Bus Strike Disagreement May Cost City Councillor Funds

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Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien and his henchmen on city council seem to have taken a page out of the Bush Administration.  Not liking the comments regarding the bus strike coming from City Councillor Clive Doucet, another councillor is looking for a way to muzzle Doucet.  This includes the possibility sanctioning Doucet and stripping him of some of his office funding.  The following are excerpts from the December 19 issue of the Ottawa Sun.

Capital Coun. Clive Doucet has a mind of his own. And for that major faux pas, Doucet apparently could find his office budget slashed.

The article continues

Monette is a loyal guy. That's a nice thing, but it can go too far, and it's easy to believe in this case he's simply doing Mayor Larry O'Brien's bidding.

(Monette couldn't be reached for comment.)

O'Brien was ticked when Doucet broke rank and spoke out against how the city was handling negotiations.

I'm pretty sure Doucet's residents are happy their councillor has his own voice and isn't afraid to use it. Whether you agree with him, surely you have to respect his right to express his opinion.

Monette wrote city solicitor Rick O'Connor to see what could be done.

'Council disrespect'

"How can we prevent this type of council disrespect? This is counterproductive to our bargaining team and it can cause us severe problems.

"Our representatives were doing a great job until this release came out quite frankly it is an abuse of direction that was agreed upon by all of council," Monette wrote.

"Rick, is there any way to put stricter guidelines in place to prevent this type of abuse? This time he has gone too far, was this not discussed in camera for a reason?" Monette continued.

It seems the city solicitor believes in Doucet's news release and the succeeding media interviews, Doucet "disclosed some of the discussion that took place in closed session and has also disregarded council's express direction with respect to its chosen spokespersons regarding the ATU strike."

O'Connor advises Monette that with the approval of the mayor, a city councillor can force a debate over Doucet's actions.

And further, council could decide to penalize Doucet.

That could mean either demanding an apology for the alleged "break of privilege," or harsher yet, publicly reprimanding him or even removing him from city committees.

"Finally, in a more severe fashion, the councillor could have his discretionary funding (the ward salary and office budgets) envelope reduced by council."

Source: Ottawa Sun