Stratford City Council had a full agenda and a full house for Tuesday night’s meeting but the meeting itself never went ahead.
It was decided to postpone the meeting after a city resident banned from city property was in council chambers prior to the meeting.
Mike Sullivan and Barb Shaughnessy were banned from city property for three months, after it was alleged offensive statements were made at a Feb. 26 city council meeting.
Sullivan was in attendance Tuesday night.
It is alleged at that February meeting that numerous derogatory and misleading comments were made against senior city staff, and that the statements were in violation of the city’s respectful workplace policy – leading to the suspension.
Stratford mayor Martin Ritsma said a decision was made to postpone the Tuesday night meeting.
Sullivan and Shaughnessy have appealed the suspension.
“There is a process in place and we are going to allow that process to continue it’s as simple as that,” Ritsma told MyStratfordNow. “More will come but that’s the limit for this morning.”
The city received five incident reports from city staff as well as three reports from three individuals at the Feb. 26 meeting, alleging bullying, harassing and threatening behaviour.
Sullivan said he was “critical of the city” at the February meeting, however, there was no bullying of staff and a video of the meeting, on the city’s website, backs him up.
Included on the agenda was a public meeting to discuss a potential large residential development on a parcel of land on the south side of Douro Street between Trinity Street and King Street.
A zone change would facilitate development into a residential neighbourhood with 11 residential buildings and 382 dwellings.
In a statement released by the City of Stratford, Ritsma apologized to residents inconvenienced by the postponement.
The meeting will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
