Sanctions imposed on Sarnia's mayor in 2016 have been lifted, but with compromise.
Sarnia council voted unanimously Monday to restore Mike Bradley's 24 hour, seven day a week access to city hall -- but only to the entrance of the building and his office.
He'll be able to access and speak to the clerk, chief administrative officer and legal department between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
Councillor Brian White felt allowing the mayor access to his office after hours and on weekends to do work and give tours -- without access to the rest of the building -- was reasonable.
"I think the most important thing that we need to understand is that we have a full term ahead of us, we have new staff coming in, and we have an opportunity to correct some things that were -- very obviously -- uncomfortable for a lot of people," said White.
White said he entered the discussions with an open mind, but is glad council received legal advice and discussed the next steps with the city's joint health and safety committee first.
"I think that advice was well worth it. In order to mitigate risk, not only to ourselves individually, but to the city as a whole," he said. "I think it's important that we embrace this opportunity to start anew and encourage good, healthy relations between our mayor and our CAO when that person comes on staff."
Mayor Bradley will have key card access to staff and is again allowed to speak to them directly.
"The wall stays in place to ensure the safety of staff, much like the security cameras, this is just simply the reality in 2019 that we need to maintain that security for staff," said White.
Council voted to remove the Workplace Investigation Report from the city's website -- making it available upon request.
That vote, however, was not unanimous with councillors White and Colquhoun voting against the motion.
A letter written in 1992 allowing the Mayor to attend senior staff meetings was also deemed null and void.
The sanctions against Mike Bradley had been set in response to a workplace investigation report that found that he bullied and harassed four senior staff members, including former CAO Margaret Misek-Evans.
