Coun. Sergio Morales has fired back against the integrity commissioner’s recommendations that he be reprimanded and apologize for his comments to Coun. Keenan Aylwin last August.
Barrie city council will deal with Suzanne Craig’s recommendations at Monday night’s meeting.
“I will be presenting a full, tell-all expose at Monday’s council meeting about why the recommendation to reprimand me for calling out the complainant’s (Aylwin’s) lack of leadership and pouting when he doesn’t get his way, after having exhausted all avenues to me in getting him to stop this pattern of behaviour, was not in contravention of the Code of Conduct,” Morales said.
Aylwin has told BarrieToday he’s been advised by Craig not to comment on this matter until it’s before council Monday.
Craig has determined Morales’ comments to Aylwin contravened Barrie’s Code of Conduct, an agreed-upon understanding by all members of council about what standards they should meet in the individual conduct of their official duties.
“I find that the respondent’s comments such as, '(I) am living in fear of (the councillor) attacking me,' '(the councillor) pouts when he doesn’t get his way,' 'your comments detract away from the great potential (the complainant) has,' and '(the councillor) is not a leader' are comments that the respondent ought to have known to be offensive,” Craig wrote in her March 15 report.
The report identifies Morales as the respondent and published stories in BarrieToday identify Aylwin as the complainant.
A reprimand is a penalty under the Municipal Act, a strongly worded condemnation of a member of council.
In addition to a reprimand, Morales would have to write an apology to Aylwin acknowledging and recognizing that calling out Aylwin and publicly saying the Ward 2 councillor is not a leader, along with other disparaging comments, was not in compliance with the Code of Conduct. The apology would have to be given to Craig within five days of council’s decision on this matter.
Morales would also have to recognize that personal attacks against members of council are not permitted by the code.
The comments Craig referred to in her report come from an Aug. 10 city council meeting, and a direct motion that city staff meet with Shak’s World to identify opportunities including leasing the former City of Barrie Youth Centre at 59A Maple Ave., as well as city facilities, to host its proposed programming and its prepared business plan, and report back to councillors on Sept. 14, 2020.
Mayor Jeff Lehman took a vote to waive the rules of procedure so that councillors could hear a presentation by Shak’s World prior to a motion without notice and the direct motion being considered. Shak’s World focuses on community and the well-being of youth through basketball. The local non-profit group was searching for facility space, and was before council asking for $42,000 to rent it.
Because Shak’s World had not completed many of the requirements that grant proponents are required to fulfil, however, the waiver motion was defeated by a majority of councillors.
Aylwin’s comments about systemic racism led to the exchange with Morales.
“That could be a corporation. It could be a schooling system. It could be a municipal government. Sometimes systemic racism isn’t obvious to those on the outside looking in, especially those who are privileged by the system,” Aylwin said at the time, as reported by BarrieToday.
“Mayor Lehman, Coun. Aylwin is implying that council is being racist to Shak. This is ridiculous,” Morales replied.
Lehman responded that he didn’t hear a councillor accuse council of being racist, and tried to turn the conversation back to the motion on the floor, BarrieToday reported.
“Very obviously there’s a misunderstanding of what systemic racism is,” Aylwin said.
Craig said Aylwin’s comments were not about people, however, but process.
“Based on my discussions with individuals, including the complainant, it was not the intention of the complainant to suggest that members of council planning committee members were racist,” she wrote in her March 15 report. “His comments were levelled at the inherent systemic inequities of the decision-making process of the committee, and not at the members who make up the committee.”
She did find that Morales’ comments were directed at Aylwin.
“The complainant was incorrect in defining the committee’s August decision to defer approval of the grant to the proponent (Shak’s World) as based on inappropriate motives,” Craig wrote in her report. “However, the complainant’s comments do not justify or exonerate the respondent from his ethical responsibilities to refrain from insulting and offending a council colleague.”
City council’s virtual meeting on Monday, March 22 is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and the integrity commissioner’s report is one of the first items on the agenda.
