The blame game is on full display after another conflict between the mayor of Belleville and a councillor at yesterday’s (Monday) council meeting.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk ordered Councillor Ryan Williams to leave council chambers after Williams refused to apologize for written and verbal comments made about the mayor and Councillor Pat Culhane at the December Economic and Destination Development Committee meeting.
Panciuk said Williams’ comments insulted him and chastised Culhane and Councillor Kelly McCaw brought the issue up at yesterday’s council meeting leading to Williams’ expulsion.
On CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show this morning the mayor says he tried to have the issue settled behind closed doors but that Williams wouldn’t respond.
Panciuk said Williams was the “common denominator” in the recent turmoil which began with an Integrity Commissioner’s report into the city’s hiring practices brought by Williams against the mayor.
“While the Integrity Commissioner’s report said I behaved inappropriately on the hiring issue, a staff report says I did not and followed all of our hiring by-laws to the letter. So even though my guilt in that matter has been seriously questioned at least I stood up and publicly apologized here on the radio and in public at council”, Panciuk told Brooker.
The councillor, who led the polls in the last municipal election, said he’s met privately with Panciuk to try and solve issues and work together for the betterment of the city but that the mayor said he’d never “get over the Integrity Commissioner (hiring) issue” and had no intention of burying the hatchet.
Williams apologized to the citizens of Belleville.
Former long-time Belleville councillor and a member of the Economic and Destination Development Committee Egerton Boyce was also interviewed by Lorne Brooker.
Boyce said both men need to reconcile as soon as possible and keep the focus on bettering the community. “Years back, then-councillor Taso Christopher and I didn’t get along for a while after I campaigned for Pat Culhane instead of him when both of them were running for mayor. But after the election we got together and we both agreed we had to just drop the personal stuff and get going on good policy and making this a better place to live. And that’s what we did. That’s what needs to happen in this situation.”
