Bortolin Balks At Signing City Council’s Code Of Conduct
He says he’s against signing document that forbids criticizing body’s decisions
Coun. Rino Bortolin says he won’t sign the code of conduct all members of the newly elected council are expected to sign, as long as it prohibits councillors from criticizing council decisions.
“This year, after I’ve learned a very tough lesson — I’m not going to sign it,” the Ward 3 councillor said Wednesday, referring to a council reprimand he received last May for comments he made in a 2017 Windsor Star story concerning a string of high-profile projects (including the Jackson Park holiday lights and restoring an 1918 trolley) and how those projects were funded. Councillors blasted him for a rape-in-the-alley comment he made that juxtaposed these major expenditures with a reluctance to fund $3,000 alley lights. What Integrity Commissioner Bruce Elman concluded was that Bortolin violated the code of conduct by making disparaging comments about council’s decisions and processes, attacking the integrity of the decision-making process and criticizing a council decision. All the councillors signed the code of conduct at the start of the term in 2014. Bortolin, who said he strongly believes in a councillor’s right to speak on behalf of residents, is waiting for a court date as he seeks a judicial review of Elman’s decision. In the meantime, he said, he isn’t going to sign the code again, unless he can remove the provisions that prohibit criticizing council decisions.
Several provisions limit what councillors are allowed to say after council has made a decision, including one that states: “Members shall not criticize any decision of council except for the purpose of introducing a motion for reconsideration.”
Bortolin said if he’s not allowed to criticize a decision residents don’t agree with, he’s not doing his job. “We are not allowing any councillor, not just me, to take a position that is different from council, which is wrong. ” Members of the new council will make an oath of office during the inaugural Dec. 3 meeting. In the following weeks they’ll meet with Elman for a review of the code of conduct. They’re expected to sign a letter of commitment to the code. When asked to sign, Bortolin said he’ll say he was hung out to dry last year after signing something he didn’t agree with. This time, he said, he’ll say specifically which provisions he doesn’t agree with. “And I’ll refuse to sign it unless I can either take out (the provisions) or it’s duly noted that I’m signing but not in support of the entire document.”
What happens if he doesn’t sign? “Your guess is as good as mine, we’re going to see,” Bortolin replied.
City clerk Valerie Critchley said it doesn’t matter whether Bortolin signs or not. Signing is really an acknowledgment that a councillor has read and understands the code of conduct, she said. “Council has passed a code of conduct, so he is bound by it, whether he signs it or not.” Elman, the integrity commissioner, declined to say what would happen if Bortolin doesn’t sign. “I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals,” he said. “The last time round (in 2014), the commitment to the code of conduct was signed, the code of conduct went through revision, which the councillor was a member of ... and I fully expect he’ll want to sign the letter of commitment.”
Bortolin’s application for a judicial review seeks to have both the integrity commissioner’s report on the rape-in-the-alley comment and council’s May 7 decision to sanction him set aside for “error of law, misapprehension of facts and the denial of natural justice.” He said if his judicial review eventually goes against him, he’ll sign the code of conduct.
“I’m not going to push this to the point where they want to push me off council because I’m not accepting of the code of conduct,” he said. “If worse comes to worst and they say, ‘Listen, you either sign it or you’re not a councillor,’ I’m going to sign it.”