David G. Boghosian, Greater Sudbury’s integrity commissioner, conducted three other investigations into municipal councilors, ruling that in two of those cases the councilors violated the code of conduct.

In a third, Boghosian said the comments in question were made on a personal Facebook account and therefore he did not have jurisdiction to make a decision.

Two complaints concerned the 5 Com district. Mike Parent and Ward 7 County’s Natalie Labbee, both of whom criticized city staff over the $5 user fee at municipal landfills in comments on Facebook.

Details of the investigation can be found hereBut although Boghosian took issue with the way city staff handled user fees, he ruled that both councilors went too far in their public criticism.

He recommended no penalty for Parent, but a five-day salary suspension for Labbee because she “made a number of misleading statements on behalf of her defense.”

A third complaint, related to Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc was fired because the incidents involved posts on his personal Facebook page.

The first accusation involved a transphobic message on the page, but Boghosian said that message wasn’t there when he checked. Leduc denied any connection with this message, arguing that it had been hacked.

The other complaints involved screenshots allegedly taken from Leduc’s jokes page and re-posted from other pages. Whatever the content of the jokes, Boghosian said it was Leduc’s personal Facebook account.

Leduc does not identify himself as a councilor on this page and does not discuss city affairs. The Integrity Commissioner therefore declared that the code of conduct did not apply.

Has no jurisdiction

“I have found that I do not have jurisdiction to review the first and second positions,” Boghosian said.

“If Councilor Leduc indeed shared these positions, he did so in a personal capacity. The conduct alleged in the complaints is not sufficiently related to the City’s business to justify a finding of violation of the code of conduct.”

His decision does not mean he condones these posts, Boghosian said, adding that Greater Sudbury residents can express their opinions on Leduc’s conduct in the upcoming election.

“This is an issue that can be resolved at the ballot box,” he said.

More details about the investigation – including the content of the messages in question – can be found here.