Bradford’s Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney has apologized for breaching the town’s code of conduct, but the complainant, Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper, feels the issue isn’t fully resolved.
Janice Atwood, co-principal at Principles Integrity, presented a summary of the integrity commissioner’s report about Duhaney during an Oct. 17 council meeting.
The report found Duhaney in breach of the town’s code of conduct for failing to ensure the confidentiality of a closed-session meeting and failing to recuse herself over a conflict of interest during a May 16 meeting.
“Despite attempts to have her recognize her own conflict of interest, the councillor’s participation in deliberations around her daughter’s nomination for a civic award was a clear breach of her conflict of interest obligations under the code of conduct,” Atwood said, appearing before council virtually.
As a result of the findings, the integrity commissioner recommended Duhaney’s council pay be suspended for one week.
While Duhaney was unable to vote on the matter due to a conflict of interest, Atwood explained that an exception allowed her to participate in the discussion, and Duhaney took that opportunity to read a prepared statement in which she apologized for the breach.
“My emotion just took over in the moment without even thinking, and it was a mistake. I was super excited, like any mother would be,” she said of her efforts to promote her daughter for the Volunteer of the Year award.
The councillor acknowledged her error in participating in the conversation and committed to recuse herself in all future matters that may involve any family members or close associates.
Duhaney also acknowledged that her eight-year-old son entered the room for “less than 15 seconds” while the councillor was virtually attending the closed-session meeting, and while she maintains her son didn’t hear any of the discussion, she committed to attending in-person as much as possible and taking greater care to ensure confidentiality of closed meetings when attending virtually.
The report came in response to a complaint from Harper, filed with the integrity commissioner on May 18, in which he alleged the aforementioned breaches and also accused Duhaney of bullying and belittling the members who raised concern’s about her actions during the closed meeting. He also alleged Duhaney characterized their actions as micro-aggressions, accused council of bias, and called the process unfair.
While the integrity commissioner did not find her comments rose to the level of bullying, her actions were deemed counter-productive.
“I am a strong Black woman with a different perspective and view, given my life experiences," she said. "I am outspoken and at times it is not well received. My questions and opinions about the process of selecting civic award winners is another example of this."
Duhaney explained that when she speaks about issues, sometimes it can be “misconstrued as being angry or bullying,” but she feels that saying nothing would do a disservice to her constituents.
“I sit as the only racialized woman on council and this position affords me a different perspective that could be of great value if embraced," she said.
Duhaney also suggested that closed meetings should be recorded to assist with any future investigations, as she felt written minutes were documented from just one person’s perspective; however, Atwood clarified that under the Municipal Act, minutes are taken without note or comment.
“Minutes simply are a record of the actions, the decisions of council. There’s no commentary, there’s no perspective in those minutes,” she said.
Duhaney concluded her statement by apologizing to her constituents.
“I take my position very seriously and I’m committed to learning and growing as a new council and showing the integrity and honesty that you deserve from the people you elected on this council,” she said.
Council voted to receive the integrity commissioner’s report for information but did not make a decision about the recommended monetary penalty.
In an interview after the meeting, Harper felt Duhaney’s statement didn’t go far enough.
“This still shows that there is a lack of integrity issue that still needs to be addressed and it wasn’t really addressed on Duhaney’s part,” he said.
While Harper thinks Duhaney has learned from her mistakes, he worries about the precedent that could be set through leniency. Council can suspend pay for up to 90 days.
