City councillors threatened to eject Coun. Jeromy Farkas from council chambers Thursday night in the midst of a heated debate over a motion to explore ways to limit the amount of time council spends in closed meetings.
Several tense moments of silence passed in chambers as Farkas stood quietly, refusing to offer an apology to his colleagues for making comments on social media that were determined to be in breach of council’s code of conduct.
“You can control what I say, but you can’t control what I think. I stand by what I said,” Farkas said.
Council had been debating a notice of motion from Coun. Peter Demong, which asked the city to tally up how much time council spent in the past year in private meetings, when a testy exchange between councillors broke out over comments made on social media.
Coun. Jeff Davison called on Farkas to apologize for statements he made on Twitter about “secret” council meetings, which he said undermined the work of councillors.
Demong responded:
“Having accusations to council that we hold secret meetings, that these have been misused to instil fear, intimidate and shut down new ideas, I think, Coun. Farkas, you owe council a bit of an apology here, and a bit of an explanation as to where this is coming from,” Davison said. “This is uncalled for. It is unacceptable to accuse council of this and suggest that 14 of us are trying to gang up on one individual and instil fear in them. I think you owe council an apology.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi agreed and, as the meeting’s chair, ruled that Farkas was being unruly and should apologize to his colleagues.
“I think the code of conduct, it is very clear that councillors have an obligation to be honest and truthful, as well not to expose (the) city and their colleagues to ridicule,” Nenshi said. “And I would like to know, from Coun. Farkas, what he was talking about there, because it was extremely insulting to the other people in the room. And I, too, sit through all of those meetings and I have seen no instance of intimidation or fear.”
With Farkas still staunchly refusing to apologize, a motion was brought forward to eject the Ward 11 councillor from council chambers until he offered an apology.
The motion was defeated in a 9-5 vote, with councillors Evan Woolley, Ward Sutherland, Druh Farrell, Gian-Carlo Carra and Jeff Davison voting in favour of ejecting. Coun. Shane Keating was absent.
Coun. Jyoti Gondek argued against ejecting Farkas, offering a conflicted defence of her decision.
“Though I find your lack of understanding that an apology is a classy thing to do absolutely appalling, I think asking you to leave is probably going to give you more fuel for what you’ve already started,” Gondek said. “So I’m happy to have you stay (but) I’m completely disappointed in your actions as a fellow councillor.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of Demong’s notice of motion regarding closed-door meetings.
City administration has been asked to study council’s in-camera habits and borrow ideas from other jurisdictions to decrease the amount of time councillors retreat to confer privately.
mpotkins@postmedia.com
Twitter: @mpotkins