The city's integrity commissioner has weighed in on the controversial move by five counsellors to exit an in-camera meeting of council last February.
Robert Swayze's report that heads to council April 25 says that the only real issue is comments made by an anonymous individual on a local blog. Other than that, he sees no wrongdoing.
A complaint filed with the city accused councillors Phil Allt, Cathy Downer, James Gordon, Lianne Piper and Mike Salisbury of breaking code of conduct guidelines when they intentionally sabotaged an in-camera meeting by walking out and leaving not enough council members there to meet quorum on Feb. 18.
The same complaint accused Alt and Piper of making comments that revealed confidential information from the meeting.
The third complaint was in regards to anonymous comments that appeared on a local political blog.
The person filing the complaint wishes to remain anonymous, Swayze said.
That anonymous source told www.guelphpolitico.com that city staff was being "skilfully hung out to dry" and that the Mayor had excluded the city's executive team from a closed meeting.
Swayze said that if it was a councillor that said that, he was revealing substance from an in-camera session, which is in contravention to the municipal code of conduct.
"If this disclosure was made by a member of council, this report presents the opportunity for that member to admit the disclosure he or she made to the blog. If such an admission is made, it will be necessary for me to meet with the member of council and report further to council on any recommendations I may have arising out of the disclosure," Swayze said in his report.
"If the anonymous source is not identified, council may wish me to investigate the matter further," he said.
Councillors Alt and Piper were cleared of any wrongdoing for comments they made to two local blogs, with Swayze saying post-event comments they made about their actions did not contravene any confidentiality rules.
Alt and Piper both admitted they left the meeting to circumvent the process, but that is not considered a violation of code of conduct.
Swayze said both councillors left the meeting in the belief they were best representing the interests of the city and their constituents and that saying so does not contravene confidentiality rules.
"However, I recommend to all members of council that no disclosure in future should be made to any media relating to closed session matters," Swayze said in his ruling.
Swayze and his report will be open to discussion and questions from council if it so desires at the April 25 council meeting.
