Charges against Thunder Bay mayor tarnish image of municipal politics says Ryerson professor

An expert in city governance says criminal charges against Keith Hobbs, the mayor of Thunder Bay, Ont., have the potential to tarnish the city's image, and further damage people's perception of the value of municipal politics.

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"I have people coming up to me, asking 'what the devil is going on?' and that's a hard question to answer," says Mitchell Kosny, the associate director at the school of urban and regional planning at Ryerson University in Toronto.

"This stuff just consumes the room," he continued. "It sucks all the air out of the municipal agenda."

Municipal politics are "the most important level [of government] that we have," added Kosny, who is originally from Thunder Bay.

Even one person being charged is enough to make local politics, and everyone who works for it, look bad, he said.

City officials have said the charges against Hobbs are not related to any municipal business.

'It's about public trust'

"They get tarnished with the view that a lot of people have that 'they're just a bunch of bums down at city hall, they don't care and only 30 per cent of the population votes and it just doesn't matter,'" Kosny said.

"This is why it matters," he added. "It's about public trust and we all want our leaders to be special people."

Kosny points to other issues such as the charges against the Thunder Bay police chief, and the problems the city's Bombardier plant is having in fulfilling its contract with the Toronto Transit Commission as also contributing to people's loss of faith in municipal politics.

"You look to your leaders for inspiration, for trust, he said. "When we feel like we're pushing to even make that level of government I think it's the closest to the people really mean something, this just doesn't help," he said.

However, Kosny does not feel that the charges against Hobbs will have a significant impact on how the city is actually run, because the rest of council and city administration are still intact.

'City will soldier through'

"The city will soldier through, it's going to take some bruising, but it's just that larger public optic and reality of 'who's leading, who's in charge, what's going on here?'" said Kosny.

He added that with less than 16 months to another municipal election, he feels it will likely be in the best interest of the city financially and operationally to continue with an acting mayor rather than holding a special election for the position now.

Ontario Provincial Police charged Hobbs and two others his wife Marisa and Thunder Bay resident Mary Voss on July 21.

A statement from Hobbs's lawyer saidthe charges are unjustified and will be vigorously defended.