Timmins council gets heated early, often

The 25-30 protesters that went to Timmins city council Monday night didn’t have to wait long for sparks to fly.

Before the first item was even introduced, there was a motion from Ward 3 Councillor Joe Campbell to revisit the by-law voted on last week in regards to the CAO hiring committee.

This was an issue that played itself out during the week through emails, but we’ll get to that.

EDITORS NOTE: Before anything else is said, watch the FULL VIDEO of the proceedings to get a full grasp on how everything went down.  The beginning lies in Item 2, with more discussion in Item 5D.

Campbell says the only person that was technically voted in publicly was Ward 2 Councillor Walter Wawrzaszek.

The rest were chosen in an in-camera meeting by secret ballot, which was a point of emphasis for Ward 5 Councillor Rick Dubeau.

He says the vote goes against protocol, and the vote should have been done in a public meeting.

Mayor Steve Black pointed out that nobody mentioned anything about the protocol when the vote was being made in said in-camera meeting.

Fellow Ward 5 Councillor Noella Rinaldo raised the point that when it comes time to choose a new CAO to replace the retiring Joe Torlone, it will be done by all council members and that the committee is to simplify the process.

Now to the email.

Campbell says he received two emails during the week, one from Dubeau and the other from Rinaldo.  The emails from Rinaldo, according to Campbell, suggest he’s sour over not being chosen for the CAO selection committee.

Campbell vehemently denies that accusation.

“(In the email from Rinaldo), she accused me of being a bully, arrogant and a poor loser,” he said.

This got a reaction from the crowd, which led into a tension-filled back and forth between Campbell and Mayor Black, who was trying to keep order in the room.

Black suggested that any personal beef Campbell may have with Rinaldo be addressed privately, but Campbell proceeded to read the email.

“I’m sorry Joe Campbell’s arrogance is hard to take,” Campbell read, “If he was on the committee, he would never allow this.”

“She’s a psychic, she speaks for me,” Campbell quipped.

The email went on to say that council agreed on the concept, but everything changed when the vote was put in place to remove Dubeau from the selection committee.

Campbell says he agrees the smaller committee is the way to go.

It got to a point where Black urged Campbell once again to stop reading the email and take up the personal matter with Rinaldo afterwards.

“I’m going to ask you to come to order,” said Black.

“I’m coming to order, but I’m going to read this next sentence,” Campbell replied.

“Well then I’m going to ask you to leave the meeting,” answered the Mayor.

It sparked another reaction from the crowd, so much of a reaction that Black made rare use of his gavel.

Once things calmed down a bit, Rinaldo raised her hand to speak.  She admits to writing some emails when she gets upset, but says she was “appalled” from last week’s meeting.

“We had sat here a month ago, and a month ago decided it’s better when (Timmins’ Director of HR) Rock Foy sat here and said you’re better if you have a short list,” she said.

“If it’s too long, you’ll never be able to eliminate it down to a short list.  We all agreed, five people, one being the Mayor.  We all agreed, we all voted unanimously.  We did the vote, we decided who was on there and we were fine, everybody was comfortable with it.  Mr. Dubeau was on it, we were fine a month ago.”

Rinaldo adds nothing was mentioned of it until Dubeau was voted off the committee last week.

She points out that twice during last week’s meeting, Campbell voiced his opinion about his business experience in contention to the selection of Wawrzaszek to replace Dubeau.

Black chimed back in, as the conversation was steering personal once again.  He tries calling the vote, but Dubeau declared a point of order that the entire vote on the selection committee should’ve been public.

He goes into protocol, and says there’s nothing that allows for a secret ballot.

“It was late, all this information came to us and all of a sudden, things were thrown at us and we all made a lot of mistakes that night,” said Dubeau.

Black agreed with him, but wishes the concerns were raised during the secret ballot and not after the point.

Dubeau replied, “None of us did, we all missed it.”

He went on to talk about transparency, and the protocol of reflecting on an item up for a vote and not do a vote the same night.

“Consistently, we bring things forward, we discuss it and we vote on it,” Dubeau says before catching himself mid-sentence on the vote not allowing the Timmins Taxpayers Association any input.  He apologized and says he meant the taxpayers of Timmins in general.

“I get comments from everybody, from all walks of life and I appreciate it,” he added, “But we do not allow for the taxpayers to have input into what we discuss here before we vote for it.  And that’s what our policy states, that’s what the Municipal Act states.”

After that, Black asked for a vote.

Dubeau and Campbell voted in favour of returning the item, while everyone else voted against the idea and it was put to rest.

And that was just the first 20 minutes of council Monday night.  There were more heated debates during a report regarding a Code of Conduct.  (Access the report HERE.)

The highlight was Dubeau wanting to add in a clause that forbids councillors from accessing their emails and social media during meetings.

It was countered by several members.

One was Ward 1 Councillor Andre Grzela, who says he believes in maximizing his time by checking emails to serve his constituents when there’s a matter on the table he’s read the report for already and understands.

Rinaldo says she also uses her phone to access emails, and denies any accusations that she’s on social media during meetings.

Dubeau went on to call both of them out, using examples and saying Grzela isn’t respecting the taxpayers or council by not paying attention to the discussion around the table.

He says Rinaldo has made mention in the past during meeting’s that she is using social media.

Both would fire back at Dubeau, with Grzela finishing off by saying his comments wasn’t meant to be taken literal, and was merely a polite expression.

Grzela added that Dubeau is “not my boss.”

In the end, Dubeau, Campbell and Wawrzaszek were on the short end of the stick and the motion to add a clause in the Code of Conduct report regarding use of phones was defeated.

Tensions continued to flare up between councillors after the meeting was adjourned, as several media members—including myself—looked for clarification.

All of these councillors can agree on one thing, they’re passionate about wanting what’s best for the city and the taxpayers.

But personal feelings towards one another have come out more and more the last number of weeks.  Plus, there are more meetings on the horizon with 2017 budget deliberations set to begin in October.

Fall is in the air.  And with these last few meetings, it’s going to be a long but entertaining end to 2016.

CLICK HERE for last Monday’s story.