By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Northumberland County Councillor Mandy Martin had to be threatened with ejection over remarks she made at Wednesday’s meeting on a motion by fellow Councillor Lucas Cleveland.
The motion came after an incident last week that Councillor Bob Crate said he hadn’t heard of prior to the meeting.
Cobourg Police Service made a significant drug bust, with raids on two addresses – one of them being a unit at 310 Division St., which is the county’s homeless shelter. The estimated street value of the fentanyl, cocaine, morphine, psilocybin, Oxycodone and crystal methamphetamine seized at the two locations was $320,000.
Cleveland’s motion called for a sweeping and fully comprehensive review of all social services provided by the county, from OntarioWorks to child care to housing. It also called for a study of every partner that helps deliver these services, as well as procurement practices, with an eye to how they align with the successful recovery efforts being practised in Alberta and Portugal.
The contractor selection committee would consist of Chief Administrative Officer Glenn Dees and two staff members he would appoint, as well as two CAOs or appointees from lower-tier municipalities.
“I will bring forward a list of qualified contractors,” Cleveland offered.
It was a three-page motion that councillors had less than an hour to study before it was presented, with Councillor Olena Hankivsky seconding the motion.
Martin could not go along with either the motion or how it was introduced with no previous notice of motion.
“This is one instance, one individual – what are you doing?” she asked.
“The arrogance of this is unbelievable. And then to drop this three-page resolution? What are you doing?
What are you thinking? This is really atrocious.”
Cleveland stood up to plead a point of privilege.
“This councillor has recently called my approach arrogant, has called me names and continues to personally insult me as I behave in a professional, collaborative and appropriate manner,” he said.
“You have named him, and I will ask you to apologize – you called him arrogant,” Warden Brian Ostrander agreed.
“I said this was arrogant. I am saying the matter before you and how it is presented illustrates arrogance,” Martin insisted.
“It suggests acting in an arrogant way,” Ostrander replied.
“Apologize to the mover or I will have to dismiss you from council chambers.”
“The principle is how this is being conducted and how this is introduced – to me, that is not an insult,” Martin contended.
“You referred to the motion as arrogant, and assumes the mover is arrogant,” Ostrander countered.
“I am saying the methodology is arrogant,” Martin said.
Ostrander dismissed the remark as splitting hairs.
“We need to act in a professional manner. Your words have been insulting to him, and a simple apology will let us move forward. Please apologize,” he asked.
“Do I mean it, or do we need to do the acting? I look at the movers and seconders, and I am sorry for you,” Martin said.
Ostrander allowed it.
Prior to the motion being made, Cleveland was demanding answers from staff about how last week’s incident could have happened.
The county homeless shelter operates under a license issued by the Town of Cobourg under the provisions of its new Emergency Care Establishment bylaw. But Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman noted that the unit involved in the police action was on the fourth floor.
Whereas the second and third floors are a homeless shelter operated by Transition House, the fourth floor has longer-term transitional-housing units and is operated by the county under occupancy agreements. These occupants pay rent and are subject to rules and regulations, as well as occasional inspections of their units – inspections, Carman said, not go-through-the-drawers search-warrant executions.
These occupants are selected carefully as being the most ready to transition on to more permanent housing, the least likely to require a high level of staff involvement. And of course, rules and regulations in place prohibit visitors as well as the use or possession of illegal substances.
At this point, Carman continued, allegations are all they have. They will work with Cobourg Police as the case progresses to determine the most appropriate way to handle how things might play out on the accused’s occupancy agreement.
Cleveland accepted the suggestion of Warden Brian Ostrander that the comprehensive motion he put on the floor be discussed further at the December county council meeting, but insisted on a second motion – to have a third-party investigation, to be undertaken when the matter has been resolved, on how drugs could have come to be on the fourth floor of 310 Division St. under the watchful eyes of county staff (a member of which estimated the cost of such an investigation at $50,000).
The vote on this motion occurred immediately after the fracas in which Councillor Martin’s apology was demanded. The abstentions outnumbered the in-favours and againsts, so the motion was deemed defeated.
