Sault Ste. Marie city council agreed Monday to put off taking any action about a report from integrity commissioner Antoinette Blunt, until Blunt has an opportunity to explain her decision.
As SooToday reported on Saturday, Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach had asked Blunt for an investigation to determine whether Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen violated the city's code of conduct when she met informally on Feb. 3 with Ward 1 Coun. Sonny Spina and Ward 3's Angela Caputo in the council chambers.
Vezeau-Allen had requested a leave of absence from her council duties from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28 because she was running for the New Democrats in the provincial election.
But her meeting with the two councillors took place in a part of the council chambers reserved for councillors and city staff.
Kinach argued that meeting there with city staff and councillors at a time when there would normally be a council meeting constituted a conflict of interest.
"This erodes public confidence in our municipal government and this is undue influence on staff and her colleagues when she is on her leave of absence of her own request," Kinach claimed.
In a written report presented tonight to Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and councillors, the integrity commissioner ruled there were no grounds for further investigation because Vezeau-Allen was in the restricted-access portion of the chamber prior to commencement of the council meeting, not after it started.
Councillors were ready to accept Blunt's report as information, which would have ended the matter, but Vezeau-Allen asked for a deferral.
"The integrity commissioner is not able to be here to answer any questions or to give any clarifications if anyone has anything on the report, so that is why I'm asking for the deferral until the integrity commissioner can be here," Vezeau-Allen said.
Mayor Shoemaker said: "The report, in my opinion, is clear that this was an unnecessary use of time and an unnecessary use of money, and to defer it and debate it any further, we'll be continuing the unnecessary use of time and potentially the unnecessary use of money.
"And so I would rather we accept this as information and put it behind us," Shoemaker added.
Councillors nonetheless voted to defer the matter until the integrity commission can attend a council meeting and answer questions.
In a separate matter in April 2024, Blunt ruled that Kinach himself had violated the city's code of conduct by making inappropriate remarks about city staff at a live-streamed council meeting on March 18 of that year.
Kinach was subsequently reprimanded by Mayor Shoemaker.