London mayor steps aside over ‘inappropriate relationship’
Incident follows string of other city hall controversies
London, Ont., is feeling a sense of déjà vu with news that Mayor Matt Brown is temporarily stepping aside after admitting a brief “inappropriate personal relationship” with the deputy mayor.
Brown, who took office in 2014 along with a mostly fresh-faced city council, ran on a promise to restore integrity to the embattled southwestern Ontario city hall.
His win came after a string of mayors became embroiled in various controversies, most notably his immediate predecessor Joe Fontana, who was convicted on fraud-related charges.
Brown said Tuesday in a statement that during a period of intense workload, he developed “a close working relationship and ultimately an inappropriate personal relationship with Deputy Mayor Maureen Cassidy.”
Cassidy resigned as deputy mayor on Tuesday, but will remain as a city councillor. She used a news conference to appeal for privacy as she worked with her family “to rebuild the trust that has been broken.”
Brown also asked the media and community to respect “the need of my wife and children for some privacy as we work through this difficult time.”
Both Brown and Cassidy said they regret the pain and embarrassment they have caused their families.
“I intend to spend more time with my children and my wife in the coming weeks. I’m taking some time away over the next little while and I will return to my other duties when we’re ready,” Brown added.
Cassidy said she could “never apologize enough” to her family for allowing her relationship with the mayor to cross “a professional boundary.”
Corrine Rahman, Brown’s chief of staff, stepped down in light of the news, Councillor Tanya Park (Ward 13) told CBC News.
Martin Horak, a political science professor at Western University and expert in local government, says the perception that this forms part of an unfortunate pattern does a disservice to the current city council.
Of the14 councillors elected in 2014, only three incumbents from Fontana’s term found their way back to city hall.
“They’ve been a much more collegial, professional, thoughtful and productive council than the previous one,” he said.
Among the achievements of the current city council, Horak counts its implementation of multi-year budgeting and the recent vote to appoint an integrity commissioner to enforce the code of conduct.
One of the first cases for newly appointed Gregory Stewart could be to delve into this incident.
Brown has asked Stewart to advise on the matter. No official investigation has been launched and Stewart told the Star it was too early to judge what might come of the meeting, set for Thursday.
“It sounds trite,” Stewart said of the story, which he had only learned about in media reports at that point.
Brown said in a statement he will abide by any decisions or recommendations made by the commissioner, though he doesn’t believe his relationship with the deputy mayor breached any professional responsibilities.
“I nonetheless want to obtain his opinion to ensure that there are no issues,” Brown said.
In July 2014, Fontana was sentenced to house arrest and probation after a judge found him guilty of forg- ing expense documents related to his son’s wedding while he was a federal Liberal cabinet minister. The Ontario ombudsman also probed the mayor’s backroom meetings with select councillors.
“There’s no question it’s been an unfortunate string of events for London,” Phil Squire, city councillor for London’s Ward 6, said Wednesday.
“It’s a very bad sequence,” he said. “That is always going to hurt a city . . . because the mayor is our leader.”
Unlike the criminal convictions against Fontana, Squire said the fallout from Brown and Cassidy’s announcement will be “primarily political.”
“Clearly people expect better out of politicians and I think both Mayor Brown and Deputy Mayor Cassidy have expected better of themselves,” he said. Deputy Mayor Paul Hubert has been called on to serve as acting mayor, a role he anticipates to fill for several weeks, though the period is officially undetermined.
He called the affair a short-term distraction.
“Then we will refocus on the work that we have ahead,” Hubert said.
Calling Brown and Cassidy “friends first, colleagues second, and politicians third,” Hubert said the news caught him off guard but he doesn’t believe the “deeply personal” matter should derail city business.
“The City of London, its reputation, the good work that council and administration are doing does not rise and fall on the personal issues of any one member of council, be it the mayor or anyone else,” he said.
Horak said while it’s an “unfortunate” situation, it’s not in the same category of the most-recent iteration of city hall. “The problem comes more with image and with public trust, at least at this stage as far as we know, rather than with any breach of ethical or conduct rules.”
He says the news may erode public trust, but he credits that more to the public’s general lack of attention paid to municipal politics.
“The less attention they pay the more they’re going to tend to see this as a sign of some broader systemic problem rather than a one off indiscretion.”