Elgin County Warden Ed Ketchabaw has been reprimanded by his county council colleagues following a report presented to members Sept. 26 from integrity commissioner John Mascarin.
Council, however, did not act on Mascarin’s recommendation to suspend his pay for a period of 10 days.
The integrity watchdog determined Ketchabaw violated the county’s code of conduct on two occasions this spring in dealings with former CAO Julie Gonyou.
These involved abusive and inappropriate workplace behaviour.
A formal complaint was received by Mascarin on May 2 of this year alleging Ketchabaw contravened the county’s Code of Conduct for Members of Council and Local Boards.
The first allegation relates to inappropriate verbal communications with and an inappropriate text message to Gonyou about her performance and/or which applied inappropriate pressure on her during the period between the new term of council taking office to the time of the Gonyou’s resignation on May 4.
The second allegation relates to an incident on April 17 of this year, when Ketchabaw, Gonyou and others attended the Ontario Good Roads Conference. Specifically, the allegation is that while outside walking back from a lunch with a group of others, he grabbed the her by the arm and pulled her away from the group she was walking with and proceeded to “dress her down” in front of others.
On April 28, Ketchabaw wrote an apology to Gonyou for comments he made to her at the conference, unrelated to the above incident.
In his report, Mascarin concluded, “while the former CAO had withdrawn from interactions with the Warden following the Street Incident, and that there was some evidence that she was unable to continue working with the Warden following this occurrence, there were other factors that may have contributed to her leaving the county, at least at the particular time
that she resigned.”
Gonyou tendered her resignation on May 4, citing her need to focus on her “health, safety and wellness following several weeks of very challenging circumstances.”
Mascarin concluded, “On the totality of the evidence before us, the Warden’s conduct may not have been intended to harm and was no doubt clouded by stressors related to workplace matters, and, although misplaced, by his desire to personally assist in the resolution of those workplace matters.
“This does not excuse what we have determined was ultimately wrongful conduct, but militates against any financial penalty on the higher end of the spectrum.”
The county’s code specifies that penalties can include a written reprimand or suspension of remuneration of up to 90 days for a contravention of the code.
