Eastern Ontario mayor's pay docked for alleged bullying, yelling, intimidation

A scathing report by the integrity commissioner in McNab/Braeside, Ont., has resulted in the township's council suspending Mayor Mark MacKenzie's pay for 60 days over what'sdescribes as serious code of conduct breaches.

The decisionhappened Tuesday evening during a council meeting whereintegrity commissionerTony Flemingguided councillors through a summary of his months-long investigation initiated by acomplaint.

After interviewing 12 witnesses, including the mayor himself, Fleming concluded MacKenzie violated the township's code of conduct 25 times between March 2 and May 8, 2023.

"Our investigation found a pattern of conduct by the member [MacKenzie] that constituted bullying and intimidation of staff, the complainant and council as a whole," wrote Fleming.

MacKenzie's aggressive behaviour included yelling at staff and councillors, threatening and intimidating them, calling them incompetent and slamming objects during meetings.

The commissioner found the mayor harassed the complainant, telling them multiple times they "better be very careful."

"It was aggressive, it was also offensive and abusive to make that statement to another member of council in those circumstances." said Fleming in addressing council Tuesday evening.

McNab/Braeside, which isjust west of Arnprior, had about 7,600 residents as of the 2021 census. Mackenzie was electedmayor last year.

Mayor wantedprevious council to look bad: commissioner

The integrity commissioner also concluded MacKenzie acted in a dishonest manner on at least three occasions, including during a meeting with the city auditor wherethe mayor's intent was to make the township's financial situation look as bad as possible.

His goal, the commissioner said, wasto make staff and the previous council seem incompetent.

Under Ontario's Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, city and town councils can suspend a member's pay for up to 90 days if the member is foundby the integrity commissionerto have contravened the code of conduct.

Fleming's report suggested the mayor's pay be docked for60 days.

MacKenzie removedhimself from the council table for the integrity commissioner's presentationand for subsequent votes on the matter. The remaining four council members voted 3-1 to suspend the mayor's pay for 60 days.

Mayor disputes findings

MacKenzie did submit a written statement, which he asked council to enter as information.

In itMacKenzie said he disagrees with the assessment of the integrity commissioner and he's asked for a review of the process by the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman.

MacKenzie's statement also addresses his behaviour in a meeting cited in the commissioner's report.

"Iwill be the first to admit the closed meeting of council of April 18was not my finest moment," wrote MacKenzie. "I want to assure residents, stakeholders, and fellow councillors and staff that I take accountability for my poor choice of wordsand actions that have caused harm."

The township's deputy mayor,Lori Hoddinott, read the entire statement out loud during the council meeting, but on a couple of occasions she sighed in exasperation.

When the mayor's statement invited residents to learnthe full context of how the township is managed, Hoddinottpaused her reading to say, "Here we go with the allegations again. Unbelievable."

Council voted against entering the mayor's written statement as information.

CBC reached out to MacKenzie for an interview buthe declined the request.

In a written statement to CBCissued the day after the meeting,MacKenzie wrote he was disappointed that his colleagues did not accept hisstatement as information.

He also said it was "highly unusual" to have running commentary as it was statement was read out loud, and not in line with township'spolicy.

Hoddinott did not respond to CBC's request for an interview.

During Tuesday's meeting, the deputy mayor did use her time at the microphone to say the decision to bring in the integrity commissioner came only after internal attempts to address the mayor's conduct proved unsuccessful.

"To be clear, misogyny, bullying, intimidation, harassment, threatening, abusiveness, dishonesty, racism and aggressive behaviour will never be condoned by this council," added Hoddinott.