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Bradley drops complaint to Dufferin’s integrity commissioner

October 7, 2016   ·   0 Comments

Orangeville Councillor Sylvia Bradley has dropped her complaint to Dufferin’s integrity commissioner against Mayor Jeremy Williams and Councillor Nick Garisto.

The complaint was in reference to comments Mayor Williams made during a council meeting in the spring, as well as comments he had made on social media sites. Mr. Garisto was included in the complaint over his conduct as chair of the Finance and Administration Committee.

Councillor Bradley said that while she felt strongly that there were “systemic problems of code of conduct within council,” and “fully expected the [commissioner’s] report to be in my favor”, she had decided it was not in the best interests of Orangeville to continue with the complaint.

Complaints to integrity commissioners are in full force around the province of Ontario. This past summer, Mayor Mike Bradley of Sarnia had a scathing report released from the city’s integrity commissioner which described his relationship with staff as “damaging to the City.”

Sarnia’s integrity commissioner found that Mayor Bradley had contravened the city’s Council Code of Conduct and recommended his salary be suspended for three months, the maximum time permitted under the Ontario Municipal Act.

Mayor Bradley had called the matter a “political-driven witch hunt by a number of members of council and I would suggest some others.”

The Sarnia Integrity Commissioner stated, “I took no pleasure in writing this report but feel that the mayor’s relationship with staff is damaging to the city and must be publicly disclosed and addressed,”

In London, Ontario, that city’s integrity commissioner released a report that found an “inappropriate relationship” between Mayor Matt Brown and former Deputy Mayor Maureen Cassidy violated three sections of London’s Council Code of Conduct. Unlike Sarnia, no sanctions were suggested.

As for Ms. Bradley, she admitted that the process of filing a complaint did indeed satisfy one of her needs. She now understands better what the procedure for dealing with the integrity commission should entail.

Currently, no council’s code of conduct references appropriate use of social media. In addition, some say the issue of confidentiality should be more thoroughly explored. Although the integrity commissioner must be very discreet, others such as those subject to complaints are not bound by confidentiality.

Councillor Bradley said that in the future she will work with council to fix process issues regarding the current Orangeville Code of Conduct.

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