Prince Edward County Staff have been asked to prepare a report that would recommend guidelines to ensure the safety of councillors and their families.
The action comes following a resolution at Thursday’s Committee of the Whole made by Councillor Stewart Bailey who recently had a scary incident with a constituent at his home.
Two men drove up his driveway and confronted his wife, with one of them criticizing a recent council decision. She asked them to leave several times but one of the men kept coming toward her.
When Councillor Bailey realized what was going on he called the OPP.
“It was just a very unnerving circumstance. So the reason I brought forward the motion was that, you can’t predict where a situation like this is going to go. She had no idea of knowing who he was, what he had in mind. Asked him to leave, he didn’t and my resolution came about because this shouldn’t be allowed to happen to me, at our home and definitely not to our family.”
He says he’s not sure exactly what will come of the resolution.
“There are things like this being looked into. It really is a tricky thing to say. The public has their right to complain, you know, there’s never a question there. So I’m not quite sure what can be done, but I know that other communities are looking into something along this line. I think it needs to be stated just so that people can become aware that there would be a point that is considered impolite.”
The resolution was seconded by Councillor Bill McMahon who says he was involved in a similar incident at his home last year on Father’s Day.
Councillor Bailey says no charges have been laid in the incident as of yet.
