Elliot Lake council accepts mayor's apology, votes not to dock his pay

Elliot Lake city council has overruled its integrity commissioner and will not punish its mayor.

The commissioner recommended Mayor Dan Marchisella be docked one month's pay for several violations to the code of conduct.

The investigation found that Marchisella made inappropriate comments on social media and during a meeting at the local Legion branch, as well as doing the work of city staff regarding an event being planned for the community airport.

"I'll apologize to our community at large, but after five years my patience has run out and my emotions led to a short rant on Facebook. Again completely accurate information," Marchisella told council Monday night.

"I should be held to a higher standard. And I will keep this in mind in the future."

The most serious allegation is that the mayor provided confidential information to Levon Nazarian, the son of the former owner of the Algo Centre mall which collapsed in 2012.

Marchisella led the charge in recent years to buy the former mall property for the construction of a new arena and community centre, which is now going ahead. 

He told council that on this matter he disagrees with the commissioner's findings and feels he did nothing wrong.

"I'm not going to ask for any mercy from council," Marchisella said. "I did indeed plant the seed when Mr. Nazarian called me. I did not breach confidentiality. I believe this is still the right decision for our community."

Elliot Lake city council voted 4-2 to accept the mayor's apology and not impose any other sanction.

"I'm very offended by the report that states that we're fractured and they feel we are unable to work together and I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that 1,000 percent," said city councillor Sandy Finamore, who also urged citizens to not be so critical of city staff or council on social media.

"We have a law that was imposed upon us by provincial politicians that do not have to follow the same rules that we have to follow," city councillor Ed Pearce said Monday night.

"For the mayor to stand up in front of this council and in front of the people of Elliot Lake, that's more than enough for me."

Elliot Lake city councillor Luc Cyr says he's known Marchisella for decades and "knows he's an honourable man," but argued that council should follow the commissioner's recommendations and not "wash it away with velvet gloves."

"Councils cannot police themselves, because they'll sweep it under the rug and that's what's happening tonight and I'm disgusted," Cyr told council Monday.

Elliot Lake's integrity commissioner is also recommending that councillor Chris Patrie be removed from office and has sent his case to a judge for the laying of possible conflict of interest charges.

Patrie is alleged to have tried to influence the location of the new arena and community hub complex based on where he owns property in Elliot Lake.

His fellow councillors said Monday that they had yet to receive a detailed report from the integrity commissioner and decided to put off the vote for another meeting.

But Coun.Tom Turner said the province put council in the difficult position of imposing penalties on their fellow representatives.

"That's a very serious thing for the council to be asked to follow on," Turner said. "Now. I believe the integrity commissioner did their best. But again I go back to the fact that council should never be in the position where we have to decide."

"I think that should be an outside tribunal or a retired judge, or perhaps the province can set up another mechanism for it," he said.