ESSEX COUN. DOCKED PAY
Bondy subject of report
A defiant Town of Essex councillor told her colleagues Monday night: “You can take my money, but you won't take my voice.”
They took the money.
With Sherry Bondy declaring a conflict in the subsequent poll, council voted 4-2 to accept the recommendation of the municipality's integrity commissioner and dock her a month's pay — $1,500 — for, in part, her “long history of aggressively criticizing staff” at E.L.K. Energy Inc.
Mayor Larry Snively, who requested the investigation by integrity commissioner Robert Swayze, acknowledged Bondy's hard work on behalf of constituents, but said he wants to “protect our staff.”
In presenting his report to council, Swayze said Bondy's hard work is “very misguided” when it comes to her public criticism of staff and that “if you treat professionals publicly like Ms. Bondy would want them, you will lose them.”
He described as “disgraceful” one of the comments she had made about staff.
At Monday's Zoom council meeting, Swayze went further than his report, saying Bondy had mayoral ambitions, but was “a maverick without support” on council: “A maverick mayor would be a fouryear disaster.”
Before the vote, Bondy, who has declared her intention to run for mayor next year, said those like her who ask difficult questions face bullying of their own, and she pointed a finger at Snively. “The mayor's continued harassment of me is creating a toxic work environment.”
Asking the integrity commissioner to investigate “definitely was not political,” said Snively, who also used the occasion to announce he was “definitely not running in the next election.”
Bondy accuses Snively of targeting her ever since she contacted police over alleged voting improprieties in the 2018 municipal election, a matter that remains before the court.
Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche described Swayze as an unbiased outsider and that, when it came to the complaints against Bondy, she had “done this a number of times” and been warned about it in the past.
Coun. Chris Vander Doelen, who had a Monday deadline to address code of conduct findings made against him by Swayze in a recent report, or face a two-month suspension of pay, argued “the punishment should be many times this amount.”
He questioned the difference in punishment doled out for his alleged offence — accused of “racist” tweets — and the allegations against Bondy, including the posting of a cartoon showing someone being led to the gallows.
Swayze called the latter a “most egregious posting,” but Bondy said the illustration was meant to show her as the one being led to execution.
Coun. Steve Bjorkman was one of two councillors who came to Bondy's defence, saying his colleague has “built her brand” around being seen as the one asking tough questions and that he failed to see what was inappropriate about her alleged actions.
“Frankly, I'm disappointed,” he said of the integrity commissioner's report and findings.
Coun. Joe Garon agreed, describing the matter as “a personality clash between the mayor and Coun. Bondy.”
Coun. Morley Bowman said he respected the positions of both the integrity commissioner and of Bondy before seconding Meloche's motion to accept the report's findings and approve the recommended monetary penalty.
Bondy declared a conflict ahead of the vote and Coun. Kim Verbeek was absent from Monday's council meeting.
Later in the meeting, Bondy introduced a motion requesting that the board of E.L.K. Energy — the utility is owned by the Town of Essex and its board headed by former mayor Ron Mcdermott — open up its meeting minutes and share its asset management plan with council. The motion failed when Bondy couldn't find a seconder.