Certain Chatham-Kent (CK) councillors shared frustrations about a recent meeting that had the mayor and seven councillors in attendance.
An OHL representative came to CK to discuss the possible expansion of an OHL team in the region.
At Monday night's council meeting, councillor Rhonda Jubenville brought up the meeting, explaining she found out through the media and was completely unaware that council members were invited to join when she and other councillors were not even made aware the meeting was happening.
Councillors Allyson Storey and Michael Bondy shared Jubenville's shock, with both noting they were not informed of the meeting until it was released in the media.
"I am shocked the mayor would behave in this way, and that seven councillors would go along with it. It's deeply deeply disappointing," said Storey. "I am deeply disappointed that this is what this council term is ending on, with a blatant slap in the face to the taxpayers."
Mayor Darrin Canniff defended the meeting as he noted that he was unable to include all councillors in the meeting.
"I wanted to invite all of council but the clerk said 'no you can't do that,' so I had to size it down," Canniff explained. "Basically the councillors that had expressed an interest in OHL in the past or an arena, that's who I reached out to."
The councillors explained that the secretive nature of the meeting, as well as the enormity of a project such as an OHL arena that could cost upwards of $200 million, is distressing.
"This is a real big ticket item, like a really big item. Just talking for myself, that's why there's some frustration, because again, this isn't a small agenda item, this is generational," Bondy said. "When you include only a portion of council, that's when we get a problem because council, we're supposed to be considered one body."
Due to the limited information given about the meeting, Storey noted there is no way to know if anything was promised.
"Based on the information that we have been provided, which has been very limited, the mayor handpicked seven of his favorite councillors who he said last night would be favorable to a proposal, a proposal that has not come to council yet in any way, shape, or form," Storey continued.
Jubenville explained that the meeting itself may have been a breach of the code of conduct.
"I have found some information that indicates that it could potentially be a breach of our code of conduct because there were members of council there under the pretense of a meeting with regards to council decisions. It's kind of gray," Jubenville added.
The councillors and Canniff agreed that they all attend meetings that not every councillor is privy too.
"I'm in 20 to 30 meetings a week. They don't know I'm doing these other meetings. There's not an uproar when I meet with somebody else to talk about something," said Canniff. "They chose to pick this one and and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do on every other meeting if there's a problem with this one."
Canniff added that the meeting was more or less a presentation given by an OHL representative, that had been presented to other municipalities throughout the province, and that if CK does move forward it will be brought to council before anything is approved.
According to Storey, several councillors have reached out to the mayor to express their concerns, and ask questions that at this time they believe to be unanswered.
