Sarnia council kicks mayor out of city hall office
Bradley under fire for harassment, bullying of four senior city staffers
Longtime Sarnia Mayor SARNIA Mike Bradley has been temporarily kicked out of his city hall office following an emotionally charged council meeting Monday night.
More than 100 people packed into Sarnia council chambers to watch whether Bradley — Ontario’s second-longest-serving mayor — would be penalized further for harassing four senior city hall staffers.
But much of the anger in council chambers was directed at council as a whole Monday night for continuing to penalize the mayor for his actions.
Several members of the public heckled council throughout the meeting, resulting in one of them being escorted out of city hall by Sarnia police officers.
“It just breaks your heart how (council is) splitting up the city,” said Peggy Shand, a longtime Sarnia resident who waved a sign in support of the mayor.
Council ultimately approved temporarily relocating Bradley’s office to another city-owned building, but Bradley will be allowed to move back into city hall once a new office is created for him away from staff.
He is also required to take sensitivity and anger management training — all billed as an effort by the majority of council to ensure a safe workplace for city staff.
Earlier this month, Bradley was also stripped of his ability to communicate with the majority of city hall staff directly and his afterhours access to city hall.
A request for comment from Bradley went unanswered as of press time Monday night.
Former Sarnia mayor Andy Brandt called the work situation Bradley now faces as “utterly impossible.”
“I think council pushed this issue far too long and too hard,” he said.
Even Coun. Mike Kelch — one of Bradley’s staunchest supporters — agreed council has to take action as the result of the workplace harassment report, but he said his support is unwavering for the mayor.
He called on the public to ask the mayor to take the report seriously.
“If (Bradley) can’t do that, what he’s doing is forcing council to take measures that it doesn’t want to take,” Kelch said Monday night.
A workplace probe — done by Bernardi Human Resource Law LLP — found Bradley harassed and bullied city manager Margaret Misek Evans, former clerk Nancy Wright Laking, former planning director Jane Cooper and former parks and recreation director Beth Gignac.
The investigation concluded his actions were in violation of the city’s workplace harassment policy and the Occupational Health & Safety Act.