A councilor in Sarnia, Ont., was tossed from budget deliberations on Tuesday after repeatedly berating fellow councillors and staff while using some explosive language.
Coun. Bill Dennis began to get heated at the meeting on Tuesday as he was questioning city staff over the amount being spent on consultants.
He was then asked to table a motion before he went off, saying to others on the Zoom call, “you are a joke. You’re nothing but a bunch of sellouts.”
When fellow councillor Adam Kilner, who is a pastor, attempted to intervene, Dennis responded with, “You’re a joke, as a, as a, as a pastor. You should ashamed of yourself.”
As Mayor Mike Bradley attempted to restore order he told him, “Kiss my ass, you drunk. You cokehead.”
Bradley then shut down the meeting, which was held over a Zoom call, as Dennis was given the boot after being warned to apologize or else.
“Well, it was unusual,” Bradley told Global News on Wednesday morning. “I have never expelled a member of council for their behaviour. And we’re talking 36 years of chairing meetings.
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“The counselor’s behaviour yesterday was so unacceptable, swearing and attacking myself and staff and another councillor, it just wasn’t acceptable. And I cannot, as chair, allow that to continue.”
Global News also spoke with Dennis on Wednesday morning, and while he did not make mention of an apology, he did say he regretted his choice of words.
“Do I regret the vulgarity? 100 per cent,” he said. “It’s never OK to act like that in the public.”
This is not the first time there have been issues between council and the outspoken councillor.
“We have a major occupational health investigation has been going on for months about the councillor,” Bradley said. “And I can say that because normally we wouldn’t disclose that. But he has, because he thinks that’s a badge of honour.”
This has led to the city holding all of their meetings via Zoom calls.
“The reason we’re on Zoom is because of this individual to start with, because of his behaviour in the past that has an intensity of attacking people and and very descriptive, nasty personal attacks,” the mayor said.
Bradley also noted that Dennis has filed lawsuits against both the city and CAO Chris Carter.
The Sarnia mayor said that there is very little recourse for municipalities in dealing with problematic behaviour from elected officials.
“The problem is the only penalty that’s there right now is a 90-day pay freeze, which really means nothing when you’re part-time councillor and that’s it,” Bradley said. “So the sanctions are very few and far between.”
He said because of issues in other communities, a request the province has been asked to allow for further recourse
“There’s been a number of requests to the province, including from Pickering, to have the province set up legislation so that if (a) councillor moves beyond or a mayor moves beyond what is acceptable to their own community, they can be removed from office,” the mayor explained.
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