Leatherbarrow cleared by city’s IC

(City of Woodstock Youtube Screenshot).

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Counc. Kate Leatherbarrow was cleared of any wrongdoing surrounding a potential conflict of interest surrounding the city’s Streetscape project.

John Mascarin, a partner with the law firm Aird and Berlis LLP, is the Integrity Commissioner (IC) for the city and received three complaints surrounding Leatherbarrow’s involvement in approving Phase 1 of the downtown revitalization project.

“We have concluded that the Councillor did not contravene her obligations of disclosure and recusal from participation and voting as set out in section 5 of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. She therefore did not have to file a written statement set out under section 5.1. Moreover, there was no evidence presented in any of the Applications that she sought to use her office to influence a decision or recommendation by City staff,”

A code of conduct filing was also made against the councillor as a result of controversial social media posts she made following a recent story in the Echo, but it was dismissed without an investigation being conducted.

“For the reasons noted above, the allegations that the Councillor contravened the Code are unfounded at law. Based on the foregoing, in our view, the allegations set out in the Complaint have no reasonable prospect of being sustained,” said a report from the law firm. “Accordingly, we are exercising our discretion to not carry out a fill investigation of this Complaint and to summarily dismiss the Complaint.”

That grievance was made by former city councillor Paul Plant who also submitted one of the conflict of interest complaints.

“What do you have to do to breach the code of conduct? What do you need to do to be in a conflict of interest? This may sound like sour grapes, but I question the integrity commissioner himself. I question the role, I question the legislation. My feeling is politicians at all levels of government have no accountability.”

He added the only true form of accountability comes at election time. 

After the IC report, Leatherbarrow put a motion on the floor to have city staff schedule a special open meeting of council to participate in a training session with the IC regarding the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

“I think this will be a great resource for this council and certainly there is a municipality next year, so I do look at this as a resource for both the next term of council and the public should they wish to access it at any point if they have questions.”

She added the meeting being public and readily available on the city’s YouTube channel is a good thing.

“Knowledge is power and I think it could be very beneficial. I certainly think this council could use it,” she added.  

Mayor Jerry Acchione agreed with the training being put in the public eye.

“Training is never a bad thing. I think we have all learned a lot through this process…Again, I want to thank (the IC) for being as thorough as he was because it has been a little contentious and I think the general public, as Coun. Leatherbarrow just mentioned, could benefit from having an open session.”

Leatherbarrow asked for a recorded vote, and the only member of council to vote against the motion was Coun. Mark Schadenberg. Coun. Deb Tait and Coun. Connie Lauder did not attend the meeting.

The Echo reached out to Leatherbarrow for comment following the meeting but did not receive a response by press time.