St. John’s Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth is vowing that more information will come out on a recent Code of Conduct investigation, even if he has to violate the code to make it happen.
Ellsworth is the one who filed a Code of Conduct complaint against Ward 4 councillor Tom Davis that resulted in a $24,000 investigation and his suspension from council for one month.
A copy of the report requested by VOCM News through Access to Information is almost completely blacked out, offering little to no insight into the complaint.
Ellsworth told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan that the concerns he raised go beyond a single complaint.
He says there were five different incidents that were reported to the city solicitor related to the Code of Conduct, respectful workplace, and a toxic work environment.
Tom Davis in council (VOCM News)
“These were not confrontations between myself and councillor Davis; these were things that I had witnessed.”
Ellsworth says in some cases, fellow councillors brought up their objections to comments made by Davis, and Ellsworth felt it needed to be addressed.
“In one meeting in particular, where we were talking about a group taking over a building, and he (Davis) used a derogatory term to explain or define those people. I took him to task in that meeting on that. So did several other councillors. There were other incidents. So to say that it was never approached with him is not correct.”
Ellsworth says he’s working through “two channels” to have as much of the unredacted document released publicly as possible.
