Sarnia councillor docked pay for code of conduct violation

City council again docked a councillor’s pay, for poor behaviour, but stopped short of crafting a social media policy.

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Tea two recommendations from integrity commissioner Benjamin M. Drory were based in part on an outburst from Coun. Bill Dennis in March — when Dennis called council members “clowns” and angrily failed to yield the floor — and Concerns raised about Dennis liking a social media post calling for unnamed “socialist” members of the council to be lynched in the streets.

Dennis said his thumbs-up on a Facebook comment on his page was given without reading the post, and that he doesn’t endorse violence.

Drory, in his reportsaid Dennis’s defence is plausible and the council’s lack of a social media policy, like those that exist in municipalities including Guelph and Toronto, “limits my ability to find a breach of the code of conduct through social media activity.”

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Council voted 6-3 Monday against looking into a social media policy, concerned about the difficulty of the task, including defining “social media,” and not wanting to impede free speech.

Mayor Mike Bradley said he doesn’t agree with Drory and argued the existing code of conduct can be applied to council members’ behaviour on social media.

Coun. Adam Kilner, who voted for a report on policy options, said having some parameters would be welcome.

Councillors Anne Marie Gillis and Dave Boushy voted with Kilner in the losing cause.

Dennis, whose behaviour on March 11 Drory called a clear violation of the council’s code of conduct, didn’t let up Monday.

Calling himself passionate if brash, Dennis said “context is critical” in understanding his behaviour, saying he felt burdened and frustrated by others on council who at the time were looking into security measures for chambers — in the wake of another outburst in October for which Dennis was also docked payand for which he has apologized.

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“The public needs to know these issues all originally came up because the mayor and Coun. (Brian) White insinuated that I am dangerous,” Dennis said, referring to Bradley’s comments on a television program, that security discussions for council chambers were “to deal with the actions of a councillor,” and White’s comments that White heard from citizens who felt unsafe because of Dennis’s conduct in October.

“I’m not afraid of these complaints,” Dennis said Monday in a statement, promising to fight for taxpayers, alleging he’s been “targeted by those I speak against,” and encouraging people to vote in the next municipal election, when he said he plans to run for mayor.

“I will continue to demand better for our city,” he said. “If this means you take away my pay for daring to call out the truth, so be it. I’m not doing this for the money.”

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Dennis was docked 45 days’ pay Monday, half the maximum allowable amount under the provincial integrity commissioner and code of conduct system for municipal councils.

He was docked two days for his blow-up in October, when he railed against members of council and the public.

“Coun. Dennis on several occasions has had an amazing point to make when he has spoken, and then loses it when he takes things emotionally and personally and has the outbursts,” Coun. Chrissy McRoberts said Monday.

Putting people down, swearing and calling names is not the same as being passionate.

“If you could just stay on subject and on point, you would have a lot more pull and a lot more alignment and agreements with some of the motions that you make,” she said. “I just don’t want (that behaviour) in council anymore.”

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Dennis called McRoberts’ comments an attack, and McRoberts hypocritical because she runs a store that includes displays with profanity.

Bradley told both “to cool it.”

All but councillors George Vandenberg and Terry Burrell voted for docking Dennis’s pay.

Burrell said he didn’t agree with Dennis’s outburst, but did agree that Dennis was “set up” by members on council.

He also said council should not have launched the council chambers security investigation — council voted unanimously in March for a pending report on an emergency escape plan, as recommended by the city’s joint health and safety committee because it was “setting the fuse for another outburst.”

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