A motion to receive an ad-hoc committee report, recommending Jennifer McTavish as a replacement to fill the Belleville city council seat of the late Pat Culhane, has failed by a 5-3 vote.
While no councillors gave any feedback, Mayor Mitch Panciuk did address councillors and thanked the 19 applicants who applied to be considered for the vacancy, as well as those who served on the committee, for their service to the community.
He also addressed how polarizing of a topic this has become and recognized “the courage it took for all of these applicants to come forward”, after what he called “unacceptable behaviour to intimidate or discourage qualified individuals from submitting applications”.
“I have been told by some people that they would have applied, if not for this behaviour and we’ve even seen some applicants withdraw from the process. Some who were never even going to apply were accused of already having been selected and were contacted at their workplace with heavy suggestions that they should not seek this position. We received letters, including one sent under a pseudonym, to the members of the ad-hoc committe at their workplaces and criticizing their involvement with disrespectful and classless comments. This is totally unacceptable, particularly when these individuals only wanted to serve our community. I understand that some feel very passionately about this issue, but we all know we’ve gone too far when that passion is used to bully and intimidate, rather than to exchange in a respectful dialogue the different points of view.”
Each of the 19 applicants was graded on their experience, public service orientation, strategic direction, leadership in diversity and inclusion, and social justice.
While the report did include all of the applications filed and a legal opinion on the matter, it did not include the grades that were given by the committee, only the recommendation of McTavish to take the seat.
The Mayor, along with councillors Kelly McCaw and Bill Sandison had voted to receive the report, while councillors Paul Carr, Garnet Thompson, Ryan Williams, Chris Malette and Sean Kelly all voted against it.
Councillor Kelly was the only one to change his vote, from when Tyler Allsopp’s name was first brought forward as a replacement and tells Quinte News, residents made it clear what they wanted after his initial vote.
“I’ve received lots of emails, phone calls, just a lot of conversation with the residents. It’s their seat and I respect the voters’ opinion. I was hoping for more diversity and more inclusion in our city for everyone and as the Inclusion Committee Chair, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me in the next two years.”
Following a brief recess, the Mayor asked Councillor Thompson if he’d like to move up his motion to have Tyler Allsopp reconsidered and take the spot, given there is a soft deadline of Friday January 22, to name a replacement.
Thompson declined and tells Quinte News he wants to continue the process that has been laid out, instead of jumping ahead.
“Today was strictly to accept the report from that ad-hoc committee. I’m hoping that after today’s meeting people have had a chance to reflect on one report not being accepted and now to move on to my notice of motion on Monday.”
That motion would need to have at least six councillors vote in favour in order to pass.
You can watch the full special meeting below:
