Videotaping and Abusive Behaviour Addressed by Council

Two major issues discussed at the May 25th council meeting were videotaping and inappropriate behaviour. Both issues stem from the budget meeting where the former mayor's son was threatened with arrest when he tried to videotape the meeting, Mayor Paul Tomlinson's childish behaviour, and Councillor Sainsbury's unprovoked statement of "You're disgusting" and other comments to a member of the public. What videotape could be taken is available here in 5 parts. Mayor Tomlinson and Councillor Dingwall were both conspicuously absent from the May 25th meeting.

In their absence, Deputy Mayor Louise Wadsworth tabled the issue of videotaping with the intent to strike down the town's previous policy of allowing it. She quickly back-pedaled though, when the public asked her what council was trying to hide, and proposed that anyone wanting to record the meeting could ask permission and council would vote. Councillor Ken Ball disagreed entirely, saying that council needs to be open and transparent. But, he suggested that anyone recording the meeting should at least let council know. In other words, not secretly videotape people a la Mayor Tomlinson.

Councillor Steve Sainsbury recalled when he and Barry Dingwall petitioned the previous council to take videotaping a step further and stream live meetings on the internet, and spoke out in defense of Jeff Johnston Jr.'s actions:

“Anyone should be able to come to any meeting without fearing conflict or reprisal. We’ll be introducing recordings of meetings in the recommended changes. We have the technology to make official audio recordings of council meetings that the public can access. I’d like to have the meetings available online but we’ll take it one step at a time.”

"I'm not crazy. Just ask my toaster."

The behaviour of Mayor Tomlinson and Councillor Dingwall at the budget meeting was also addressed in an amendment to council's Code of Conduct further defining abusive or threatening actions to include:

“use of indecent, threatening, abusive, belittling, insulting or offensive words or gestures, profanity or unparliamentarily language in or against the Council or against any member, staff, guest or individual.”

In the future, they could face:

“immediate expulsion from meetings or to be subject to an immediate vote of censure and expulsion from the meeting.”

While it's heartening to see that there are still right-thinking members of council that recognize the need for openness and transparency, and who will not tolerate grossly inappropriate behaviour by our mayor and council, it's still disheartening to see that it requires by-laws to maintain decency and democracy in Kearney.

In the meantime, Jeff Johnston Jr. has never received an apology from council for being wrongfully ejected from the budget meeting and is still barred from the Kearney Community Centre under threat of arrest for trespassing.

Are you surprised?