Essex Town Council has approved the recommendation made by its integrity commissioner concerning the conduct of Councillor Sherry Bondy.
Councillors voted 4-2 Monday night to accept the report prepared by Integrity Commissioner Robert Swayze. The recommendation called for Bondy's pay to be suspended for 30 days.
Mayor Larry Snively, Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche, and Councillors Morley Bowman and Chris Vander Doelen voted in favour. Councillors Steve Bjorkman and Joe Garon opposed. Bondy abstained, and Councillor Kim Verbeek was absent.
Bondy was accused by Snively of repeatedly harassing staff at E.L.K. Energy, by posting negative comments about them on social media, and recording a video of herself on the E.L.K. premises. She was also accused of posting a cartoon depicting a prisoner being lead to a gallows, which some believed described members of the E.L.K. Energy staff.
"Councillor Bondy needs to understand that you don't criticize these professionals, or you'll lose them," said Swayze. "The second concept I want to teach Councillor Bondy is that she only has one vote. She can accomplish nothing without the majority of council, and she's lost that support. She can say anything she wants about the mayor or any other member of council, but stay away from staff."
While providing her statement in defence, Bondy acknowledged her criticism of E.L.K. and its board but denied violating the council's code of conduct.
"I have recorded a video statement of myself outside of E.L.K.'s office. It's not a secret location. All I was doing was sharing the frustration of my residents with ongoing power outages," said Bondy. "The town is the sole shareholder of E.L.K., and we do not know what the asset is worth. That is another thing that I received a majority of votes on Essex Council to get us to get E.L.K. Energy to give us an assessment."
Bondy also admitted to posting the cartoon, which she said was sent to her by a friend. She also pointed out that Swayze did not ask Bondy to provide an affidavit from the person who sent the picture, which Bondy said she would have happily done.
This incident was not the first where Snively and Bondy have publicly sparred. Bondy had called for Snively to resign last year after Ontario Provincial Police charged Snively in connection with the municipal election in 2018.
Snively reminded councillors Monday night that he will not run for reelection in 2022.
Bondy is the second councillor to face penalties on council this year. Vander Doelen was ordered by councillors earlier this spring to apologize and take sensitivity training for making tweets that some people felt attacked the Asian community. Vander Doelen acknowledged that people were hurt by the tweets but refused to apologize.