Police called, meeting adjourned: Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli ejected from chaotic Richmond Hill council meeting

City of Richmond Hill confirms York Regional Police present during portion of council meeting

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 16, 2022
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill Mayor David West asked Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli to leave as the Sept. 14 council meeting rapidly descended into chaos, which led to police response.

About half an hour into the council meeting -- the last one before the 2022 municipal election -- a few council members got caught up in a heated exchange, which forced the meeting to halt before an agenda could be adopted.

Perrelli was heard shouting repeatedly in the council chambers after the mayor asked him to stop speaking due to irrelevance. The regional councillor appeared to have continued speaking in a loud voice after his microphone was muted.

"You will not silence me!" Perrelli, who was not on camera, could be heard yelling in the chambers.

West then decided the meeting was adjourned and Perrelli was ejected from the meeting for not respecting the chair’s ruling.

"Councillor Perrelli, you're clearly not going to be abiding by the rule of the chair," West said. "I have no other options but to ask you to leave."

The meeting was brought to an abrupt end at around 10 a.m. when the live stream was cut off. It resumed after a two-hour break.

The City of Richmond Hill confirmed York Regional Police were present at a portion of the council meeting.

The tension was centred around the last item on the agenda in which Regional Coun. Joe Dipaola proposed to remove a member motion made by Coun. Greg Beros about two statements of claim filed by Perrelli against the City of Richmond Hill and several council members.

In his proposal, Beros intended to ask council to move into a closed session to discuss matters related Perrelli’s two lawsuits against the city, among other issues. He had put forward a similar motion in an earlier special council meeting, but was outvoted by a majority of council colleagues.

DiPaola, as a result of legal advice received, proposed to remove Beros’ motion from the agenda of the Sept. 14 meeting.

Beros spoke against DiPaola’s proposal and tried to read a prepared speech, which West ruled irrelevant to the motion.

When it was Perrelli’s turn to speak on the agenda, the regional councillor said Beros, who spoke before him, was "rudely cut off" by the mayor and asked Beros to continue to speak.

Perrelli also made a comment about the city clerk switching chairs with other city staff. West attempted to cut him off several times, but the regional councillor’s yelling could still be heard.

"I do not respect your ruling," Perrelli shouted. "That’s illegal!”

Council members appeared to have calmed down when they resumed the meeting in the afternoon.

A majority of council adopted the agenda as proposed by DiPaola, which removed Beros’ motion regarding Perrelli’s two lawsuits.

In one of his suits, Perrelli is seeking to overturn two council resolutions both of which have financial impact on him -- one about his alleged $140,000 debt to the city and the other about monetary sanction on him following an integrity commissioner’s report.

In the second action, the regional councillor is seeking more than $3-million in damages in a lawsuit against a former city manager, current senior city staff, most of his council colleagues and the City of Richmond Hill over alleged misfeasance in public office, bad faith and abuse of power.