The mayor of Erin found himself on the hot seat Tuesday night over conflict of interest allegations – and ended up casting the deciding vote on whether he should lose a month’s worth of pay.
Mayor Lou Maieron had been accused of a conflict of interest for debating and voting on issues relating to stormwater management while he was involved in a legal dispute with the town over a stormwater pond on his own property.
An investigation by the town’s integrity commissioner concluded that Maieron had breached the town’s code of ethics for councillors on multiple occasions and should be fined one month’s salary.
In the end, councillors voted against a financial penalty – “exonerating” Maieron, in the mayor’s own words.
“I think I did my best to avoid any conflict of interest. I don’t think I could have done any more,” he told CTV News following the vote.
Integrity commissioner Robert Williams said he was surprised by the council’s decision.
“To me, it was a black-and-white case,” he said.
“For several months, he skirted around the question of the code – but at some point he finally did decide that there was a pecuniary conflict of interest. He did (later) act in a way that negated the conflict that he had already declared.”
Maieron said he’d like to see councillors barred from issuing complaints about their colleagues violating the code of ethics.
In this case, Williams’ investigation began after a complaint from Coun. Deborah Callaghan.
