Sudbury’s Integrity Commissioner is reprimanding two Sudbury city councilors in connection with comments they made on social media that were critical of city staff.

David Boghosian investigated two complaints, including one that was later withdrawn, regarding comments made in June by councilors Mike Parent and Natalie Labbée on the Our Valley East Communities Facebook site.

Her report is included on the agenda for next week’s council meeting.

He found that both councilors crossed the line when it came to publicly criticizing staff for not highlighting a controversial five-dollar entrance fee in the city’s budget, before it passed.

Parent wrote on the site that he planned to make a motion to suspend the fee and that he felt it had been “slipped” into a budget item.

In his comments in response to Parent’s post, Labbee wrote that “this is just another example of how staff conveniently forgot to inform Council” and wondered when Council would receive ” ALL the information we need instead of just bits and pieces of information.”

She also said she doesn’t trust city staff.

In his report, Boghosian found that Parent’s comments “eroded the board’s authority” by suggesting landfill entry fees had been “slipped” into the budget.

He said that while no specific city staff member was identified, Parent’s comment implied underhanded and underhanded behavior.

As for Labbee, Boghosian found his criticism more targeted and said his comments violated the city’s social media policy and code of conduct.

Labbée argued that staff did not inform the board of the proposed entrance fee, but Boghosian found that it was mentioned in a November 23, 2023 question and answer document and he called Labbée’s comments misleading.

Boghosian has already investigated the two advisors.

“In my view, this is the second consecutive complaint that I have investigated involving Cllr’s Labbee and Parent, where it appears that although Cllr Parent skirted the line between appropriate and bad conduct and perhaps a little to Beyond that, Cllr Labbee does not seem to know at all where this line is” wrote Boghosian in his report.

Although Boghosian agreed with both councilors that the manner in which the landfill entry fees were introduced into the budget was inappropriate given that they were the subject of a profitability for 2022 which was postponed, and that they should have been reported when they were contained in the budget. an updated business case, it does not excuse breaches of the code of conduct by advisors.

He does not recommend any penalty for Parent, but given that this is Labbee’s second violation, he suggests a five-day salary suspension penalty.

Councilors will give their views on the reports and recommended sanctions at their next meeting on November 11, 2024.