Sudbury city council votes to verbally reprimand councillors accused of conduct violations

Two Sudbury city councillors reprimanded Greater Sudbury city council votes to reprimand two local politicians accused of code of conduct violations.

Two Greater Sudbury city councillors are avoiding financial penalties for alleged code of conduct violations.

Integrity commissioner David Boghosian recommended punitive action against Natalie Labbee of Ward 7 for comments made about the city's chief administrative officer and Joscelyne Landry-Altmann of Ward 12 for her actions at a recent town hall meeting.

Boghosian recommended giving them both 20-day suspensions without pay and for Labbee to apologize to Ed Archer.

However, council voted to verbally reprimand both councillors instead.

Labbee and Landry-Altmann had opportunities to offer statements at Tuesday night's council meeting, calling claims in Boghosian's reports false and harmful to their reputations.

"You have accentuated some statements without context. You've made false statements reflecting what happened," Landry-Altmann said.

"You failed to counter that with the positive comments that came out of that meeting. Those aren't there. You've portrayed this community and its volunteers as uncouth, bereft of any empathy. You are wrong."

Labbee told the council she didn't mislead the public.

"I didn't breach confidentiality and I most certainly didn't make statements in order to distance myself from a decision to salvage my own political fortunes as Mr. Boghosian has suggested in his report," she said.

"In fact, I have no idea what Mr. Boghosian meant by that. But the statement alone by him is very injurious to my reputation and is extremely inappropriate to write that."

The decision was nearly unanimous amongst council in favour of Labbee and Landry-Altmann.

Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc originally wanted Labbee to face stricter penalties, but later changed his vote.