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Time for Grimsby 4 to resign
Grimsby residents know who they are. Mayor Jeff Jordan Coun. Dorothy Bothwell Coun. Reg Freake Coun. Lianne Vardy These elected officials’ services are clearly redundant and obviously no longer required, so they may as well just pack it in now and save the municipality a few bucks by getting the heck out of Dodge. Why not? It is clear their polar opposites - the Grimsby 5 - have everything well in hand. Between The 5’s control of every key vote town council has taken along with a plethora of painfully minor votes – which still manage to take up a ton of time and energy – there really is no need for serious debate and bitter discord is all too common, so why not do the honourable thing and just step aside and let the inmates run the asylum? Anyone who has followed any municipal council, nay, anybody of elected officials anywhere, has seen more crazy antics in the just over two years this council has been in place. With the best of intentions, Grimsby residents opted for near wholesale change with its council, and that needed to happen, but there was no way to know three of those successful candidates would come up lemons and one would evolve from a beacon of light to, well... words are indescribable to sufficiently explain the level of disappointment evident in the community. This hubbub over a phone call by the mayor after his email, seemingly, was hacked to allow for personal emails to magically appear on the doorstep of Coun. Kevin Ritchie is beyond the pale. Most would think calling the person at the other end of the emails to see if they had forwarded them on was acting in the best interests of the community. Not The 5. No, not only did they decide to overstep the findings of the Integrity Commissioner, but they decided - as part of a 9.5 hour council meeting - to rope in every decision they could find from incidents where closed session information had been divulged province - wide and apply sanctions in Grimsby’s case. This, of course after the IC dubbed the matter “trivial”, many times over. Nope, The 5 know better - so time for The 4 to pack their bags and leave The 5 to continue with what they’ve been doing – running the Town into the ground. M.W.
Circ: 26,529
Anatomy of a disenfranchisement
(Editor’s Note: The following is a word-for-word account of the lengthy debate conducted at Grimsby’s Town Council meeting of Tuesday, 16. It is NOT a transcript. There some simple introductions, jibberish and nonrelevant chatter left out, but all are welcome to go to grimsby.ca and follow along with the recording. For the purposes of this article, tidbits of information are interjected in bold copy at various points to draw of facts previously addressed when Integrity Commissioner Charles Harnick released his findings in a complaint filed by Coun. Randy Vaine vs Mayor Jeff Jordan – findings in which Mr. Harnick determined the actions of the mayor were “trivial” and “without consequence”.
Report CAO 21-06: Reporting on Costs and Related Cases for Integrity Commission Complaint (Vaine-Jordan) At the Feb. 1 meeting of Grimsby Council, Integrity Commissioner Charles Harnick released his findings into a complaint filed by Coun. Randy Vaine. Harnick found that Mayor Jeff Jordan - by calling “the individual” to see if he had forwarded Coun. Kevin Ritchie confidential emails - had disclosed closed session information. Harnick found the mayor asking “the individual” about the emails was a breach of the Town’s Code of Conduct. While giving his report at the Feb. 1 meeting, Harnick repeatedly called the matter
“trivial” and of “no consequence” and recommended no penalty whatsoever. However, with five councillors - Ritchie, Dave Kadwell, Dave Sharpe, John Dunstall and Vaine voting in favour, council passed the following motion: “Resolved that the Town Clerk through the Office of the CAO be directed to report any cost that is affiliated with this matter and report back to the Committee of the Whole; and That the Town Clerk through the Office of the CAO look into related cases in the Province of Ontario where closed session information has been disclosed and prepare a report to Committee of the Whole at the earliest opportunity for further discussion” This motion was approved after Harnick recommended against any such measure noting repeatedly that each case has its own set of facts and matching up findings from other cases and applying them to the Vaine vs Jordan case was senseless.
DEBATE ON REPORT CAO 21-06 Jordan - CAO? Are you going to speak on that? CAO Harry Schlange - No, I had not planned to. Coun. Ritchie pulled the report and can speak to it. Jordan - Alright, fair enough. Coun. Ritchie, do you want to go ahead or I see Coun. Sharpe’s hand is up? Ritchie - We can let Coun.
Sharpe speak first. If you like. Jordan - Sure. Coun. Sharpe. Sharpe - Thanks, Mayor Jordan. I’ve taken some time and I’ve gone through this and I’ve written some things down, so if you’ll bear with me...On July 13th, council went into closed session based on certain email correspondence that was delivered to Coun. Ritchie anonymously. During the closed session meeting, council made resolutions regarding the content of these emails. On July 14th, CAO Schlange received an email from an individual with a series of emails between the individual, Mayor Jordan and Coun. (Reg) Freake. The CAO confirmed that these emails were the emails read by Coun. Ritchie at the July 13 closed session meeting. Mayor Jordan considered it imperative to contact the individual and notify them and he wanted to ascertain if there was a possibility that the data breach had occurred on the individual’s end. The individual has disclosed that he and the mayor had talked about the July 13 closed session. The individual confirmed that he knew about the emails that had come into Coun. Ritchie’s possession, but he didn’t know anything else other than about the emails, that they talked of nothing other than the security breach and that he gleaned no knowledge of the resolutions that were dealt with at the closed council session on July 13. The mayor alleges that he See ANATOMY, Page 2