On this date one year ago, Sault Ste. Marie city council voted to reprimand Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach for using 'inappropriate' language criticizing city staff.
But when Mayor Matthew Shoemaker delivered that reprimand, it was widely perceived as a very mild censure.
Twelve months later, at last night's city council meeting, the mayor had no formal directive to reprimand Kinach.
But he and Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi nonetheless delivered sharp castigations of Kinach for caring more about things like the spelling of his name than about more than $2,000 of taxpayer money recently spent on an unsuccessful Kinach complaint to Antoinette Blunt, the city's integrity commissioner.
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.
Blunt had ruled that it would be "speculative" on her part to describe Kinach's complaint as frivolous and vexatious, but she nonetheless found there were no grounds to conduct a full investigation.
Blunt was in the council chambers last night to answer questions from councillors about her decision.
Kinach asked whether it was normal practice to name persons who file complaints with her, and complained for a second time about the way she spells his name.
"Thank you for your appearance here today, Miss Blunt," he said. "Next time for your report. I'm just asking if you can please spell my name correctly. Thank you."
This resulted in a blistering response from a visibly annoyed Coun. Gardi.
"I think that if a member of this body is going to engage the integrity commissioner to investigate one of our colleagues, they shouldn't be worried about whether or not they're going to be anonymous," Gardi said. "Because if you have a problem, you're an elected official and you should have the courage to engage the integrity commissioner if you feel you need to, and not worry about whether people know it is you or not.
"You kind of are operating, in my opinion, at a higher standard when you're representing the public.
"Secondly, I am hopeful that Miss Blunt does not have to worry about how to spell Coun. Kinach's name again, because I am hopeful that everybody around this table can have enough respect for each other to engage the person individually, to speak to them about the concerns they have with any kind of perceived - for lack of a better word - misconduct.
"So I really hope moving forward, we can do so in unison and in respect for the betterment of the community and not waste community tax dollars on these sorts of efforts. There are a lot of things that we need to improve in the community. What we don't have to worry about is whether or not someone who took a leave of absence from this body may have had her feet on the carpet on this level, or the feet on the carpet, one level up," Gardi said.
Shoemaker then expressed similar sentiments:
"I said at the last meeting that I think all this has been a complete waste of time and money, and that is no comment on your work, Miss Blunt," the mayor said. "That is a comment on the utter unnecessariness - if that's a word - of this whole investigation.
"And it is to the detriment of our constituents that we spend time and waste time deliberating things like this when we could be deliberating council motions.
"And so if we want to help our residents and debate things at the council table, it should be things that will have an impact on improving our city in the way that we want to see it improved.
"This does none of that. And so I thank you for coming tonight, but I hope not to see you again," Shoemaker told the integrity commissioner.