Starr’s pay suspended 60 days for keying fellow Mississauga city councillor’s car

Mississauga has suspended the pay of councillor Ron Starr after the city’s integrity commissioner found he harassed a fellow councillor.

The city’s Integrity Commissioner Robert Swayze officially presented his report to council today (July 6), which found Starr engaged in harassment related to key scratches discovered on fellow councillor’s SUV. Swayze recommended Starr’s pay be suspended for 60 days.

Starr’s pay loss is approximately $15,000.

Swayze’s investigation found the Ward 6 councillor scratched former Ward 2 councillor Karen Ras’ vehicle on April 13, 2021 “and that the single incident of scratching constitutes workplace harassment” under the city’s respectful workplace policy. Swayze called the incident “mindless harassment” and “bullying.”

Starr, who recently registered to run again in this fall’s municipal election, has denied that he vandalized Ras’ SUV.

The long-awaited report was delayed because of a “litany of technical objections from the respondent and his lawyer,” Swayze said. The deadline to deal with the report is Aug. 19.

Council had 90 days to respond but decided to vote on the matter immediately. After spending the morning discussing the report and questioning Swayze and Starr’s lawyer Emilio Bisceglia, council voted to accept the report and suspend Starr’s pay.

Only councillors Carolyn Parrish and George Carlson voted against the recommendation.

Before the vote, Mayor Bonnie Crombie reminded council of their duty.

“This is a serious undertaking,” Crombie said before hearing the Integrity Commissioner.

Councillors are not investigators, she added. Council’s job is to ask questions and decide to accept the recommendations or not.  As a council they had three options — accept the report’s penalty, choose a different penalty or dismiss the report.

Today, Council voted 9-2 in favour of the IC’s findings, that Councillor Starr harassed Karen Ras and that his pay be suspended for 60 days. Women in politics are far too often subject to harassment and this incident proves we have more to do to protect women in the workplace.

— Bonnie Crombie 🇨🇦 (@BonnieCrombie) July 6, 2022

But Starr’s lawyer Bisceglia said the allegations are false, Starr did not key the car.

“My client has denied the allegation from the beginning,” Bisceglia said. Starr has never admitted guilt.

He asked that council not move forward with the penalty. Bisceglia argued the investigation was not fair. They were given a poor quality video and provided a medical report on Starr’s physical ability to squat down to scratch the vehicle but Swayze didn’t follow up.

“He chose to never interview my client,” he said.

Bisceglia said Swayze didn’t provide documentation in a timely matter.

Bisceglia called the lack of follow-up or interviews is a fatal flaw in this report. Bisceglia engaged former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino who also found the investigation was not done properly.

Swayze said Bisceglia’s evidence from other experts wasn’t worth commenting on. He said Starr was free to speak with him but there was no request.

Swayze added that he allowed  further evidence to be submitted past deadlines for the report. He wanted to give Starr’s lawyer to submit more evidence.

“Obviously you want to be as fair as you can,” he said.

Councillors questioned the timing of Swayze’s investigation. At first, Ras didn’t file a formal complaint on Swayze’s advice. Swayze said he started his investigation after the police investigated, Starr paid $1,200 to cover the damages, and council requested an investigation.

In response to the fact that Starr paid for the damages to the SUV, Bisceglia said he paid the $1,200 under the advice of his lawyer at the time Gary Mooney. He wouldn’t have given the same advice, he said.

Surveillance video of the alleged vandalism, according to Swayze, shows Starr parking his vehicle next to Ras’ SUV and then crouching down in front of it and turning to face the grill of his former colleague’s vehicle. He dismissed Starr’s claims that he saw a piece of paper beside the SUV and bent down to pick it up.

After discussion, Councillor Matt Mahoney brought forward a motion to accept Swayze’s recommendations. Mahoney said he is comfortable with the investigation from Peel Police. He believed the report is accurate. But Parrish called it a “poor report” and she didn’t believe the findings.

Crombie said that Ras may have left her position because of this incident. She said female councillors face more harassment.

“I think we know that female public servants are treated in different ways and are subject to more workplace harassment and I think it’s it’s incumbent on us to act for our former colleague as well,” she said.

The mayor added that many commented on Starr’s long career and service to his community. But council must also consider Ras.

“What we have is as another councillor who could have left her employment…she seeks recourse too.”

The case still may go before the courts.