Brighton council. Back row left to right, Mary Tadman, Mayor Mark Walas, Laura Vink. Front row left to right Roger McMurray, Steve Baker, Brian Ostrander, John Martinello.
Council for the Municipality of Brighton has been found guilty of contravening Ontario’s Municipal Act after phone calls between the mayor and 4 councillors about a potential land sale last spring.
A complaint was made to the Ombudsman of Ontario in March after phone calls between Mayor Mark Walas and 4 unnamed councillors.
The subject of the calls was the opportunity to sell land to a company planning to build a plant in the area.
Other local communities were also making proposals to the company, which was going to make a decision quickly. A special meeting of council to discuss the issue in public was scheduled shortly after the calls were made.
In his decision, the Ombudsman writes that under the Municipal Act, the phone calls contained detailed information and involved a quorum of council and therefore qualified as a “council meeting” and should have been advertised and held in public.
The Ombudsman says members of Brighton council should be vigilant and never exercise council authority or lay the groundwork for decisions by phone calls or by other electronic means.
The Ombudsman’s report will come to council at tomorrow evening’s (Monday) regular meeting in council chambers.
