The City of Timmins has issued a statement regarding Monday night's council meeting and the status of Councillor Rick Dubeau. As TimminsToday reported earlier, Dubeau was stripped of his committee memberships, but not his council seat, over remarks he made regarding a controversial roadwork contract.
The following is the full text of the statement issued by the city:
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Clarification following September 19 council meeting
The City of Timmins wishes to issue clarification on the events that took place during City Council’s Committee of the Whole and Special Meetings on September 19, 2016.
Councillor Rick Dubeau was not removed from his elected position on City Council, and can continue to represent taxpayers and debate issues brought to the Council table on Monday evenings.
Councillor Dubeau was, however, removed from the various committees and boards on which he sat as a representative of Council, previously appointed by Council.
The Business Improvement Association (BIA) is one such board that requested the Councillor’s removal regardless of Council’s decision regarding the remainder of the committees – attributing their request to his actions within their organization.
In the Special Meeting, Council appointed new representation to these committees and boards. The decision to remove Councillor Dubeau from these committees and boards was not made lightly, but given his refusal to apologize for accusing staff of “purposely omitting” and “misleading Council” in a public forum, and the request from the BIA executive to have him removed as their board member, this is how council voted to proceed.
Council had concern with regards to Councillor Dubeau being Council’s appointee on the boards of all other organizations, which consist of volunteers and staff and decided to appoint new representatives from Council.
“There was no information to substantiate concerns of staff intentionally misleading Council and such claims in a public meeting are inappropriate and were damaging to the organization and the morale of the employees who work for us. It was creating a toxic work environment and that is very concerning to me” explained Mayor Steve Black.
“If Councillor Dubeau had concerns about an individual, he could have approached the CAO, the Mayor, or Council in an in-camera meeting to address them, as would be proper protocol for dealing with matters of that nature. As Mayor of the City of Timmins, and following discussions with senior administrative staff, we felt it was appropriate Councillor Dubeau apologize for these accusations.”
Councillor Dubeau refused to acknowledge his statements were inappropriate and apologize for his comments, resulting in the majority of Council voting to remove him from all committees which he was previously appointed by Council to represent them.
“I wish to reiterate that Councillor Dubeau remains in his elected position as City Councillor and can actively debate issues at the table, on behalf of the residents and taxpayers” continued Mayor Black. “This is a highly desirable part of municipal politics and important to democracy. However, publicly accusing staff of purposely omitting information and misleading Council is a completely different action than taking part in constructive debate.”
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