Infighting at Cambridge council triggered by multiplex

Is Cambridge really the crankiest city in the province?

Since it got a code of conduct and an integrity commissioner last year, eight complaints have been launched, accusing city councillors of breaking the code, and asking for an investigation.

That is one complaint for every 15,875 Cambridge residents. That is a whole lot more rancour, per capita, than the closest contenders: Ottawa with one complaint per 42,709; Guelph with one in 40,562; Windsor with one in 32,914; and Barrie with one per 27,142.

Meanwhile, north of Highway 401, those cheerful pacifists in Kitchener and Waterloo have registered not a single complaint against their locally elected officials. What’s going on in Cambridge? “It all stems from the multiplex,” says Coun. Frank Monteiro.

He should know. Monteiro is the subject of one of the complaints, after he said on a radio talk show that some people, who were not invited to multiplex meetings, were attending anyway, and they were documenting what was said, even though the meetings were closed to the public.

“You can’t do that,” Monteiro recalls telling the radio host.

The complaint alleges that Monteiro wasn’t at the meeting himself, and didn’t report accurately what had happened.

Monteiro has hired his own lawyer, and expects he has run up a $500 bill already.

Still, “there’s no way I’m going to be found guilty,” said Monteiro, a retired police officer.

Several of the other complaints against councillors also have their origins in the multiplex debate. Monteiro wants people to be charged $100 to lay a complaint, which would be returned if the complaint was found to have merit. Council will vote on his proposal this fall.

The question of where the sports multiplex will be, with its new ice pads, gym facilities and swimming pools, has been divisive and emotional for city leaders and residents for many months. There have been tears and shouting.

An early plan to build it on leased land at Conestoga College on Fountain Street in Cambridge, which Monteiro had supported, was harshly criticized as not being central enough, and too close to Kitchener. Another task force was formed, and has developed a shortlist of locations.

But the conversation has bogged down again. Maybe Cambridge will never even get a multiplex, just because no one can agree on where it should go.

To explain that strange phenomenon, you have to go back 44 years to 1973, when the communities of Preston, Hespeler and Galt were forced to come together and create Cambridge.

The city’s residents “became divided because of that,” said Monteiro. “There’s this animosity.”

Signs of that unhappy marriage are still there.

They were clear in the early 2000s, when residents fought each other as the school board considered closing one of five high schools in the city (it ended up keeping them all). They’re clear today, with the multiplex discussion.

The proposed $100 fee to discourage complaints just treats a symptom, like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg.