An investigation into a complaint lodged over nine months ago has finally concluded that Merrickville Mayor Michael Cameron is guilty of one of the two Code of Conduct violations of which he was accused.
According to the final report released by Cunningham, Swan, Carty, Little & Bonham LLP, the first allegation against Mayor Cameron was that he had a conflict of interest when verbally adding an item to the agenda during the July 1 Council meeting. Specifically, the item was a request that a $600 surplus in Canada Day funds be donated to the Royal Canadian Legion branch – of which Mayor Cameron is a member – in trust to be given to Veterans House Canada. The investigation found that this was not significant enough to be considered a conflict of interest, especially because the amount of money was small, and was not retained by the Legion.
The second concern identified in the report also involves the Legion. On May 28, 2023, Mayor Cameron sent an email directly to municipal staff, asking that they expedite their consideration of funding for a patio extension for the Legion. Specifically, Mayor Cameron wrote “there is a lot of planning and fundraising going into this event by the legion [sic] and it would be nice to have their patio extension considered asap”.
The report found Mayor Cameron guilty of a Code of Conduct violation for the May 28 email, since it “constituted an attempt to influence staff in the decision making process”. The report goes on to state that “Member’s [sic] must be mindful at all times that staff of a Municipality take instruction from Council as a whole and not from any individual member. Member’s [sic] must be cautious of the effect their status and role within the municipality has on staff members and must be mindful not to direct staff to such an extent that it is an attempt to influence or is threatening or intimidating.”
The report recommended a reprimand as a penalty for the Code of Conduct breach.
Merrickville-Wolford Council discussed the report at their April 8 Council meeting. Mayor Cameron passed over the chair role to Deputy Mayor Anne Barr, who explained that Council was tasked with deciding how to make the report public (as required by law), and how to act on the recommendation for a reprimand.
Mayor Cameron spoke first, and provided a statement on the matter. “Upon review, I realize that I overstepped my authority with regard to issues identified by the report, and going forward, will adhere to the Council Code of Conduct as it relates to harassment and influence on staff. I sincerely apologize to those staff who felt they had been unduly exposed to harassment or influence by my request.”
A debate then followed regarding how best to make the report available to the public. Councillor Stephen Ireland stated his confusion about “releasing the report to the public”, since the report is already publicly available. Councillor Margaret Gural addressed this by suggesting that the report could be put on the homepage of the Village website. Councillor Ronnie Maitland suggested that the Mayor’s response should be posted along with the final report, since he has “taken full responsibility for it”.
Councillor Ireland spoke further, saying he disagrees with the Deputy Mayor’s suggestion that the report needs to be more visible on the website. He then took the opportunity to say that the reference to the first complaint in the report – which was dismissed – could act as an “educational piece”, since the person who made the complaint “ought to have known that that was not a conflict of interest”. Since the identity of the person who made the complaint is confidential, it is not clear if Councillor Ireland’s comments were intended to be directed at someone in particular.
Mayor Cameron clarified that he has no problem with the report being made more visible on the website, and he also stated that he is no longer a member of the Legion, thereby ensuring that there will be no further conflict of interest.
There was a disagreement between Council members about whether a reprimand was necessary, with Councillors Maitland and Ireland arguing that the Mayor’s public apology was sufficient, with no further action needed. A consensus was reached that a public declaration that the Mayor breached the Code of Conduct would suffice as a penalty. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor then switched back to their regular seats amicably.
