The mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville Justin Altmann has been ordered to apologize after a wall covered in photographs of councillors, former employees and local residents was discovered in his office bathroom.
A six-month long investigation conducted by integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig concluded that Altmann must make a public apology to the city within 90 days in addition to losing one month of pay.
The investigation began after a complainant – who did not want to be identified – told Craig that a “CSI-like” photo wall had been discovered inside the bathroom in March 2017. After six months of investigating the matter, Craig said she believes Altmann had committed workplace harassment in several incidents involving his staff.
“In the affidavit, the complainant states that they had been approached by co-workers, who had ‘stumbled upon something very evil in the Mayor’s bathroom,’ and were afraid for their safety,” Craig said in her investigation.
Furthermore, Craig said the complainant submitted photographs of the wall after it was discovered as part of the investigation.
At a meeting held on Tuesday, council voted unanimously to accept all of the recommendations made as a result of Craig’s investigation.
However, a memo from the mayor’s lawyer said the conclusion of the investigation was “unfair” as the photo wall was a “mind map to connect the dots” after 12 anonymous packages began being delivered to local residents in July 2014.
“These packages included information, whose purpose was to discredit, threaten and harass the mayor,” Altmann’s lawyer Hermie Abraham said.
Speaking about the “mind map” in her investigation, Craig said the location of the display was “unreasonable.”
“Even if the respondent was instructed to draw some form of a ‘mind map’ to link the events he was alleging to have happened to him, it is clearly unreasonable to have done so on the walls of a public building, together with photographs of staff, members of council and private citizens and with captions such as ‘you are dead,’” she said.
Ward 3 councillor Hugo Kroon, whose photo was on the wall, said in a statement that the mayor’s actions do not sit well with him.
“I am troubled by the mayor’s as of yet refusal to reach out to staff, and others on the wall and even attempt to offer any sort of apology or acceptable explanation for his actions,” Kroon said.
Altmann has yet to make a public apology.
His lawyer said she is calling for a third-party review of the investigation.
