Was a city advisory committee member threatening and intimidating others during a November committee meeting? The city’s integrity commissioner doesn’t believe so.
The complaint against an unidentified committee member was “summarily dismissed” following a review of the meeting, states an integrity commissioner report to council that was publicly released on Friday. A formal investigation was not conducted.
As outlined in the report from Aird & Berlis LLP, the complaint alleges the person “dominated” the meeting and used intimidation to ensure committee members “did not feel comfortable to disagree” with the council member’s points, therefore violating the city’s code of conduct.
“The member was more outspoken and expressed more candid feelings about the particular exercise undertaken at the meeting than other meeting participants. On more than one occasion at the meeting, other members agreed with the opinions put forward by the member,” the report states. “The member did not treat any person inappropriately nor did the member engage in abuse, bullying, intimidation, discrimination or harassment.
“The member did not use indecent, abusive or insulting words or expressions towards any person. We also find that the member did not speak in a discriminatory manner.”
When a complaint is dismissed, the complainant is typically contacted and the reasons for dismissal explained, without no requirement for public notice to be given. However, in this case the person filed their complaint through the city’s website and didn’t provide contact details, the report notes.
“Due to our inability to communicate directly with the complainant, we have prepared this brief report to document our summary dismissal of the complaint.”