A Brighton councillor who breached the confidentiality of a closed session of council will be reprimanded, but it won’t involve the loss of the councillor’s pay as recommended in the report of the Integrity Commissioner.
The Integrity Commissioner’s report dated Oct. 22 was included on the council agenda of Nov. 1. It concluded Councillor Mary Tadman released confidential information to former Brighton Mayor Mark Walas regarding an employee to be terminated. She also released the confidential information to a friend in Toronto via a phone conversation, asking the friend ‘to pray for the employee’.
Mayor Brian Ostrander said council has rejected the commissioner’s recommendation that Councillor Mary Tadman’s council pay be suspended for between 30 and 45 days. The reprimand will come with no financial ramifications to Tadman.
“The matter is closed unless someone decides to bring it up again,” said Mayor Ostrander in an interview. “It happened, everyone knows it was Councillor Tadman who violated the code of conduct, and breached the confidentiality of a closed session meeting. The recommendation from the commissioner was to suspend the councillor’s pays from between 30 and 45 days, but during the discussion it became clear that the majority of council thought the public shaming was enough and 30 days suspension of pay wouldn’t be warranted. Given the salary a member of local council makes, no amount of suspension will make up for the cost at the end of the day. It wasn’t looked at as a dollar-for-dollar issue.”
Mayor Ostrander said he called for an investigation by the Integrity Commissioner after the contents of a closed meeting of council on June 7, 2021 to discuss implementation of reorganization recommended by the CAO that would result in a job loss was found to have been leaked days later. The CAO’s recommendation was passed by council.
“I was informed that there was a breach of confidentiality. Staff advised me that they were hearing information that had only been given in closed session. I took that to council and I asked them ‘What you want me to do here? I really think we need to look into this and find out who breached the code of conduct’ and council unanimously agreed to ask me to proceed and have me contact the integrity commissioner.”
It was learned in the Integrity Commissioner’s report that Coun. Tadman had voted for the investigation to discover the source of the leak. Then, when the commissioner administered an oath before interviewing every other member of council, she failed to attend the interview until summonsed. Then, when she did attend under summons, she initially refused to take the oath on the advice of her counsel, which meant a return date was required as a result. She later admitted, in the presence of her legal counsel, that she “had disclosed the confidential information in the days immediately following the June 7 Council meeting to not one, but two individuals: her friend in Toronto, and her long-time friend, the former Mayor”.
Mayor Ostrander said he had hoped Coun. Tadman would have come forward as the one leaking the confidential information to the public prior to the four-months-long investigation.
“I wish the admission had come earlier and we hadn’t gone down the road of an investigation. I wish it didn’t have to be a prolonged investigation because of some of the decisions that were made along the way during the investigation. But, what’s done is done. We move forward now. We have a year left in our term and I fully intend and I think council fully intends to do the work of the community.”
The reprimand might not be the only fallout from the investigation, said Mayor Ostrander, stating that there is “concern” among council member that the confidentiality breach might lead to litigation against the municipality.
“One doesn’t know what could happen,” said Mayor Ostrander. “Certainly there was concern expressed last night that the financial burden to the municipality may not be just the integrity commissioner’s investigation, but could be an additional cost through legal means because of the breach of confidentiality. We don’t know what will happen. I don’t have a crystal ball.”
