Lethbridge mayor calls councillor a 'moron' in leaked email exchange

The mayor of Lethbridge called one of his councillors a moron in an email exchange which has been made public.

Mayor Chris Spearman says a series of emails at the end of April were intended to be private.

In the exchange, Spearman takes Coun. Joe Mauro to task for arguing that money for public art should have gone to clearing snow.

Spearman called Mauro a "political gull" who drops excrement on work that others are doing and says it's clear why Mauro has never had a real job.

The mayor says it was a harsh conversation and he was surprised to see it leaked.

Mauro declined to comment.

"It's in the past," he told the Lethbridge Herald.

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The initial email exchange was prompted by a citizen's complaint about needles found in a truck after it had been broken into near a supervised drug consumption site. Spearman accused Mauro of listening to people who oppose consumption sites on political grounds rather than experienced addictions experts.

"You clearly don't have the intellectual capacity to do the job as councillor competently. You do not understand drug addiction. Every addict using the safe consumption facility is one less addict on the street," Spearman wrote.

"I understand now why you have never had a real job. You would be fired in a few weeks. Your lack of respect for others results in them not respecting you. That you haven't understood that simple concept at your age is a reflection of your intellectual capacity.

"You truly are a moron!"

Spearman said Monday he didn't want to elaborate, but said Mauro does not seem informed on a lot of issues.

"His attendance rate is not very good. There needs to be a higher level of commitment," he said. "It's important that we do work together. We have to be able to deal with differences of opinion ourselves without it being leaked out into the public."

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