Sudbury councillors joined in on attacks on staff at ‘vicious’ public meeting, integrity commissioner rules

Greater Sudbury’s integrity commissioner David G. Boghosian is calling for 30- and 10-day suspensions for two city councillors for public comments they made about city staff.

Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc, who revealed the names and personal relationships of two city managers, received the 30-day suspensions. Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier was sanctioned for 10-days for “piling on” by attacking work done by the same staff on the Maley Drive extension project.

Any decision to suspend a member of council must be approved by all of city council. The full report can be found here.

At the Sept. 7 meeting, Frank Crupi of Road Surface Recycling, a contractor whose work was halted because of problems with the asphalt, made several allegations of corruption and conflict of interest within city hall.

Sudbury Auditor General Ron Foster examined the allegations made by Crupi and found them to be without merit.

At the public meeting, however, some of the councillors present made statements about city staff at the roads department, including comments on their personal lives.

City CAO filed the complaint, alleging that during the course of the meeting, “the featured speaker made a variety of misogynistic, defamatory, and provably false statements directed toward, and about, municipal employees.” Boghosian interviewed one woman who attended the public meeting. She told him she attended because she believed that the media “had only been publishing the city’s position but not the contractor’s.”

A screen grab from the Sept. 7 meeting at the Northbury Hotel and Conference Centre. (File)

However, she found what she heard “disturbing” because Crupi was piling all the blame on a female engineer and discussing her personal life in public.

“She also felt the discussion ‘crossed the line’ when jokes were made about two staff members discussing city business in their bedroom,” the report said.

“She also felt that Councillor Leduc’s outing of the two staff members by naming them was completely improper.”

The experience left her with a negative impression about how the city operated, she said.

A man who attended the meeting said Leduc suddenly ran up to the mic to announce the names and personal relationships of the staff members in question.

'MOST DEPLORABLE THING'

“(The man) characterized it as the ‘most deplorable thing’ he has ever heard at a public meeting,” the report said.

“He said there is ‘no room’ at a public meeting to discuss someone’s personal life. He also thought that comments about city staff by the RSR delegates went overboard and were ‘unprofessional.’

In his defence, Leduc told Boghosian he was actually trying to defend city staff by naming them and revealing their relationship.

“He claimed that he did this to defend these employees’ reputations, not to denigrate them, as, before he spoke, the ‘crowd thought the two were having an affair,’” Boghosian’s report said.

“I asked him why he thought that and he responded ‘from the expressions on their faces.’”

“He volunteered that he thought it took courage for him to get up and clear the air about that but later stated that it was a ‘call made in the heat of the moment’ and that he now questions making the statement he did given how it is now being negatively interpreted.”

As for Montpellier, he told the crowd that the same city staff built the Maley extension on two kilometres of private property, forcing the city into a settlement with the developer.

Frank Crupi, Road Surface Recycling co-owner, said a work stoppage was put in place last week by the city, something he said he has never experienced before. (Alana Everson/CTV News)

Boghosian said that statement was false, since in reality, there was no settlement.

“But even if it had been true, it would have been information he received at a closed meeting of council, meaning that he would have been required to keep any such information confidential,” the integrity commissioner wrote.

“(Montpellier) then said his question wasn’t really for the RSR representatives, who were in the middle of their presentation when he asked the question, but for the audience generally (ie. ‘does anyone know if this is the same crew who built Maley on private property?’)”

“He concluded by stating that he does not feel he needs to apologize for anything he did or did not say or do at the meeting.”

In his summary, Boghosian said city councillors are not required to defend staff at public meetings.

'STAFF-BASHING BANDWAGON'

“It is another matter, however, for councillors to jump on the ‘staff-bashing bandwagon’ by means of direct or indirect comments and actions that a reasonable person would interpret as supporting defamatory statements regarding identified staff made by third parties,” he wrote in his report.

Leduc, in particular, made a “calculated” decision to grab the microphone to “out” the city staffers and damage their reputations.

“The disclosure of the personal, private relationship of two staff members was abusive and harassing,” Boghosian said.

“It is my view in all the circumstances, that his statement can only have been made with the intention of heaping further derision, ridicule and embarrassment on the city employees he outed, especially the female one.”

Leduc’s claim that he was trying to defend them “lacks an air of reality,” the integrity commissioner wrote.

“Even if I were to accept Councillor Leduc’s explanation, it still demonstrates a serious lack of judgment in that it ought to have been apparent to him that specifically naming the city staff members and indicating their relationship would make things worse rather than better for these two employees. His statement at the meeting was at the very least negligent.”

As for Montpellier, Boghosian said he was clearly “piling on” to the attacks that were being made by others.

“It is clear to me that he did so in order to ‘pile on’ the criticism already being levelled against city staff at the meeting with his own reminder of what he regarded as past incompetence,” the report said.

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“He directly impugned the competence and integrity of staff by his comment, albeit nominally framed as a ‘question.’”

As for Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini, who also attended the meeting, Boghosian said there was no evidence he had violated the code of conduct.

Councillors are expected to vote on whether to suspend Montpellier and Leduc at its meeting Nov. 7.