Reports of abuse of staff and r-rated name-calling during a committee meeting prompted an integrity commissioner investigation and subsequent ousting of a Collingwood committee member.
Nigel O'Neill is being removed from his appointed post as a member of the town’s committee of adjustment, following behaviour deemed by the town’s integrity commissioner to be “unprofessional, disrespectful and inappropriate.”
At their regular meeting on Sept. 9, councillors considered a report from Principles Integrity concerning behaviour O‘Neill exhibited at the town’s committee of adjustment during an appeal hearing on June 27. He was found to be in breach of the town’s code of conduct for board members, and council voted swiftly to remove him altogether from the committee.
“Our town – above all other towns – should be highly sensitive to the notion of code of conduct among staff, committee members and members of council,” said Coun. Deb Doherty, referencing Collingwood’s judicial inquiry.
“It was the cause of a lot of disruption in our town hall for a number of years. No member of staff, council, or the public should be subject to any kind of abuse, slander or intimidation in their role serving our community,” she said.
The Committee of Adjustment and Property Standards Committee is an adjudicative local board of the Town of Collingwood, and committee membership is comprised of volunteers. There are two distinct functions of the committee: one is to adjudicate requests from property owners for minor variances to the town’s zoning bylaw, and the other is to hear appeals from property owners regarding property standard orders doled out by the town’s bylaw enforcement department.
At the June 27 committee meeting, at issue was an order for removal of trees which town bylaw enforcement staff had determined were diseased. The property owner had produced letters from two arbourists confirming the trees were diseased but were overall in support of a request that the order from the town not be enforced.
The town’s integrity commissioner Janice Atwood-Petkovski of Principles Integrity found O’Neill behaved in a disrespectful and unprofessional manner towards staff during the interaction, making disparaging remarks of town staff, engaging in criticisms of their credentials, and exhibiting disrespectful body language during the hearing.
According to the report, O’Neill was overheard calling a member of staff a “f****** a******” during the hearing, which was observed by both committee members and the public in attendance.
“O’Neill proceeded to question the credentials of the bylaw enforcement officer, challenging his ability to make determinations about diseased trees,” wrote Janice Atwood-Petkovski in her report.
She noted O’Neill also displayed body language which appeared to demonstrate his disinterest in the evidence and a general dismissive attitude towards the town’s enforcement staff. He was observed throwing his arms in the air, sighing loudly, leaning back in his chair, shaking his head ‘no’ in disagreement, and generally expressing disagreement.
“The manner in which the member challenged the credentials and impugned the competency and expressed criticism of and contempt for staff, including name-calling in a stage whisper, and his body language demonstrating dismissiveness towards staff, was unprofessional, disrespectful and inappropriate,” wrote Atwood-Petkovski in her report, adding that she had been informed that the behaviour at that meeting was not a one-off, and he has a generally “antagonistic” attitude toward staff.
Meetings of the committee of adjustment are open to the public to attend in person, but they are not video recorded or live streamed as are other town committees. The proceedings are audio recorded only for record-keeping, and the recordings are not available to the public.
Principles Integrity reviewed the audio recording and interviewed people in attendance, although declined to provide an exact number of how many people they interviewed at the council meeting, citing privacy concerns.
The integrity commissioner found that O’Neill had run afoul of the town’s code of conduct, and recommended one of two options to council: to either suspend him from his post for a number of days determined by council, or to revoke his appointment on the committee.
Although O’Neill did not speak himself at the council meeting, the report notes that while he does not recall the name-calling, he has apologized for it. He had categorically denied exhibiting dismissive/disrespectful body language, throwing his arms in the air, sighing loudly, shaking his head “no” and generally expressing disagreement in an unprofessional manner.
Although, the integrity commissioner notes in her report that evidenced on the recording, the proceedings were stopped on more than one occasion to ask that the member refrain from talking while staff were presenting.
“Rather than recognize any opportunity for course correction on his part, the member has deflected criticism to town staff as the cause of the conflict, questioning their attitude and their tactics towards the property owners,” wrote Atwood-Petkovski.
During council discussion, councillors seemed split whether they thought full revocation or a multi-day suspension would be the best option.
“This is something we don’t see everyday,” said Coun. Chris Potts. “I find it interesting that nothing’s been brought forward until now.”
Doherty said if council allowed the member to come back, it would “cast a pall” on the committee’s future activities.
“My problem is that it’s hard to gauge the irreparability of this. We’ve always had this element of further training...I’m not sure I fully support (revocation),” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery.
As a former member of the town’s committee of adjustment himself, Coun. Christopher Baines said he was in support of revocation.
“It’s evident that the dynamics of this committee have, in my opinion, changed dramatically as a result of this incident,” said Baines. “That’s a tragedy, unfortunately.”
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said a key deciding factor for her was that the committee of adjustment is an adjudicative committee that makes rulings, as opposed to other town committees that will make recommendations on varying topics to town staff.
“It’s hearing an appeal from a decision of our staff,” she said. “Our code of conduct is borne through great pain and $8 million worth of investment. It’s important to me that our public have confidence in our committee and it’s always objective and neutral.”
“We have to make it clear that this behaviour isn’t tolerated,” said Hamlin.
At the end of discussion, council voted 5-4 in favour of revoking O’Neill’s appointment, with Coun. Potts, Jeffery, Coun. Brandon Houston and Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer opposed.
To read the full integrity commissioner report, click here.
