Comment 109859

By -Hammer- (registered) | Posted March 03, 2015 at 00:34:12

K, here is the story. Coleman accepted the apology which to me says he doesn't want to press charges, and no physical harm was done here. This is a summary assault at best carrying up to a $5,000 fine and 6 months of jail time that no Judge is going to lay down on a well known, public figure who is active in the community and does countless charity events. More then likely result in a absolute discharge, so the entire criminal charges angle is nothing but a media exercise. Frankly, this kind of thing doesn't belong in the courts. It's the kind of crap, that's on par with weed possession that clogs our court system and lets real criminals get away because of a lack of speedy trial.

Now, I'm not saying Merulla is wholly in the wrong here, as if council won't act on this like it should, he's using the only other tool at his disposal to see Ferguson pay somewhat for his actions. It's just he's using an auger to dig out a weed on the lawn of our city. Do I think Ferguson should be punished in some form? Yes. Does the rest of the city agree? I'd like to think so, yes. Why council doesn't? Well that's what happens when you have career councillors, they start up their own old boys club. Frankly city council should have codified punishments for violating said code of conduct with mandatory minimum fines for violations, not just "punish at council's discretion" so Merulla doesn't have to use the nuclear option here. It doesn't, that's a problem, but that's another can of worms.

The real story here is the Integrity Commissioner's abject failure in his position and complete lack of objectivity. The purpose of the Integrity Commissioner is to advise memebers of council and the city bureaucracy the specifics of the code of conduct and to investigate at the direction of council or citizens of the city both members of council and the city bureaucracy for violations of their codes of conduct in an objective manner. It is also their job report their findings to council & the pubic, and recommend punishments for violations of the code of conduct to council. So from the get go, the position is toothless. The most it can do is say "This guy was wrong, council, you should punish him" and leave it to council to decide, which is a joke. Council should not be allowed to dictate punishments or lack thereof on their own, but moving on that the position is toothless to being with.

So given the Integrity Commissioner's role, toothless by design, what's the point of keeping Basse on the payroll? He has proven by his joke of a report that 1) He's incapable of investigating incidents, as much of his report relies on media accounts over ACTUAL accounts of witnesses from both sides. 2) Is incapable of being independent, as his report fails to even interview the victim in this case and indeed has a tone of blame towards to victim, citing emails after the fact in an attempt to discredit the victim who is making a fair request for the videos in question. 3) Is incapable of making any kind of recommendations for punishment on what is a clear violation of the code of conduct that even his poorly constructed report HAS to acknowledge occurred. 4) Seems incapable of advising council of city policy as he seems to lack the integrity himself to be objective in his own investigations, or lacks the basic understanding on how to do his job. IE: He's a waste of space and taxpayer dollars.

Comment edited by -Hammer- on 2015-03-03 00:38:55

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