Carleton Place mayor gets some social media love
Council appointment of deputy mayor as spokesman divides Carleton Place
With cries of “Shame!” and accusations of a “coup d’état” still reverberating around Carleton Place Town Hall, supporters of embattled Mayor Louis Antonakos took to social media following a vote this week that saw council appoint the deputy mayor as its spokesman.
All six councillors voted in favour of the motion at a meeting Tuesday. It was introduced by Coun. Brian Doucett to address the town’s media relations in response to recent controversies, with the original motion saying the mayor “continues to refuse to respond to the media about important issues facing the community.”
Antonakos abstained from the recorded vote after delivering a 25-minute speech in council chambers, where he decried the motion against him and lashed out at his accusers, denying he has “wilfully refused or ignored the media.”
As catcalls rained down from the mayor’s supporters, committee chair Sean Redmond opted against allowing commentary from the gallery. That didn’t stop the public from airing their grievances on social media, where the mayor posted a transcript of his speech — all 11 pages of it — on his Facebook page.
“Thank you for your leadership,” Kathryn Carriere wrote in reply, “putting the community’s best interest before ego and having the courage to address the media smearing campaigns that only tarnish our town.”
Others on Facebook called the motion a “power grab,” while the mayor’s statement touched off a lively dialogue on the CarletonPlace.com forum, a long-running discussion group.
One contributor under the handle MarkJordon called the appointment of Flynn as council spokesman a violation of the Municipal Act, which councillors consulted Tuesday before casting their votes.
“Without the mayor’s consent or participation,” MarkJordon wrote, “this is illegal.”
The same contributor accused two councillors of having conflicts of interest, saying Deputy Mayor Jerry Flynn “voted for himself” as council spokesman, and that Coun. Theresa Fritz “works with the newspaper as an editor.”
In an email, Fritz said she has never been managing editor of the Carleton Place-Almonte Canadian Gazette newspaper. She instead serves as managing editor of the Metroland Media East newspapers in Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew.
“Any comments I made (Tuesday) night were not on behalf of the Canadian Gazette but made as a town councillor,” she said. “I could not be a member of Carleton Place town council were I connected to the Canadian Gazette as its managing editor.”
In his speech Tuesday, Antonakos directed his ire at the paper’s town hall reporter over perceived unfavourable coverage, telling councillors and the local press to “seriously consider the damage that has been done (to the community) through these questionable acts and flawed newspaper articles.”
Inside council chambers, Antonakos slammed recent media reports as either “fabricated” or “flawed,” and questioned the credibility of a recent complaint against him, filed with the integrity commissioner and detailed in recent media reports, which alleges the mayor violated code of conduct rules during the 2014 election campaign.
Antonakos expressed full confidence in integrity commissioner Robert J. Swayze, calling the complaint, filed by local developer Volundur (Wally) Thorbjornsson and copied to the Ontario Ombudsman, a “publicity stunt.”
“I am certain that this latest publicity stunt by this disgruntled developer will be dismissed, the same way that (Coun. Doug Black’s) complaint against me was dismissed,” Antonakos said.
In a previous integrity commissioner report made public Feb. 14, with Carleton Place taxpayers expected to foot the bill for the investigation at an estimated $20,000, the ethics watchdog dismissed complaints brought by town councillors against both the mayor and Black, but Swayze described the rift between the two politicians as a “toxic relationship” that is “damaging to the town.”
Antonakos has made no public statement in direct response to that ruling, despite numerous media requests, including several unanswered requests from the Citizen.
Tuesday’s committee motion was prompted in part by those media requests, which were copied to all councillors, and by a recent editorial in the local paper calling for greater communication from the mayor’s office, with the Gazette accusing Antonakos of “ignoring requests for comment on a number of important stories” in the past year.
In a statement lashing out at his accusers, Antonakos took issue with comments by the deputy mayor, who was appointed council spokesman Tuesday, after Flynn told the Citizen the integrity commissioner’s findings were symptomatic of a deeper divide, accusing the mayor of “bullying, intimidation and a total lack of respect” for his fellow councillors.
Thank you for … having the courage to address the media smearing campaigns that only tarnish our town.