Town councillor running for mayor of Wolfville broke code of conduct

A town councillor vying to become mayor of Wolfville, N.S., was disciplined in 2018 for violating the town's code of conduct by "inappropriately communicating" with a staff member.

Carl Oldham is running against fellow councillor Wendy Donovan for the mayor's job. The current mayor, Jeff Cantwell, is not reoffering.

A special town council meeting was held behind closed doors on March 13, 2018. Council found that Oldham had breached the provisions of the code, according to the minutes of the in-camera session.

On Wednesday, in response to a freedom-of-information request made by CBC for all records connected with the complaint, review and disciplinary action, the town released one other document — a partly redacted email sent by Oldham on March 5, 2018.

The subject line of the email has one word in it: "Lazy." Part of the message states: "I would have to say you are the worst … Your favourite saying is I'll look into it, I have heard that so many times from you."

Oldham said in an interview that he subsequently apologized to the employee a couple of times.

"It was a mistake in judgment, myself and the individual have moved on, we still talk and it hasn't been an issue," he said.

At the time Oldham was deputy mayor. He was disciplined by being removed from the position eight months before his term was up.

Prior to the release of the letter, CBC contacted Cantwell, the town's chief administrative officer and other council members, but no one could provide further details, not even which provision of the code had been breached.

David Daniels, a regular council watcher, also asked for more information in a letter written in April 2018. He questioned why the entire disciplinary session was held behind closed doors.

"Elected officials need to be held accountable," said Daniels. "The ability of the public to understand what happened has been thwarted and this sets a bad precedent."

A reply from Cantwell to Daniels's letter less than a week later indicated the incident involved a town employee, which is why council dealt with the matter in camera.

Deputy mayor

Oldham said he has been a councillor for 12 years and this is the first time he has been found to have breached the code of conduct. According to Oldham, some of his council colleagues thought the disciplinary action was severe for what took place.

Daniels also questions why Oldham put in his campaign literature that he served two years as deputy mayor, when he had been removed from the post before the end of the term.

"That is not accurate at all," said Daniels.

It also mystified his opponent in the mayor's race, Donovan.

"Why he put that time on his brochure I don't understand," Donovan wrote in an email. "He could have just said he was DM (Deputy Mayor)."

Oldham admitted that early versions of his brochure did have the wrong information, but he has since changed it.

"I'm human and I make mistakes, but I own up to it," said Oldham.

Electronic voting in Wolfville starts on Thursday, Oct. 8.

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