Report rips Stouffville mayor’s ‘disturbing’ wall

CSI-style photos on bathroom wall ‘harassment,’ ethics boss says

The CSI-style wall created in an office washroom of the mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville was “vexatious” and “disturbing to staff” and amounted to a “serious incident of workplace harassment,” an ethics probe has found.

In a highly anticipated report released late Friday afternoon, integrity commis- sioner Suzanne Craig’s findings say Justin Altmann’s wall — made up of photos of staff, colleagues and members of the public connected by black lines — affected the work environment, and his behaviour toward staff interfered with their ability to do their jobs.

“The respondent’s conduct in developing the wall created and contributed to an intimidating work environment for the complainant and other employees,” Craig wrote in her report. “I find that the respondent’s creation of the wall was discreditable conduct that fell below the decorum expected of his office,” she wrote.

However, Craig also wrote that Altmann “demonstrated an error in judgment” and not a wilful desire to cause harm.

“I find that the respondent’s creation of the wall was discreditable.” SUZANNE CRAIG INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER

Neither did he desire to breach the town’s code of conduct, Craig wrote. Moreover, Craig wrote that his conduct was misplaced but was not carried out in bad faith.

Craig, who will present the report to council on Tuesday, has asked council to consider other penalties: asking Altmann for a formal apology; reprimanding Altmann; including an admonition to interact respectfully with staff; using town offices and facilities appropriately, and suspending his pay for 30 days. The maximum penalty under the Municipal Act is to dock an elected official three months’ pay. In the report, Altmann said the “purpose of photos and the display on my wall is simply a ‘mindmapping’ exercise — a method I use to visually organize information.”

He also added: “Some of these members (of council) have sought to undermine me in my capacity as mayor and impede the mandate for which I was elected, namely to govern council and staff with proper policies and procedures befitting of our municipality. Therefore, it is very possible that the complaint is a further attempt to undermine me personally and professionally,” he said. The wall has been taken down. The investigation began in March, when Craig was approached by the complainant.

Craig wrote she only looked at whether Altmann had breached the code of conduct in relation to harassment, discreditable conduct and conduct respecting staff.

She suggested a complaint of workplace violence be taken by the complainant to police. But in her report, she touched on the complaint, writing that Altmann allegedly told one staff member he wanted another’s “head on a platter” and that he “was going to blow up this place.” Craig did not investigate because it was outside the scope of her investigation.

In her findings, Craig said she relied on interviews, documents and the findings of an independent investigator.

“Being shown the wall by the respondent with its pictures, clip art, meticulous lines, sheer size over three walls and location in the respondent’s washroom was objectively reasonably vexatious to Staff A who we accept was legitimately shocked and thrown off balance in a negative way,” the investigator wrote.

“In all the circumstances, the respondent reasonably ought to have known that the wall would be unwelcome to anyone who saw it, particularly an employee,” the investigator wrote. “It clearly had a dramatically negative lasting impact on Staff A that cannot be attributed to the political agenda of the respondent’s detractors.”

Craig wrote that even if Altmann’s intention was to create a “flow chart that would enable him to present his evidence to the law enforcement authorities to strengthen his position that he was on the receiving end of harassment, intimidation and threats . . . it is clearly unreasonable to have done so on the walls of a public building, together with photographs of staff, members of council and private citizens and with captions such as ‘you are dead.’ ”

She also chastised him for breaching the confidentiality of the investigation, when he sent out an email to supporters this month, asking them to submit letters of support to Craig.

Craig wrote that during her investigation there were a number of allegations she couldn’t look into as they occurred before the town instituted a code of conduct this year.

A list of them, included in the appendix, are: bringing personal furniture into town offices, changing the position of the video surveillance cameras outside the mayor’s office, and questionable use of the mayoral chains and the mayor’s unpredictable behaviour with staff.