RIDEAU LAKES — A special council meeting on Dec. 8 ended with Rideau Lakes council voting to reissue a public reprimand of Mayor Arie Hoogenboom, after scrapping its own procedural bylaw to deal with the matter immediately.
The meeting was called to address what Coun. Paula Banks said were problems with the motion passed on Dec. 1, when council first issued the reprimand. She told council she had been advised that “we must follow more closely the instructions we were given in closed,” prompting the push to reconsider.
Banks added she notified the CAO as soon as she learned “there might be an issue with this motion.”
Coun. Marcia Maxwell questioned why the special meeting was held with no accompanying documents. (The motion was posted to the township’s website following the meeting.)
“I don’t understand why we’re having a special meeting,” she said. “In my opinion, it’s already too late. This motion that was approved at the Dec. 1 council meeting and was already been picked up by the media and posted online. Once it’s in there online, there’s no getting it back. So I don’t see point of this. It’s already out there, and this is just another example of showing how dysfunctional this council is.”
Council first voted to reconsider the reprimand at the Jan. 5 meeting, then immediately voted again to set aside the procedural bylaw to deal with it on Dec. 8 instead. That motion passed 5–3 with Coun. Dustin Bulloch not in attendance. The five councillors who passed this motion included councillors Paula and Jeff Banks, Linda Carr, Sue Dunfield and Deborah Hutchings.
Maxwell rejected the move.
“Here we go again. Set aside the procedural by laws so we can do something that’s going against the recommendation of staff. So, I’m voting no. It should be coming out in January, the way it’s supposed to,” she said.
The mayor also condemned the process.
“This amounts, in fact, to a third time that I’m being reprimanded publicly for a minor violation of our code of conduct by council that refuses to follow proper procedure,” Hoogenboom said. “This is clearly vindictive, it’s harassment, and it’s evidence of a council, individual members acting in bad faith.”
P. Banks maintained council had been improperly advised on the original wording.
“We were not told we cannot change the procedural bylaw,” she said. “I would recommend that the mayor go back and rewatch the training … I’m going to ask the council support this motion because it more closely follows our instructions given in closed.”
The reissued reprimand centres on integrity commissioner files IC-35605-0625 and IC-35605-0725, which council says were vetted before the original release, except for the section on trust and leadership.
The special note appended to the reprimand states it is being reissued “to ensure the public record remains accurate,” and counters the mayor’s Oct. 23 media comments that the reprimand was “inaccurate.”
Rideau Lakes council directed staff to circulate the reprimand through the township website, pop-up notification, and to The Review Mirror and Hometown News “including reasonable publication costs if required.”
Hoogenboom disputed the accuracy of both versions.
“My additional comment is going to be the initial reprimand, and the new reprimand is still inaccurate, it is still incomplete,” he said.
Staff confirmed the Dec. 1 reprimand motion is replaced by the Dec. 8 reissued version.
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