Councillor Dubeau voted off boards/committees

A missed typo on a bylaw regarding the length of this year’s Connecting Link construction has spiraled out of control.

To the point, Ward 3 City Councillor Joe Campbell closed Monday’s city council meeting with a comment that it was, “one of the blackest days in the history of this council.”

And City Councillor Rick Dubeau—the very man who brought up the subject of said typo—was voted off all committees and boards he is serving on.

And he wasn’t even sitting in his chair to vote when the time came.

The removal includes his current position as deputy mayor, a position that rotates through council every six months.

So, about this typo.

The Connecting Link is being repaired at an estimated 10 year cost of over $100-million dollars, and for the first year, the city is repairing between the Bruce Y and Rea Hill between Timmins and South Porcupine.

The first portion of construction is well underway, with the eastbound lanes paved and in use already.
The contract was awarded to Miller Paving during a meeting of council July 25th.

Miller tendered a successful bid at $4,806,463.39 + HST, but as part of the resolution, it states “upon award of the tender, to discuss reductions to the scope of work in order to be below the approved 2016 budget of $4.5-million.”

Including bike lanes, new street lights and new light fixtures, the report states in bold letters “to reconstruct 1.4 km of Connecting Link highway.”

But in the by-law that same night, it had stated 2.2 km.

That’s where Dubeau raised the issue.

Last week’s story can be found HERE, which leads into the events of Monday night.

During last week’s meeting, Dubeau asked to clarify what exactly the $4.5-million dollars was paying for. One was about the thickness of the asphalt, and the other was why they’re only working on 1.4 kilometres of road, rather than the 2.2 kilometres that was initially proposed.

He believes the information was purposely omitted, and that they were never shown a resolution of 1.4 km.

He took it a bit further, saying council was “directly misled” by city staff “because we were not given all the information that night to do a proper vote.”

Black countered that emails were sent out about the switch to see if any councillor wanted to bring it back for a re-discussion and nobody responded.

Emails were exchanged in the days after the July 25th vote between Mayor Black and the Timmins Taxpayers Association’s Jack Dugas.

The emails can be explained in a post Black made on Facebook September 13th after the council meeting.

Once Dubeau made his accusation, tensions flared. (CLICK HERE to see the full video of the exchange, labelled under Item 9C.)

(CLICK HERE for the video from Monday night, September 19th. The video is items 7A and 7B.)

Dubeau also brought up the point that the Connecting Link is getting 225mm of asphalt laid down, while the MTO is only using 140mm for Highway 11.

He raised the question of whether they can re-apply for Connecting Link funding to work on the section they were originally going to do in 2016.

Dubeau stated that the province approved $3-million dollars to do 3-4 km.

More on that HERE.

On Monday night, Black raised the stakes.

The Mayor says he’s willing to admit a mistake—one was towards Councillor Joe Campbell in the heated exchange, and apologized for it—but called Dubeau’s comments and conduct “unacceptable.”

On the table for council was the ability to vote Dubeau off every one of his council-assigned positions on boards and committees across the city, and a separate item to vote him off as deputy mayor.

That is if Dubeau didn’t apologize for the events seven days prior, because of how damaging the comments were toward staff morale. Dubeau didn’t flinch.

Dubeau says they’ve had many heated meetings, and to have strong debates is the definition of a strong council.

He calls the very notion of removing him from those boards, “ridiculous.”

He says council needs to respect his ability to have an opinion, adding there’s no legal right to put this resolution forward.

Dubeau refered to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, giving him his freedom of expression.

Concerns were raised on staff morale. Rinaldo says they’ve jeopardized and bullied the staff in a public setting.

A setting that also leaves these staff members unable to defend themselves.

Rinaldo went on to say the accusations crossed a line.

A sentiment echoed by Doody and Marks.

Either way, Dubeau remained firm on his original accusation.

Back to the typo, City Clerk Steph Palmateer—who openly admitted and apologized for seeing it in the by-law—penned a letter to council during the week, a letter he allowed Councillor Andrew Marks to read.

In it, Palmateer expressed that he felt “insulted” and asked for an apology as well.

“We’re a laughing stock right now,” Marks says, in reference to the reputation he perceives council has with the community.

Adding to that, Marks stated he has very little faith in trusting “this councillor,” referring to Dubeau.
Ward 3 Councillor Joe Campbell came out in defense of Dubeau, asking what crime has been committed.

“This is a difference of opinion,” he said.

Trying to be the voice of reason, Doody pointed out that there is only one person around the council area that’s paid by the city as an employee and that’s CAO Joe Torlone.

Doody says Torlone is there to answer anything that is unclear to councillors.

“We’ve got big issues to tackle,” he said, adding there’s more they can do by working together.

Bamford stated that it’s hard to apologize, and credits Dubeau for his tough questions and debate.

He went on to say that in the House of Commons, if someone accuses someone of lying, there’s a request for an apology or the person is removed by the Sargent at Arms.

Dubeau says he never accused anyone of lying, and that there’s a difference between lying and being misled.

Dubeau took issue with Marks’ comments and as mentioned, finished the item by not apologizing and stating there shouldn’t even be a vote on this. He also asked how a special meeting was put together earlier Monday, when it should’ve come forward Friday.

The next item was from the BIA Board of Directors, who was seeking to remove Dubeau from his position on the board, as stated in a letter. They say Dubeau was being “combative and abusive,” accusations Dubeau turned down immediately.

Dubeau brought up how suspect it was to have these two items on the same night.

Black says he’s been talking with the BIA for several weeks.

It opened up the smoking by-law debate, and how it would be illegal to have the nine-metre ban in the downtown due to how public and private land work.

Through all the fuss though, Dubeau announced he is removing himself from the BIA committee.

Black says any of the steps taken tonight isn’t something he takes lightly.

That brought up the special meeting.

Beforehand though, council took a recess while Dubeau added he’s leaving the chambers, claiming the upcoming vote to be illegal.

He was seen soon after in the seats for the general public.

After council resumed, Palmateer said council is well within their right to reassign roles for council members on boards, committees and as a future deputy mayor.

The by-laws were voted on during the first ever meeting of this council on December 1st, 2014.

Everyone—except for Campbell and Ward 2 Councillor Walter Wawrzaszek—voted in favour of the new roles, stripping Dubeau of his duties from organizations such as the BIA and the MRCA.

He’s still remains a member of Timmins city council. But thanks to arguing a typo, that’s all he’ll seemingly be doing in his capacity as a city councillor.