Oro-Medonte council has rejected a recommendation from the township’s integrity commissioner that a councillor be reprimanded and have 15 days’ pay suspended after it was determined he had breached the municipality’s code of conduct.
Instead, council voted Wednesday night to reprimand the councillor and dock him 90 days’ pay — six times the recommended penalty.
According to the report, written by integrity commissioner John Ewart, the councillor who was reprimanded was at a private property while a local bylaw enforcement officer was conducting an investigation.
According to the complaint, the councillor “served to hinder or otherwise interfere with the duties of the bylaw enforcement officer.”
“Specifically,” the claim continued, “the attendance by the member of council served to undermine the authority of the bylaw enforcement officer in carrying out her duties and compromised the investigation arising from a complaint of a short-term rental accommodation.”
The integrity commissioner’s finding that the member of council breached the code of conduct caused concern among the other members of council.
The councillor is not named in the report, but later in the meeting, Mayor Randy Greenlaw alluded to it being Richard Schell, who has had previous run-ins with the integrity commissioner.
Coun. Robert Young said he had “real difficulties” with the allegations of the member of council interfering or injecting himself into the official duties of the bylaw enforcement officer.
“It’s a serious matter and borders on obstruction, as far as I’m concerned,” Young said. “I also have difficulty with the fact that there’s a different set of facts from the officer and the member of council. I see it as undermining the competency, the credibility and integrity of that officer.
“The officer had no reason to be anything but honest and forthright with what occurred there,” he added.
Deputy Mayor Peter Lavoie expressed two concerns.
First, he said the councillor’s version of events “doesn’t carry water,” and second, he was concerned the “undertakings of council as a whole are not being carried into the public by all members of council.”
He noted councillors have “an honour” to support one another and the decisions made by council.
“I find myself deeply troubled by this entire matter,” Lavoie said following the integrity commissioner’s report. “I would move that we not pass the recommendation as stated, but we deny it and replace Item 3 (relating to pay suspension) with a much sterner penalty.
“I would contemplate up to 90 days,” he added.
The 90-day pay suspension was supported by the majority of council.
Coun. John Bard opposed the increased penalty, however.
“This is very difficult, and I echo many of the sentiments that have been shared here, but I’m struggling with the parallel here in which we’ve asked someone to prepare a report — they’ve prepared a report about somebody interjecting into somebody else doing their job, and that’s the part I struggle with,” Bard said.
“If these are the recommendations, whether I personally agree with them or not, or disagree with them, this is what we asked them to do and it just seems the parallels are too much for me,” he added. “I like it as is.”
After some additional debate, council formally refused to accept the integrity commissioner’s recommendation.
An amendment to change the penalty was tabled and supported.
The final vote saw council reprimand the member of council for having been present during an investigation of a bylaw enforcement matter, suspend 90 days of compensation pay to the member and provide the member of council with a copy of the integrity commissioner’s report.
During council’s debate on the report, the councillor’s identity was outed when Greenlaw noted the councillor who breached the code of conduct “should have been in a special council meeting” that day, Aug. 30, 2023.
According to the minutes of that meeting, available on the township’s website, Schell was the only councillor not in attendance.
This is the third time Schell has been reprimanded and had his pay suspended since being elected in 2022.
In November 2023, he was reprimanded and his pay was suspended for 60 days.
In his written decision on Nov. 14, Ewart said the councillor breached the municipal code of conduct by distributing a court document to five members of council on Aug. 29, 2023, in an attempt to “influence” council or members of council regarding short-term rentals.
Ewart’s report also said the councillor contravened the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act after declaring a pecuniary conflict of interest.
Not six months later, in April 2024, Schell received his second reprimand and had his pay suspended for 15 days.
Ewart recommended the reprimand and the pay suspension following an investigation into an allegation that Schell broke the code of conduct when he presented a factum of the Oro-Medonte Association for Responsible STRs as a court decision.
At a town hall meeting in Hawkestone on Nov. 26, 2023, he said it showed short-term rentals were legal in the township.