Perrelli sues City of Richmond Hill after council votes to dock his pay for alleged ‘abusive conduct’

Yorkregion.com
July 26, 2022

Days after Richmond Hill council voted to impose a pay suspension on Carmine Perrelli for breaches of the city’s code of conduct, the regional councillor sought to overturn the decision in a lawsuit against the city.

A majority of city council members came to the resolution of docking Perrelli 90 days' pay and asking him to issue a written apology to city staff at the July 6 meeting. Following an integrity commissioner report, the regional councillor breached the code of conduct and/or the respect in workplace policy on three separate occasions.

“This motion here in front of us is yet another unjustified, unwarranted political attack. This is not about changing behaviour. At the end of the day, this will go before a judge, my remuneration will not be suspended and the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this again,” Perrelli said at the council meeting.

The regional councillor brought forward the lawsuit against the City of Richmond Hill on July 15, seeking to declare the council decision -- specifically the financial sanction and the request for a written apology -- ultra vires and of no force of effect, and prohibit the city from suspending his pay as council directed.

The lawsuit was first filed on July 4 in Toronto impugning a previous council decision about Perrelli’s nearly $140,000 debt to the city. It was then amended on July 15 following the council resolution on the commissioner’s findings, according to Perrelli’s lawyer Stephen Thiele.

The city declined to comment on legal matters.

In his 24-page report, integrity commissioner Charles Harnick found Perrelli in violation of the code and/or the policy for alleged “abusive conduct” toward city staff, “undermining” the directive of the former city manager as well as “threatening” the job of the city solicitor.

The commissioner recommended that council reprimand Perrelli, which he believed would have a rehabilitative effect on him and act as a deterrent to such behaviour more broadly.

The council’s decision to impose the pay suspension -- not included in the recommendation of the integrity commissioner’s report -- came after an hour-long discussion on the commissioner’s findings while Perrelli repeatedly cautioned his colleagues with potential legal action. He also attempted to defer the proposal, but failed.

Perrelli’s pay was docked on the city’s portion only as a York regional councillor receives remuneration both from the municipality and the region.

Richmond Hill Coun. Carmine Perrelli provokes the ire of integrity commissioner, again

 

 

In 2021, Perrelli made about $140,000 in salary -- city and regional portions combined -- alongside some $32,000 in benefits, according to a city report.

Perrelli’s lawsuit states that the majority of city council “maliciously and in bad faith” determined the many dismissed allegations to be true and “maliciously and in bad faith” imposed the penalties as a retribution for a fellow council member having had her pay suspended for 90 days.

“I believe that imposing a financial penalty would not be unreasonable, punitive or malicious in any way, particularly since I'm only suggesting the imposition of one penalty of maximum 90 days for three findings of misconduct” said Coun. Raika Sheppard, who put forward the proposal and won the support of all council members except councillors Greg Beros, Tom Muench and Perrelli himself.

Before bringing forward the lawsuit, the regional councillor cautioned his council colleagues at the meeting that “you do so in your own risk and peril” if they support the financial penalty.

The integrity commissioner’s report details 11 allegations brought forward by Catherine Treacy, the city’s director of human resources, against the regional councillor from February 2021 to April 2022, eight of which have been dismissed due to a variety of grounds such as insufficient information and falling outside the required time frame.

Perrelli also noted at the council meeting that the three instances where the commissioner has found him in violation of the code and/or the policy were “minor” offences.

The commissioner’s report finds that Perrelli threatened the job of city solicitor Antonio Dimilta in January 2021 through a telephone conversation in which the regional councillor gave Dimilta advance notice that his employment could be terminated because Perrelli disagreed with his legal advice on various matters.

Perrelli -- who did not personally have the power to terminate the city solicitor’s employment -- did not treat the city solicitor appropriately and his phone call can be viewed as a “threat” or “abusive conduct,” according to the report.

In April 2021, the report reads, Perrelli was found to have used his authority or influence to improperly interfere with the duties of Nadim Khan, the city’s chief building official, who issued a stop work order against a property without a building permit.

In response to an email from the builder sent to the city and council protesting the stop work order, Perrelli wrote to Khan asking the order to be reversed in wording, which the commissioner believes went beyond merely making suggestions but rather setting out a road map for staff action, according to the report.

Just a month before that, Perrelli was found to have made continuous attempts to communicate orally with staff despite being asked by the then city manager Mary-Ann Dempster not to for the purpose of providing a safe environment for the staff.

Dempster had previously asked the regional councillor to only communicate with staff in writing after receiving multiple complaints from employees who felt intimidated, threatened and/or badgered at in-person meetings and during phone calls with Perrelli, the report quotes her email.

Perrelli’s inappropriate communication with staff was interpreted as an attempt to undermine the directive of the city manager, failing to respect the city’s administrative structure, according to the report.

“In all the years I've been on council, I've never seen this many IC reports at all and it's very disturbing … The treatment of our staff and anybody who works for the City of Richmond Hill needs to be taken very very seriously. So I do support these recommendations and I do think it's appropriate,” Mayor David West said at the July 6 meeting.

Perrelli is considering whether to bring a judicial review against the integrity commissioner’s final report and the conclusion. A judicial review would be against the city and the commissioner, his lawyer said.

Judicial review is a process by which courts make sure that the decisions of administrative bodies are fair, reasonable and lawful.

During the council discussion, Perrelli told his colleagues that there were actually 41 alleged breaches of the code of conduct made against him, with a vast majority dismissed by the integrity commissioner.

“Put into proper perspective, Mr. Perrelli achieved a significant victory in defending himself against the allegations made by Ms. Treacy, M. Dempster and other city staff,” Thiele, Perrelli’s lawyer, told the Liberal.

“Mr. Perrelli is very disappointed that the IC process has been used as a weapon to attack his reputation, that some of the allegations were completely false and should never have been included in Ms. Treacy’s complaint and that complainants bear no financial penalty for bringing complaints that are dismissed,” Thiele said.

Brian Chapnik, a member of a Better Richmond Hill, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, made a delegation at the July 6 council meeting and demanded council impose financial penalties on Perrelli.

 

Chapnik said the commissioner’s report was “deeply disturbing” and “it is time for Councillor Perrelli to be held accountable for his deportment.”

This is not the first time that Perrelli’s conduct has been called into question.

This March, Dempster launched a close to $1-million lawsuit against the City of Richmond Hill over alleged workplace bullying and harassment by Perrelli, which had led to her “involuntary, constructive dismissal.”

Perrelli had denied all her allegations and later stated in his lawsuit that the former city manager has been engaged in a “personal political campaign” against him.

Last December, he received a formal reprimand after the integrity commissioner found him violating the code with misleading and false communications on emails and Instagram.

A few months before that, a regional integrity commissioner found Perrelli breaking the code for blocking a Twitter account. He was not reprimanded for the offence.

A special council meeting in closed session is scheduled for July 26 at 1:30 p.m. to discuss matters related to Perrelli's lawsuit against the city.