‘It is time he pays up’: Outraged Richmond Hill residents urge city to fight Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli’s lawsuit

'People are entitled to express their emotions and lay opinions, but they cannot misstate facts and should not act with malice,' Perrelli's lawyer says

Yorkregion.com
August 2, 2022
Sheila Wang

“Please, do not take the easy way out.”

In a calm voice, Howard Doughty delivered a strong message to Richmond Hill council.

At the July 26 special council meeting, the 38-year resident was joined by nine others who either spoke or wrote to council to call on members of council to oppose -- not settle -- a lawsuit launched by Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli against the city.

“Do not let complicity be your default position," Doughty told council virtually. "Do not attempt to cut your losses, which are our losses, by a settlement that will reinforce public cynicism.”

Perrelli filed a lawsuit in Toronto July 4 and amended it on July 15 through which he is seeking to overturn two separate council resolutions which have both impacted him financially. One pertains to the alleged $140,000 debt he was asked to repay the city, while the other saw imposed a 90-day pay suspension on him.

City spokesperson Kathleen Graver told the Liberal council has provided direction to city staff and external legal counsel in response to Perrelli’s claim in a closed session following public delegations July 26. However, there is nothing further to report out publicly.

The city's external legal counsel is funded through the city’s operating budget, she added.

Perrelli’s claim first came about a month after a failed attempt to scrap the alleged debt of nearly $140,000 he was asked to repay the city for a four-day Enviro Day event he ran last summer through which he promised a free exchange of blue and green bins for residents, but did not cover the expense through sponsorship.

In his lawsuit, the regional councillor alleged the decision asking him to repay the cost was “passed in bad faith and with a malicious intent" to damage his reputation and to “cause him financial harm.”

His application sought to declare that council resolution “ultra vires and of no force or effect,” arguing the city does not have the lawful authority to create a personal debt and personal liability on a council member.

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The following week, Perrelli amended this lawsuit to add claims seeking to overthrow another council decision to suspend his remuneration -- the city portion only -- for 90 days and request he apologize to staff after an integrity commissioner report found he had breached the code of conduct and/or the respect in workplace policy on three separate occasions.

The regional councillor alleges in his claim that the majority of city council maliciously and in bad faith imposed the penalties as retribution for a fellow council member and maliciously and in bad faith determined the dismissed allegations to be true.

Graham Churchill, a delegate who spoke on behalf of A Better Richmond Hill, said the residents’ group was outraged at Perrelli’s lawsuit and called his allegations -- which have not yet been tested in court -- “irrelevant and embarrassing.”

The resident alleged in his delegation at the meeting that Perrelli has “a history of abusing others” including councillors, staff, residents and directors of the residents’ group and has a “track record of not accepting council votes unless he gets his way.”

He noted the group is prepared to formally file an intervention as a party in support of the city on the condition that the city’s insurer agrees to cover its costs.

“People are entitled to express their emotions and lay opinions, but they cannot misstate facts and should not act with malice," Stephen Thiele, Perrelli’s lawyer said in an email. "Regardless, in Regional and Local Councillor Perrelli’s court proceeding a judge, adhering to the rule of law, will decide on the legality of the actions taken by Richmond Hill city council.”

Mayor David West declined to comment.

Several residents described Perrelli’s lawsuit as another example of not accepting the consequences for his alleged misconduct.

“He has continuously wasted our taxpayer monies and it is high time that we stopped his ridiculous behaviour,” resident Jack Ponte wrote in a letter to the city. “He owes the city a lot of money and it is time that he pays up.”

“How long is this council going to hold us, the taxpayers, hostage with all of this corruption and toxic dysfunction?” Roxiane Engineer, a delegate asked.

The resident cited a few examples in which she believed Perrelli had acted in “bad faith” including proposing a financial sanction of close to one year's pay suspension on a fellow councillor in 2019 for relatively lesser offences.

Perrelli sat with his fellow councillors in the council chambers during the open session where public delegates spoke about his lawsuit, despite being asked to recuse himself by some.

“To suggest that a politician should recuse themselves so that he or she can’t hear what a resident has to say, good or bad, is undemocratic and absurd,” Thiele said, noting Perrelli expressly declared a conflict of interest in the closed session where legal advice was provided.

Public records show Perrelli has brought four lawsuits against Richmond Hill over the past 10 years, while he has also been named as a defendant in two other cases related to the city.

Most recently, former city manager Mary-Anne Dempster took legal actions in March against the City of Richmond Hill over alleged "constructive dismissal" which the city has filed a defence to. While Perrelli was not named as a defendant in her suit, Dempster detailed a list of alleged transgressions by him, some of them similar to the allegations investigated by the city's integrity commissioner.

Perrelli has denied her allegations and, in his own case against the city, stated Dempster was engaged in a personal political campaign against him and sought to weaponize the integrity commissioner process.

The commissioner’s report on the complaint filed by Catherine Treacy, the city’s director of human resources, found Perrelli in violation of the city’s code and/ or 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 majority of the allegations were dismissed by the commissioner on a variety of grounds.

“The integrity commissioner expressly rejected Ms. Treacy’s submission; a finding of fact that has been ignored,” Thiele said.

He said the regional councillor is considering a judicial review against the integrity commissioner's findings.