NIPIGON — The municipality's integrity commissioner is not recommending sanctions be imposed upon the mayor, following a complaint made earlier this year by the chief administrative officer.
A report from integrity commissioner Darrell Matson was included in Tuesday night's council meeting, outlining the nature of the complaint against Mayor Suzanne Kukko filed by CAO Kelly Paakkunainen.
On Feb. 13, Paakunainen filed a formal integrity commissioner request for investigation, alleging Kukko, who was elected last October, breached council’s code of conduct.
In the report, Matson found that Kukko did not commit the alleged code of conduct violations.
The integrity commissioner concluded that Kukko and Paakkunainen have a "regrettable history, which impacts their current working relationship." He also wrote that the two have a "very evident lack of trust" in each other. While not outlined in detail, Matson referenced several events that occurred prior to Kukko's election to mayor, including when she was a township employee, that contributed to the deteriorated relationship.
One of those was Kukko's contention that Paakunainen interfered in her mayoral campaign, which the CAO denied.
In the complaint, Paakunainen pointed to a number of instances since the current term of council was sworn in, where he alleged that Kukko had a "personal vendetta" against him.
One of those involved Kukko wanting to develop a formal exit interview policy for municipal staff leaving their roles. She aimed to recommend changes to the exit interview policy which included that exit interviews be conducted by a third party. The new exit interview policy was approved on March 7.
On March 27 and 29, two exit interviews of previous employees were conducted by a third-party consultant. Paakunainen had conducted those exit interviews previously. The report states that both previous employees “gave information that they had not shared with” Paakunainen.
Other disputes revolved around the potential sale process of the old mill site, and a closed session meeting about the Bell Street apartments where it is alleged Kukko had two "outbursts" towards Paakunainen and other councillors had to step in to allow him to speak.
While Matson did not recommend sanctions against the mayor, he did find that the municipality's code of conduct was "less than robust," and recommended that it be reviewed and council consider amending it and adopting it as a bylaw.
