Bylaw ‘emasculated’: Wells
Former mayor calls current council ‘a bunch of con artists’ after vote to amend Freedom of Information legislation
“I brought it in for a specific purpose, because I wanted to make sure that no matter who was here in the public chamber, public issues and expenditures of public funds are discussed and voted on here.” Former St. John’s mayor Andy Wells
If the current members of city council were a rock band, says Andy Wells, he’d call them Nero and the Pyromaniacs, “because they’re fiddling while St. John’s burns.”
The former mayor sat in the public chamber Monday evening, fuming as his successor Dennis O’Keefe and the rest of council voted to amend the city’s Freedom of Information bylaw.
Council voted to add “Excepting personnel and legal matters” to the beginning of Section 4.2, which reads: “It shall be a violation of this By-Law for Council to vote for any financial benefit to any Member of Council or any member of Staff at a private meeting.”
A sentence was also added to the bylaw to assert that in the event of a conflict between it and the provincial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATTIPA), the provincial act would prevail.
In Wells’ words, council “emasculated” the legislation he brought in during his time in office. He said they are using ATTIPA to allow them to violate the city’s bylaw.
“I brought it in for a specific purpose, because I wanted to make sure that no matter who was here in the public chamber, public issues and expenditures of public funds are discussed and voted on here.
“And a number of occasions over the past few years, they have deliberately broken that bylaw — either deliberately or through ignorance, because I don’t think half of them knew (it) existed,” he said.
Wells gave three examples of times he believes the bylaw was broken: a massive subsidy given to St. John’s Sports and Entertainment, payments to former city manager Neil Martin and increases to salaries of senior bureaucrats.
Wells said the bylaw “was, and still is, if it was properly followed, the best municipal bylaw respecting freedom of information of any municipality in the country. It covers all that is necessary to protect citizens against dishonest and incompetent and corrupt politicians.”
He said nothing he did during his time as mayor mattered more to him.
“Because this is the essence of democracy. The people, the citizens of St. John’s are entitled to know how their money is being spent, and on what, and they’re entitled to have it properly debated in the public chamber.
That is the essence of democracy, not the nonsense that O’Keefe and them were talking about tonight.”
No debate
Council passed the motion to amend the bylaw Monday with no debate.
“Nobody defended the fundamental principle of the right to have access. So they’re just a bunch of con artists all around, the whole lot of them,” Wells said.
“Nobody defended the fundamental principle of the right to have access. So they’re just a bunch of con artists all around, the whole lot of them.” Former St. John’s mayor Andy Wells
Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth seemed unperturbed by what Wells said about council.
“Well, on some of the names he’s called me in the past, I would take those as a compliment,” he told media.
“I actually reached out to the former mayor some weeks ago, and he was not willing to have any conversation at that point, and was very clear that he wanted no part in discussing any issue with me.”
He said there were two paragraphs in the original bylaw about releasing personal information that contradicted each other.
“That was a conflict that was written there by — oh, the former mayor — when he created this bylaw originally. So that cleans that part up. But obviously, transparency is really important, and if he’s got any concerns or issues, our city manager certainly corresponded on a regular basis with the former mayor explaining the information to him, but obviously he’s not interested in having a discussion.”
Asked if he’d consider running for office again, Wells wouldn’t say yes or no, instead musing about how “the long run gets awful short” at his age, then complaining about tax increases in the 2016 budget.
Ellsworth, who said his name will be on the ballot again next year, said he wishes him well in his campaign.
“There’s nothing wrong with more debate and discussion, for sure,” he said.