A recent report from Renfrew’s Integrity Commissioner is a reminder to town council to pick their spots when airing their frustrations with town matters.
Acting Mayor Peter Emon says his interpretation of the report, which recommended several days of lost pay for Councillors Kyle Cybulski and Andrew Dick after they went to Facebook with critical statements that could be seen as breaching their code of conduct, was that they were valid to air their opinions but didn’t do so in a way that was fair to town staff.
The commissioner directly points to Dick’s suggestion that town staff was stonewalling the efforts of council as a breach of the code of conduct in his report, while Emon adds that it’s likely Cybulski’s comment first crossed the line by casting doubt on the integrity of town staff with a remark aimed at the town’s engineers in regard to the sudden need to change the scope of a summer construction project on Stevenson Crescent.
The acting mayor calls the situation a learning experience when it comes to how the council minds its language in public, as its need to maintain decorum doesn’t stop outside council chambers.
Emon is also encouraging town officials to keep lines of communication open as much as possible in order to keep information flowing between all branches of the municipality and keep the messaging on sensitive topics on point across the board.
(written by Kasey Egan)
