Carleton Place mayor fires back at media, councillors
The mayor of Carleton Place has pushed back against the recent controversy around him and some members of council with a blistering 25-minute tirade that left several of his colleagues visibly stunned.
On Tuesday night, with his voice occasionally quivering, Mayor Louis Antonakos responded to a motion calling on the council to improve its media relations.
“What concerns me most right now regarding council is that the agenda item and discussion (are) taking place, without any background material or valid references to inform council or the residents of our community in regards to what this is really about,” said Antonakos. “Or how to begin to solve a problem that appears to have been fabricated in the newspapers.”
Coun. Brian Doucett’s motion stated the mayor “continues to refuse to respond to the media about important issues facing the community.”
But Antonakos decried the motion, admonished the councillor who brought it to committee, and denied all accusations he has “willfully refused or ignored the media,” going on to suggest recent media reports were either “fabri-
Controversy has descended on politics in the small community outside Ottawa in recent months. The mayor has not responded to requests from this newspaper for comment on issues such as an integrity commissioner’s report that ruled a “toxic relationship” between the mayor and a fellow councillor has been “damaging to the town.”
On Tuesday, Antonakos said recent media reports have left him feeling “violated and disrespected for my 10-plus years of service to the community that I love and respect.”
Deputy Mayor Jerry Flynn has claimed the ethics watchdog’s report merely scratched the surface of the divisions that have formed between the mayor and his fellow councillors, saying council is “suffering tremendously from the same threats, bullying, intimidation and total lack of respect that many other people are.”
Antonakos took particular issue with comments made by Flynn to the Citizen, calling them “defamatory, denigrating and unauthorized statements.”
The mayor said, “It is my job and my job alone to speak on behalf of council.”
Council unanimously voted down that notion after finding no mention in the Municipal Act of the mayor serving as the town’s chief spokesman.
And in a testament to the apparent rift at council, all six Carleton Place councillors voted against the mayor in a related motion to appoint Flynn as a council spokesman.
In his lengthy statement Tuesday night, with committee chair Sean Redmond and other councillors urging the mayor to keep from veering into territory unrelated to the motion, Antonakos lashed out at his accusers.
Some of his vocal supporters shouted “Let him speak,” while others invoked cries of a “coup” over Flynn’s appointment as council spokesman.
Antonakos called out individual councillors by name, challenging each to step forward with evidence — “written proof or any example” — to support Doucett’s motion, which the mayor termed an “accusation,” while suggesting councillors had held “secret meetings” to concoct the agenda item.
He accused Doucett of contravening the Municipal Act over statements the councillor made in requesting the item be added to the committee’s agenda, and the mayor warned of consequences over the alleged breach, saying, “I will decide how to handle this at a later date.”
He defended his media outreach to other news outlets, listing his appearances on several local radio and TV stations, and suggested council instead work to “solve a problem that appears to have been fabricated in the newspapers.”
The mayor then told his fellow councillors, and the local press, “to seriously consider the damage that has been done to the image and long-term marketability of our community through these questionable acts and flawed newspaper articles.”
Antonakos did not respond to a request Wednesday to specify which facts he disputed in two previous Citizen reports. The mayor has not responded to this newspaper since Oct. 20, when he declined an interview request on a range of community issues — among them the allegations contained in both integrity commissioner complaints.
Antonakos replied at the time he had “no interest” in answering the allegations, calling the questions “hearsay” while demanding supporting documentation be sent by registered mail.
The integrity commissioner’s report in fact dismissed several complaints against both Antonakos and a fellow councillor. But in his ruling, Robert J. Swayze scolded the two politicians over their rift, saying “the name-calling by both of them needs to stop.”
In a fiery exchange Tuesday, Antonakos dismissed a second complaint against him — filed with the integrity commissioner and Ontario ombudsman by local developer Volundur (Wally) Thorbjornsson, a former friend and business associate of the mayor’s, who now alleges Antonakos violated the same code of conduct rules that led the ethics watchdog to issue a stern warning to Coun. Doug Black over the councillor’s “casual approach to disclosing confidential matters.”
Antonakos called the fresh complaint a “publicity stunt” and questioned its credibility, bringing up an old criminal assault complaint against Thorbjornsson, and accusing the “disgruntled developer” of mounting a prolonged “attack” on the municipality, while challenging a fellow councillor to introduce a motion that would publicly release confidential council discussions concerning Thorbjornsson.
“I’d welcome that,” Antonakos said.
Thorbjornsson said Wednesday he would also welcome that council disclosure.
He said the mayor’s claim over charges of his “assaulting a peace officer” stemmed from a 2011 incident where Thorbjornsson knocked the hat off the town fire chief’s head, resulting in a suspended sentence.
“For him to bring that up is pretty low,” Thorbjornsson said.
Antonakos then directed his scorn at the local EMC newspaper, chiding the paper over a recent opinion article that called for greater communication and transparency, while stating the mayor was “ignoring requests for comment on a number of important stories” over the past year.
Doucett, who sponsored the committee motion, said while the question the motion raised was clear, the mayor’s statement “did not clearly address the issue. It offered no solution nor the hope of one. Many of the statements had absolutely nothing to do with the agenda item and, quite frankly, I don’t know why.”
Flynn, officially speaking on behalf of council on Wednesday, said: “We have six people on the same side. … The town has not suffered over this. We’ve carried on the business of the town, because that’s what’s important to us.”