Trump hat displayed at city meeting

Another Hamilton official has brought a Donald Trump hat to work.

David Serwatuk, a member of the city’s committee of adjustment, had his red “Make America Great Again” hat sitting on the table in front of him during Thursday’s quasi-judicial meeting at City Hall.

“There are many forums where one can express their personal views. This is not one of them! Totally inappropriate,” Mayor Fred Eisenberger commented on Twitter Thursday.

“(That is) unacceptable behaviour for a committee member.”

It wasn’t until independent journalist Joey Coleman addressed the committee (as a representative of the Beasley Neighbourhood Association) that the hat was acknowledged.

Coleman said he found it offensive and Serwatuk apologized. He quickly removed the hat — and himself — from the meeting and declared a conflict of interest.

Outside the meeting room, he said he’d received the hat as a gift from his brother that afternoon and “(didn’t) know where to put it.”

Serwatuk insisted he was not trying to make a political statement.

The infamous red Trump hat made headlines in the city last week, after numerous complaints were made against Ontario Court Justice Bernd Zabel, who donned the same hat in a Hamilton courtroom to mark the “historic” election. Zabel has since apologized. On Thursday, Serwatuk said he was not aware of that incident and called it “totally different.”

“I figure it doesn’t have anything to do with us here or me here,” he said of president-elect Donald Trump and the American election.

Coun. Matthew Green — who has publicly called for Zabel’s resignation after the earlier Trump hat incident — disagrees. At City Hall Thursday, he called the latest incident inappropriate for “the same reasons.”

“(The committee) is a quasi-judicial body that has bonding legal authority over planning issues. It needs to be also viewed as impartial (and) non-political.”

The Trump hat is also particularly problematic, Green says, because of the “clear symbol” it has become “in terms of targeting identifiable groups.”

But Green also acknowledged that Serwatuk quickly apologized when he was called out. “I am very grateful that he understood, at least in that space, the problem and clear conflict that he presented … At a … local level, the committee of adjustments, being quasi-judicial, has an impact. At a much greater level, the Ontario Court of Justice has a much greater impact.”