

(More games and more tax dollars wasted…..I doubt that the tax payers will forget this…..ask Councillor Fryer how well the tax payers forget things like this…..)

“There is evidence that members of the community were equally exasperated regarding the unnecessary nature of the investigation. For example, one individual wrote to the Mayor: “All this time and money wasted on an investigation. Ask Bob Rozankovic who it is, I did, and he told me who the leak was.” The individual goes on to indicate that Mr. Rozankovic told her it was Councillor Lavigne who leaked the information. Mr. Rozankovic denies this, but the community members goes on to provide some specifics as to where this exchange took place as well as the context of the conversation. Further, she seems to have no reason to be untruthful. Although the Integrity Commissioner has no jurisdiction regarding Members of the Police Services Boards, Council appointees to the APSB serve at the pleasure of Council. This Report should be placed before the newly elected Council and should Mr. Rozankovic seek appointment to any of the Town’s Agencies, Board, Commissions, or Committees for the upcoming term of Council, this Report would strongly argue against his appointment.”

(Thank you to whoever you are who wrote to the Mayor…..I would guess many of the tax payers share your frustration…..)

As far as sanctions go, it looks like the Integrity Commissioner is recommending that Councillor Lavigne receive a suspension of remuneration of 45 days (although only 30 now it’s almost the end of the term, as well as issue an apology to council and the public. I, for one, will not hold my breath waiting for that. I read the report in it’s entirety and I hope that every one of my readers will take the time to do the same. Basically, Councillor Lavigne breached confidentiality and Mr Rozankovick appears to have been extremely uncooperative during this investigation. So much so, that the Integrity Commissioner wants the new council to receive a copy of this report to ensure that Mr Rozankovick is not appointed to any committees.

As for me, well, as punishment, I hereby officially revoke all awards of “Councillor of the week” that were given to Councillor Lavigne. LOL That’s all I’ve got.

Here’s the link to the agenda :

Click to access 2018%2011%2026%20-%20Regular%20Council%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf

The Integrity Commissioner report starts on page 37.

Development Charges Deferral Agreements

Council has to decide between two options. Either :

1. Development Charges BE COLLECTED in accordance with DC By-law 2014-101 effective January 1, 2019;
   OR,
2. The practice of offering Development Charges Deferral Agreements BE CONTINUED

There are many other small, mostly uninteresting items…….A frankly, after reading the Integrity Commissioner’s report about “the leak”, well, there is nothing that even comes close to that. I’ve read a few interesting reports before, nothing tops that one. It reads like a spy novel…. full of twists, turns, deception, disappearances and conspiracies……There are several information reports and other uninteresting items in the agenda. I think my mind is blown by this investigation and the leak coming out literally in the final hour…..this council has been plagued with leaks since the beginning…..Here’s to hoping that the new council knows how to handle confidential information…..

To end the meeting, council will go off behind closed doors one last time to discuss :

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETING
That Council move into an In-Camera Meeting of Council directly following
Regular session pursuant to Section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001, as
amended, for the following reasons:
Item B – Land Lease, Vehicle Parking, Car Dealerships, Sandwich St. S –
Section 239(2)(c) – A proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by
the municipality or local board.
Item C – Storm Sewer Easement; 1632/1640 Park Avenue – Section 239(2)(c) –
A proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or
local board

And then it will be a wrap! Good bye current council and welcome to the new council!!!! I’ll see you Monday night Amherstburg! I’m anticipating fireworks! Here’s to hoping that there is decorum and respect Monday night…..

 

 

Tuesday November 13th Special Town council meeting

**Mayor DiCarlo and Councillor Meloche were absent tonight**

Well, tonight’s meeting was special all right. Very, very, very pitifully special in my opinion. The gallery was full and it was standing room only.

Some people asked me why I never blogged about the public police meetings….and I replied that it was because the behaviour at those meetings by some was so confrontational, aggressive and rude that it was an embarrassment to our town. Well, tonight was more of the unfortunate same behaviour. In my opinion, tonight’s meeting was very poorly managed, if managed at all. I’ll give the highlights, but I tried something different…..I went live on Facebook for the first portion of the meeting. (I missed some of the very beginning.) I thought I could take notes at the same time but I just couldn’t or at least barely. For those who watched the video, I’m sure you can hear the talking, the cat calls, the booing, the laughing etc, so I truly had a hard time hearing sometimes. But here goes.

Deputy Mayor DiPasquale called the meeting to order. Councillor Fryer declared a conflict of pecuniary interest for the portion about the recount since he had run for Deputy Mayor in the previous election.

DELEGATIONS

Recount of all Ballots pertaining to the 2018 Election – Diane Pouget

Councillor Pouget left her councillor seat in order to address council (all 3 of them) from the podium. She requested council to order a recount of the Deputy Mayor votes for the 2018 election, since there was only a 4 vote difference between herself and Leo Meloche. She cited some portions of the Municipal Act and said that democracy requires a recount. When she finished speaking there was VERY loud and very LENGTHY clapping from about 25 or 30 people.

Recount of all Ballots pertaining to the 2018 Election – Dina D’Andrea, Bezaire Associates, acting on behalf of Leo Meloche

Ms D’Andrea then spoke and addressed council on behalf of her client, Leo Meloche. She said that her client opposes the recount due to the cost to the taxpayer. She also cited a bunch of numbers to explain that it is mathematically impossible for there to be errors with the vote tabulator machines.

The discussion

Councillor Lavigne spoke and said he had done some research. He was concerned about the 80 spoiled ballots. There was A LOT of back and forth about the procedures for a recount. From what I could gather if there’s a recount, Meloche and Pouget can each have a scrutineer on hand. Councillor Lavigne also complained about tonight’s regular meeting getting canceled. He compared our estimated cost of $25,000 for a recount to some areas on the United States. (Didn’t the Russians tamper with their election? LOL) Anyway, some people started booing when administration spoke and things went downhill from there. And fast. It was around this time that I just couldn’t keep up so I decided to go Facebook live with the meeting. (If you’re my Facebook friend you can watch it. If you’re not, well, wait for news articles to come out I guess lol. Sorry.)

There were more accusations from every which direction and then the residents lined up at the microphone to make comments. Most were in favour of the recount. There was some very aggressive commentary, in my opinion, from Councillor Lavigne towards a resident. The tone of the entire “discussion” was quite aggressive from many people.

Some residents made direct attacks on town employees and their job duties and made other, what I felt were, rude and uncalled for remarks.

One thing I think I managed to understand is that a recount must be done in the same manner as the regular election, therefore through the tabulators.

I don’t even want to relive the meeting in this blog. Anyway, Councillor Lavigne made the motion for the recount for the Deputy Mayor’s race and it passed unanimously in favour (Councillor Courtney, Councillor Lavigne and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale).

For all of those who are upset that the policing decision was made by 3 members of council, well……here’s another example of a decision made by 3 members of council…..in this case literally 3 members…..one was in conflict and 2 were absent. Anyway, just to say that I’ve watched this council for almost 4 full years and 3 person votes happen quite regularly.

New Business

Councillor Pouget then made a motion…something to the effect of that administration take action immediately regarding money owed for policing and to recoup the money from more than 2 years ago for 2 not town sponsored festivals in a full report for the November 26th meeting including all action taken, the amount of money, the name of the festivals and the person or persons on the outstanding bill. Councillor Courtney seconded.

And the recorded vote :

Support : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale, Councillor Lavigne and Councillor Pouget.

Opposed : Councillor Fryer

Then Councillor Pouget made another motion, something to the effect of that administration provide council from this day forward of any ribbon cutting ceremonies, agreements etc with 24 hours notice before the information is made public. Councillor Courtney asked that it be changed to 48 hour notice.

There was a bit of back and forth about the intent especially concerning any “day to day agreements” since council could hypothetically be notified daily of such things. Anyway, it went to a recorded vote :

In Support : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale, Councillors Fryer, Lavigne and Pouget.

Councillor Pouget made another motion something about directing administration to ensure health and safety of the people at the Libro Centre regarding doors left open. I think this carried, but there was much back and forth again and quite frankly my brain hurt by now.

Notice of Motion

Amherstburg Community Foundation – Crown Park Corporation’s Progress to Date – Councillor Courtney

(As introduced at the October 23, 2018 Council Meeting)
That the Amherstburg Community Foundation BE REQUESTED to provide
Council with the progress that has been made to date by the Crown Park
Corporation hired at a cost of $12,000 to oversee fundraising for Belle Vue;
and,
That the Amherstburg Community Foundation provide to Council the
information pertaining to how the Crown Park Corporation was selected.

Even though this motion pertained to Belle Vue, Councillor Pouget seconded it. (I was confused by this, since I thought she had previously declared conflict about Belle Vue.)

Councillor Courtney seemed to question the difference between the Belle Vue Conservancy and the Amherstburg Community Foundation. The CAO explained that the Amherstburg Community Foundation predates him (I believe it has existed for quite a few years but I’m not sure). The CAO explained that the Conservancy fund raises directly for Belle Vue while the Amherstburg Community Foundation (ACF) can ask for money for specific purposes, for example a playground or the Miracle League Ball Diamond. He said that there is no direct correlation between the ACF and the Belle Vue Conservancy. It was also explained that the ACF does not report to council.

Anyway, the motion carried. I guess we’ll see what happens with that.

So tonight’s drama is over. For now.

I’m not looking forward to the final meeting of this current council (scheduled for November 26th). I was waiting for people to pull out the tar and feathers tonight. I wonder if they’ll have their pitch forks in two weeks?

Do you know what I am looking forward to ? December 3rd when our new council gets sworn in. I am soooooooo very hoping to have a positive 4 years. It’s become quite clear that this 4 year term will not be ending on a positive note. It’s a shame really.

In preparation for Tuesday November 13th Special town council meeting

So, there was supposed to be a regular town council meeting this Tuesday. Town Hall is closed on Monday to observe the Remembrance Day holiday, therefore the Monday meeting was pushed to Tuesday. From what I can gather the Regular meeting that was scheduled was cancelled. Then four members of council (Councillors Pouget, Lavigne and Courtney and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale) petitioned the Clerk to reinstate the meeting. So, it looks like the meeting is back on but now it’s considered to be a Special Meeting. After reading the agenda, I think it’s going to be a very, very special one indeed.

The agenda is all of 53 pages. This must be some type of record. With that small of an agenda I have to guess that there wasn’t enough to discuss for a regular meeting, so now it’s a special one I guess.

Here’s the preview :

I’m going to pull some quotes from the agenda because some of them are just too special to paraphrase. I’ll include the link at the end for any of you who would like to read the entire special agenda word for word.

The reason we are having this special meeting is due to the following petition from Councillors Pouget, Lavigne, Courtney, and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale:

“We, the elected members of Amherstburg Town Council are hereby petitioning the Clerk, Paula Parker or Deputy Clerk, Tammy Fowkes to call a Meeting of Amherstburg Town Council on November 13, 2018 at 6p.m. to replace the Regular Council Meeting on November 13, 2018, that was cancelled by Mayor Aldo Dicarlo, without any discussion or consultation with Amherstburg Town Council. We believe it is unfair and unacceptable to delay conducting Town business for over a month, that is from our last meeting on October 23rd until November 26th.
We are acting on section 3.1.2. of the Procedural By-law 2014-91 to petition the Clerk or
Deputy Clerk for the following reasons:
To deal with a request by Councillor Diane Pouget for a recount of all ballots pertaining to the 2018 election before the 30day deadline.
To receive all available reports to be brought before us as requested by this Council, including but not limited to Councillor Lavigne’s motions pertaining to a dog kennel/boarding issues and the motion concerning infill.
We are requesting Councillor Courtney’s Notice of Motion pertaining to a request for a full report regarding a $12,000 expense paid out to a specific company concerning fundraising.
We will exercise our rights to accept delegations, make motions, reconsider previous motions, deal with old business, new business, make Notice of Motions, and ask questions of Administration as per our rights in a regular scheduled Council meeting.
Please prepare an agenda, invite all members of Council and administration, who are required to attend and advertise this meeting as per our procedural by-laws concerning meetings.”

This was signed by Councillors Pouget, Courtney and Lavigne and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale.

So the first order of business on this very special agenda is:

DELEGATIONS
Recount of all Ballots pertaining to the 2018 Election – Diane Pouget

There doesn’t seem to be a delegation request attached to the agenda, so I’m guessing Councillor Pouget is going to delegate to council and request a recount of the October 22nd election.

REPORTS – CAO’s OFFICE
2018 Election Procedures, Results and Financial Impact of a Recount AND

2018 Election – Procedures for Vote and Vote Counting Equipment

I’m reading through the report explaining the procedures for a recount. While I have enjoyed watching and reading some of the discussion on social media about this, let me just say that anybody who has uttered a single word about a recount on social media MUST read this report. Now. There is so much misinformation out there…..so here we go. From the report :

“ii. at a recount, the persons referred to in subsection 61 (5) are not entitled to examine each ballot as the votes are being counted by the clerk.” (Emphasis added)”

So, nobody is going to be able to sit and examine each individual ballot.

According to the bylaws, a recount is only ordered if there is a tie.

So, the “rules” for a recount state :

“Application for order for recount
58 (1) A person who is entitled to vote in an election and has reasonable grounds for
believing the election results to be in doubt may apply to the Superior Court of Justice for an order that the clerk hold a recount.”

So why is this going before council when it should be an issue that is going to court?

A recount is estimated to cost $25,000.

This tidbit I found most interesting, in regards to the accuracy of the machines…..

“The DS200 is a certified voting machine. Meaning it has been taken aside by a third party testing firm in order to qualify it as a certified product for use in the industry. The testing includes ballot position tests of over 1.5 million votes. If a machine shows a single error in scanning over approx. 1.5 million ballot positions/markings it cannot be certified for use.”

So essentially zero errors in 1.5 million ballot markings. That seems to mean we would need to count at least 6 million ballots to have a chance in finding 4 to give Councillor Pouget a tie. Or 7.5 million ballots to find 5 to give her a win. Now there were only 7403 ballots cast in this election so can you figure out the chances of over turning the Deputy Mayor’s race?

Legal counsel and the integrity commissioner were consulted in preparation for the report.  So, wait for this one people…..

“Section 57(1) of the MEA indicates that within 30 days of the declaration of the official results a council of a municipality may pass a resolution requiring a recount. However after speaking with legal counsel and the Integrity Commissioner on this section of the Act, we are of the opinion that there are 6 of 7 members of the current Council that may be affected by a direct or indirect pecuniary interest on this matter.”

Translation for the above….Deputy Mayor DiPasquale is the only who didn’t run in the election, nor had an immediate family member run either, so he’s the only one who can vote on this issue???? What the heck? So much for a representative democracy…..time for a dictatorship in Amherstburg?? Basically, it looks like they’re all in conflict since there is a pecuniary (financial) interest involved whether they won or lost their seats. So, why is Councillor Pouget putting council in this position?? Please, take it to Superior Court as per the rules. If council touches this issue with a ten foot pole it’s going to cost more than just the $25,000 for the recount…..cue the lawyers and the legal bills……

And before anyone gets all up in arms and says that I’m against the recount or am against Councillor Pouget ……wait for it again……let me just say, for the record……If I were in Councillor Pouget’s shoes and had lost the election by 4 votes, I would probably want a recount too. However, if I did, I think I’d put my money where my mouth is (I’ve done it many times before) and I’d take it to the Superior Court as per the rules of the Elections Act.

NOTICE OF MOTION
Amherstburg Community Foundation – Crown Park Corporation’s
Progress to Date – Councillor Courtney
(As introduced at the October 23, 2018 Council Meeting)
That the Amherstburg Community Foundation BE REQUESTED to provide
Council with the progress that has been made to date by the Crown Park
Corporation hired at a cost of $12,000 to oversee fundraising for Belle Vue;
and,
That the Amherstburg Community Foundation provide to Council the
information pertaining to how the Crown Park Corporation was selected.

And then Council will discuss the above motion. I don’t understand the urgency of this motion that the report has to come before THIS council. I don’t see what the big deal is if the report came to the next council. After all, the goal of these reports is because it’s in the public’s interest right? Is it because certain members of this council wanted this report for some type of personal reason and they weren’t elected to the next council? Hmmmmm……..

And yes, that is it. It seems the lame duck council really has very little to discuss or debate. I’m guessing this is why the regular meeting was cancelled. So, instead we’re in for a special show, I mean meeting, on Tuesday night.

And for those of you who want to take the time to fully inform yourselves here is the link to the agenda (please read it in it’s entirety if you’re going to comment on social media. Please.)

Click to access 2018%2011%2013%20-%20Special%20Council%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf