City hall mulling options after Sarnia council meeting put on hold

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley says he can only ever remember a council meeting adjourning prematurely once before, about 30 years ago.

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“It’s highly unusual,” he said, a day after council pressed pause on its October agenda, passing no bylaws and leaving before the vast majority of items on its to-do list had even been raised.

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The decision happened in the wake of Coun. Bill Dennis angrily turning on Bradley, others on council and a member of the city’s environmental committee after a report on carbon taxation in Canada.

The three-minute outburst, in which Dennis accused Bradley of “wash(ing) out of real estate” before entering politics, and called council “left of Mao,” prompted Bradley to call a five-minute recess, and for council shortly thereafter to vote for abrupt adjournment.

Members in the aftermath said they were in shock and didn’t feel proceeding with the meeting could be productive, with Dennis set to take on chairing duties as acting mayor, a role he earned as the top vote-getting councilor in last year’s election.

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Bradley had said mid-meeting he was leaving unexpectedly to visit someone in hospice.

Several on council, meanwhile, have called on Dennis to apologize.

Dennis said he won’t.

“I really felt bad for the citizens because they were being treated disrespectfully,” Bradley said.

The question now is how to resume being productive, he said, after similar outbursts from Dennis at recent meetings.

“That is going to be the bigger challenge,” Bradley said, adding Monday’s outburst was like the tip of an iceberg.

In September, Dennis said asking for input from the city’s environmental committee, on his motion to call for the scrapping of the federal carbon tax, was “like sending a barbecued meal to PETA,” and argued the committee was “shock full” of Green Party members.

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Dennis also said there’s been tension between him and Bradley for years.

Plans are to discuss with city staff during the next two days about when to meet to get back to the city’s business, Bradley said.

“We could have another meeting or let the dust settle and have our regular meeting in November,” he said. “But I’m also cognizant of the fact that this is our heavy time of year with budgets and public input and all those things.”

He added bringing the group back together can’t happen “until I’m confident the people will be respected … in a non-threatening atmosphere, and that includes council, public, staff.”

It’s disappointing and frustrating that council’s business was put on hold, said Coun. Brian White, who made the motion to adjourn.

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Rezoning and official plan amendments, for instance, for an apartment project council approved Monday are sitting in limbo because the bylaws were never passed.

It’s also frustrating to see volunteers on city committees disrespected and undermined, White said.

“These are important voices in our community and they are people who volunteer their time to serve our community for the greater good,” he said.

“And to see that devalued and disparaged is extremely upsetting to me, because when we shut down the voice of the people of this community, then we effectively shut down actual democracy and we start to move toward autocracy.

“It should never be about one person’s point of view.”

Coun. Terry Burrell was the only member present who didn’t vote to adjourn.

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“To me, it was a knee-jerk reaction to the upset that was happening without thinking of the consequences to the community of not fulfilling what we’re supposed to be doing,” he said.

That is, he said, making decisions about city business and passing bylaws

“By jumping out of the meeting, I am, to be honest with you, I’m kind of bewildered,” he said.

Both Burrell and White said they’d like to see a meeting set soon to deal with council’s unfinished business.

“The budget is coming down soon and lots of other considerations, (and) we already only meet once a month,” Burrell said.

“We need our meetings, much more than we ever did.”

Adjourning early was the right call, Bradley said.

“Council, I felt as a group, recognized we could not continue the way it was.”

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That other meeting, in the 1990s, was adjourned early when a councilor was arrested—and eventually acquitted—in relation to a city contract, Bradley said.

“Nothing internal with council,” he said.

Bradley said he considered ejecting Dennis from Monday’s meeting, but tried to de-escalate instead, restraint for which he was praised by Coun. Anne Marie Gillis.

“I was quite surprised that he took every opportunity to try to calm (Dennis) down,” she said.

Bradley said he’s never used his power as mayor to eject someone from a council meeting, adding he considers it a “nuclear option.”

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