From town hall to beer hall? Stouffville Mayor Altmann's new reality
Mayor can't talk to town staff, walk in town parks or buildings and conducts business meetings in local diners, pubs

YorkRegion.com
April 9, 2018
Simon Martin

What’s it like to be the mayor of a town when many of the powers you once had are now gone?

Not great, if you ask Justin Altmann.

The mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville has been barred from talking to town staff, entering town facilities unless it’s a council meeting and docked six months' pay for his refusal to apologize in the wake of an integrity commissioner report into the now infamous mind-map found on his bathroom wall.

Needless to say, Altmann is frustrated by the new restrictions as he depicted the bizarre circumstances that he now operates under.

After the recent birth of his first child, Altmann said he called the town clerk on the way home from the hospital to tell her he would not be able to attend the meeting.

“She told me, ‘Justin, I can’t talk to you’,” he said.

Altmann had to call Ward 6 Coun. Rob Hargrave, who then had to inform the town that Altmann couldn’t attend the meeting. With no access to his office, Altmann said he has been taking his business meetings at local establishments such as the Fickle Pickle and the Tipsy Cow in lieu of an office.

But he said it’s an arduous process to get simple answers from town staff.

According to the mayor, he sends an email to an account monitored by the chief administrative officer's assistant. That email gets passed along to the chief administrative officer and distributed out to be answered by a staff member who sends it back to the chief administrative officer's office before it is sent back to Altmann.

“It makes no sense. It’s just costing taxpayers more money,” he said.

Altmann is barred access to town facilities, including the new library, the swimming pool and community parks.

“I can’t even take my daughter for swimming lessons,” he said. “I can’t go to the Strawberry Festival or walk in Memorial Park.”

According to the town, the mayor is barred from any town facility, building, park or works yard, with very few exceptions.

The punishment amounts to what Altmann says is a restraining order. The problem with that is Altmann said it seems nobody appears to have seen the independent threat assessment that was part of the original integrity commissioner report that rated Altmann eight out of 10, with a significant risk in escalation of behaviour.

He said he feels that it is a massive human rights violation to impose such severe sanctions without having evidence being released. The town has, up to this point, refused to release details of the third-party investigation conducted by Hicks Morley.

“I want them to release it. I want to know how bad I am,” Altmann said.

Losing six months' pay from the town has also made a dent as Altmann said he needs to find another job to supplement his income and that he is working on his resume.

“I have a mortgage to pay,” he said. “I can’t do town job work on a volunteer basis.”