Richmond Hill councillor docked 180 days pay for not inviting councillors to residents' meeting

"It is my livelihood," Karen Cilevitz said.

Yorkregion.com
October 23, 2019
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill Councillor Karen Cilevitz will not get paid for another six months after the city's integrity commissioner found her breaching the code of conduct by not informing other councillors of two residents meetings.

Council decided Oct. 16 to suspend Cilevitz’s pay for 180 days -- 90 days for each offence -- for failure to notify her fellow councillors of two residents meeting she organized in April and March respectively.

It was the third and fourth complaint filed back to back by Regional Councillor Carmine Perrelli against the ward 5 councillor since the beginning of this term.

The city’s Integrity Commissioner recommended a reprimand over Cilevitz’s contravention of the code in two separate reports but a majority of council members decided to go beyond the suggestion.

Council voted 5 to 3 at the council meeting twice to impose the most severe financial penalty under the Ontario Municipal Act, a 90 days' pay suspension.

Reports indicated that the ward 5 councillor organized three residents meetings on high-density development applications March 7, April 8, and April 29 (cancelled later) without inviting the rest of the representatives.

The city’s policy -- cited in the report -- required councillors to “inform all members of council of the date, time and location of the meeting …” when opting to host a residents meeting on high-density development applications.

“This is a very very extreme penalty for a not so extreme offence,” Coun. David West told his fellow representatives before voting against the motions along with Mayor Dave Barrow and Coun. Godwin Chan.

West pointed out the two integrity commissioner’s reports as well as the one brought forward to council Sept. 18 was “really one issue,” and can be rectified in other ways.

At the previous council meeting, Cilevitz was docked pay for 45 days over the same offence but for a different residents meeting, The Liberal reported.

The audience erupted in long applause in supportive of West’s comment.

“Councillor West is a hypocrite!” Perrelli said in a raised voice during the second round of the deliberation of the first motion.

The regional councillor remarks were met with boos and scoffs from the audience and he went ahead to sound off amid the outcry.

“We do not interrupt you when you speak, but you think you’re better than us, and you think you’re gonna sit here and hold us accountable!” Perrelli said, triggering another around of uproar from the audience.

Perrelli then picked up his cellphone and pointed it at the audience, saying “Yes, I took pictures of you, absolutely, and video.”

“If you think for one minute that you’re going to come in here and try to bully us into doing the wrong thing, you’re wrong,” the regional councillor told the residents.

315 days’ pay docked

Cilevitz who excused herself from the deliberations is now facing a loss of 315 days’ pay in total, less than a year into her second term. It is also the first time that a Richmond Hill councillor has been suspended almost a year's worth of pay.

“It is my livelihood,” she told The Liberal after the meeting.

Council made the decisions despite the fact that a number of residents wrote letters to council in advance to the meeting, asking their representatives to follow the recommendation by the integrity commissioner.

“There should be one complaint, one decision,” resident Pat Pollock, one of the two delegations who spoke to council at the beginning of the meeting. “For a council that professes to be concerned about taxpayers’ dollars you sure know how to waste money.”

The city sets aside a budget of $33,000 every year for the service of the integrity commissioner provided by a dispute-resolution group ADR Chambers Inc. In addition to an annual retainer fee of $12,000, the handling of these complaints costs Richmond Hill $300 per hour, The Liberal reported.

“I don’t agree this is a waste of taxpayer’s money,” Perrelli responded. “It is unfortunately a necessary expenditure of money.”

The regional councillor also mentioned an earlier code of conduct violation by Cilevitz where she was docked 90 days’ pay over bullying and intimidating a resident in Richmond Hill last December.

Cilevitz launched a defamation action against Perrelli in March regarding a series of events that took place in connection with the bullying complaint.

The commissioner noted the troubled relationship between Cilevitz and Perrelli for the past nine years, but dismissed that the complaint was “vexatious,” or in Cilevitz’s words, filed to cause her “unnecessary personal and economic hardship.”

The council decision on the 180 days’ pay suspension sparked questions from the community and some residents expressed their concerns over the impact on Cilevitz’s work as an elected representative.

Cilevitz told The Liberal on Oct. 17 that she wanted to assure the ward 5 residents that she is dedicated to the job she was re-elected to do and the residents’ best interests will always have her “utmost attention.”

“No matter the unwanted and unjustified hurdles some may attempt to use to derail me or my civic duties, my focus to responsibly serve our Richmond Hill residents is clear and my commitment to them is unwavering,” Cilevitz said