Ward 4 councillor broke code of conduct, integrity commissioner rules

A city councillor trained to fix people’s mouths is being told to watch his own mouth.

Antoinette Blunt, the City of Sault Ste. Marie's integrity commissioner, has ruled that Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach violated the city's code of conduct last month by making inappropriate remarks about city staff at a live-streamed council meeting.

"In making remarks at the council meeting of March 18, 2024, regarding the CAO’s report of the use of consultants for city operations, Coun. Kinach made several remarks about staff that were found to be inappropriate and contrary to the code of conduct," Blunt said in a written decision released Thursday.

"The integrity commissioner finds that Coun. Kinach violated the code of conduct, specifically the section regarding conduct which includes that as a representative of the city, Coun. Kinach has the duty and responsibility to treat staff appropriately and not use insulting words or expressions," Blunt said.

Trained in Ukraine as a dentist, Kinach was elected as Ward 4 councillor in October 2022 as he worked to upgrade his credentials allowing him to work as a dentist here.

Blunt has called on him to apologize for his conduct at a meeting of city council.

Kinach asked Blunt for advice after he was asked to apologize after the March 18 meeting by Mayor Shoemaker and Tom Vair, the city's chief administrative officer.

"In this request Coun. Kinach noted his remarks were found upsetting to staff," Blunt wrote in her decision.

"Coun. Kinach also provided the integrity commissioner with several emails exchanged between himself, the mayor and CAO regarding this matter.

"The integrity commissioner listened to the YouTube recording of the council meeting of March 18, 2024, and then contacted Coun. Kinach by phone, reviewed the relevant provisions of the code of conduct, and discussed the matter with him," Blunt said.

Kinach believes the city spends far too much on consultants and in January, he demanded that consulting fees be included as a line item in the city budget, allowing them to be scrutinized more closely.

At the March 18 council meeting, CAO Vair responded with a report defending spending on consultants, drawing angry words from Kinach.

"Maybe we can just hire consultants to do all the work," Kinach said.

"The people told council to rein in spending. Council told staff to reflect on the use of consultants and instead of using this as a chance of reflection on past spending and hiring, CAO Vair, you just rubber-stamped and defended all this spending and hiring with this report.

"Out of roughly $11 million and hundreds of consulting contracts given out, I find it hard to believe that you could not find one that didn't align with best practices...."

"This report discards us and our constituents we represent. This completely ignores the whole democratic process because this report is evidence that staff is working against council and Saultites.

"They were directed by council to make consulting a line item in the budget and they ignored it and we're just accepting his information," Kinach said.

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.