Tense discussions on Friendship Flight

A discussion by Belleville City Council on the Lahr Germany Friendship Flight that leaves for Germany Wednesday couldn’t exactly be described as friendly.

Councillor Chris Malette, backed by Councillor Garnet Thompson, believed council should have been involved in the discussions and decision-making regarding the trip, long delayed due to the pandemic.

Council heard about the plan just a short time before the city issued a press release on the trip last week.

At Mayor Panciuk’s request, City Clerk Matt McDonald said traditionally the Lahr Friendship Flight was always handled through the mayor’s office and not brought before council for discussion and that city policies dictated that the mayor’s office handled trips leaving the country.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk said councillors should be informed before making public and inaccurate statements.

“This is one of the things that frustrates a lot of people, is that you’ve got councillors that are uninformed, they don’t want to see the information, they don’t listen to the answer from staff …  Mr. MacDonald was very clear about that and they still want to perpetuate that this is something that is wrong.”

Mayor Mitch Panciuk. (Photo: Quinte News)

Panciuk wondered why such a fuss was being made over the Lahr trip when the exact same process was used to make decisions on the trip to Gunpo South Korea in 2019 and no one complained, suggesting a municipal election is drawing nearer and that political games are being played.

After some lively discussion Councillor Malette said he believed that many decisions were being made without council’s input.

“We don’t understand why it was pretty much a done deal before and again a lot of us learned about it in a press release and I don’t believe that’s the way that council should learn about important matters before council, through a press release.”

Malette’s attempt to bring a motion to change policy was ruled as out of order at first try and after clarification from the clerk, he agreed to consult with him, and bring a Notice of Motion to a future meeting to have all important decisions discussed by council before final decisions are made.

Malette stressed his beef was not with the actual trip but simply the process by which the decisions were made.

Meanwhile, at the very end of the meeting, Mayor Panciuk asked the clerk to distribute copies of the Terms of Reference for the city’s Cultural Exchange Committee, as well as city policies regarding travel, to all members of council in hopes of lessening inaccurate statements at meetings.