Council Meets in Secret on Mitchell
September 29, 2005

Mayor Larry Di Ianni called a special meeting of city council this afternoon to deal with "an allegation of obstruction of justice" attributed to Glanbrook councillor Dave Mitchell in today's Hamilton Spectator. All councillors attended the 2:30 pm meeting that was announced just three hours earlier.

The mayor's proposal to hold the meeting 'in camera' ran into resistance from several councillors. In response to initial concerns raised by Dave Braden, the mayor justified the secret session as "a personnel matter as well as a matter over which we need some legal advice", noting that city solicitor Peter Barkwell was present "ready to provide that for us".

That prompted Bob Bratina to ask "Is there a difference between councillors and other employees?" It is normal procedure for councillors to only discuss staff personnel matters in camera, but applying this procedure to a councillor appeared to break new ground.

City clerk Kevin Christenson supported the mayor's argument. "It's an identifiable individual and has to do with personal matters."

Sam Merulla agreed that legal advice should be heard in private, but not the subsequent discussion. "This whole business has been quite a public event," noted Merulla. "Aside from the legal advice, what else do we need to discuss in camera?" The mayor acknowledged that the councillors could decide to bring the discussion back into public session once they heard the legal advice, but that didn't happen.

The council spent over an hour behind closed doors, after which the mayor made a brief statement saying that "council had a very full and frank discussion about all of the personnel issues that are before us" and that Mitchell was now preparing a statement that he would release later in the day. Di Ianni declared that "our council, individually or collectively, will not have anything further to say until we hear what councillor Mitchell issues".

Mitchell's assistant sent a statement to CATCH and various media about 6:30 pm apologizing for various recent actions and retracting "my statement that Council's action was an 'obstruction of justice'." He said he would "take some time to reflect on what has happened" but is apparently rejecting calls to resign that were issued earlier by the Hamilton Police Association. His statement concludes: "I look forward to working with my council colleagues to meet the needs of the people of Hamilton, and in particular the residents of Ward 11."

A copy of Mitchell's statement and a transcript of the public portion of the council meeting are available on the CATCH website.