A Trail city councillor says he has filed complaints with the RCMP and Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner over the recording of a closed council meeting last year without his knowledge.
Sandy Santori says the matter has been forwarded to Crown counsel for consideration of charges. Vista Radio has left a message with RCMP seeking confirmation of their investigation.
The revelation came during a frequently heated council meeting Monday that also saw Colleen Jones named the city’s new regional district representative in a split vote.
Santori said that last August staff told council the closed meeting of June 28 had been recorded without their consent.
“At that time I asked who recorded the meeting, how long this has been going on, who it was shared with, where are these recordings stored, and did anyone help with these illegal recordings?”
Santori said no councillor admitted or denied recording the video at the time, but he believes it violated the Criminal Code as well as the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
It was not clear from Monday’s meeting what the video contains or what the purpose of recording it was. However, it comes in the wake of two code of conduct investigations. The first found councillor Robert Cacchioni breached council’s code in his comments towards former city manager David Perehudoff.
The second, prompted by a complaint from Cacchioni and fellow councillors Carol Dobie, Eleanor Gattafoni-Robinson, and Colleen Jones, found Santori and Mayor Lisa Pasin in breach over their comments and actions toward Cacchioni in closed meetings last June.
According to deputy corporate administrator Sandy Lucchini, the external investigator did not mention viewing any recordings of closed meetings in their report on the second complaint.
The report has not yet been made public, although Santori said he “cannot wait” until it becomes available. Vista Radio has submitted a freedom of information request for a copy.
Santori said city staff told council on Sept. 27 that Cacchioni provided the video of the closed meeting. Santori said he then reiterated his questions but received no answers.
Santori asked his fellow councillors Monday if they felt the recording was a serious offense.
Dobie replied that it was “serious enough,” but when Santori initially asked them about it, they did not know the answers. “What makes you assume we knew something was going on?” she asked.
Dobie, Butler, Jones, Gattafoni-Robinson, and Pasin all denied recording the video. Santori did not directly ask Cacchioni.
Santori called the recording “dishonest, deceitful, unethical, and a total breach of trust.”
At that point, Cacchioni said the mayor should be “ashamed and embarrassed to let [Santori] go on like this … This is just a farce. I’m not going to talk to you anymore, nor should anybody.”
“The citizens of Trail need to know exactly what’s been going on here,” Santori said.
“Unfortunately, a lot of information they need to know has been in closed [session],” Dobie replied. “A lot of it was ongoing torment of us, harassment, creating indignity amongst us and it went on for weeks and weeks. That’s why we finally put our claims in.”
Santori also accused Dobie and Jones of trying to harm his reputation through comments published in a newspaper, although he did not specify what those statements were.
“This is not coming to an end … This is going to play on for episode after episode. It’s going to be like Survivor. In the final episode, people get to vote people out.”
Contacted after the meeting, Cacchioni declined comment.
“I’m sorry but I have nothing to say,” he said in an email. “It was an unbelievable experience.”
Santori told Vista Radio he filed his complaint to the RCMP in October or November and to the privacy commissioner about two weeks ago.
