It'll be a tense day at city hall Wednesday when one city councillor calls for police to investigate another after what many say was an unsatisfactory integrity commissioner's report into a grabbing a journalist.
Coun. Sam Merulla will introduce a motion asking for police to investigate Coun. Lloyd Ferguson. (Samantha Craggs/CBC)
Coun. Sam Merulla will ask that police investigate Coun. Lloyd Ferguson, and also that Ferguson be forced to step down from his role as chair of the Hamilton Police Services board.
Merulla plans to introduce the motion at a general issues committee meeting, which starts at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The move comes after a report last week from Earl Basse, the city's integrity commissioner. Basse found that Ferguson, who represents Ancaster, violated the city's code of conduct when he grabbed Joey Coleman, an independent journalist who live streams city hall meetings. It did not recommend sanctions.
Basse's report on the Feb. 26, 2014 incident says that Ferguson had been in a long day of heated meetings and wanted to speak to a staff member. Coleman was standing nearby, the report says, and Ferguson thought Coleman was trying to overhear him. He grabbed him and moved him roughly one metre.
Basse didn't interview Coleman for the report, which has received intense criticism on social media. This included a Twitter critique by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin, who likened it to work done by a third grader.
Merulla will ask the city to rescind Ferguson's appointment to the Hamilton Police Services board, explore sanctions and request a third-party police investigation.
"The reality is this," said Merulla, a Ward 4 councillor. "It all comes down to that one day, where he physically assaulted Joey Coleman, admitted to it, apologized for it, but hasn't been held accountable."
Coleman, who was not interviewed for the integrity commissioner report, tweeted his displeasure with the report's assumptions last week. He said last year that the incident speaks to a culture problem at city hall. (Joey Coleman/Twitter)
Ferguson said the motion is "just another stinkbomb from Sam Merulla."
"The integrity commissioner did his report. It's complete. The matter is now over," Ferguson told CBC Hamilton on the weekend.
A number of Twitter users, including Coleman, called on Merulla over the weekend to do more to address the shortcomings they see in the report.
Coleman called for a special council meeting. Merulla says he's not seeking a special meeting, but he does plan to bring forward his motion on Wednesday.
City council received the report last week, with Couns. Scott Duvall and Matthew Green voting against.
Basse receives an annual retainer, then an hourly fee for his services. In 2014, he was paid $1,050 for investigative work, although city spokesperson Mike Kirkoupolos says he's not sure how much of that went toward the Ferguson report.
Here's what else is on the agenda:
- A five-year action plan and tourism strategy, which would mean boosting funding to the tourism and culture division by $350,000 in 2016.
- A motion by Green, who represents Ward 3, to incorporate the Jimmy Thompson Pool into the new Bernie Morelli Seniors Centre rather than demolish the historic pool.
CBC Hamilton reporter Samantha Craggs will tweet live from the meeting. Follow her at @SamCraggsCBC or in the window below.
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