By Laurie Watt

Barrie Mayor Dave Aspden will have to pay his lawyer if he wants him to answer council’s questions about his Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services’ hearing Monday night.

The city’s indemnification bylaw, passed in May 2006, will not cover his costs, confirmed city administrator Jon Babulic. “(The bylaw) gave him financial support at the OCCPS hearing, where he was being sued by someone. Answering (Coun.) Barry Ward’s questions is hardly being sued.
There is no indemnification for that,” he told The Advance.

Last Monday, Aspden refused to tell council about last week’s OCCPS hearing, in which he pleaded guilty to misconduct. In April, he told council he had not broken the Code of Conduct for police services board members as contained in Ontario’s Police Services Act, when he wrote a character letter for an officer found guilty of discreditable conduct.

He said he would have his lawyer present and would not answer questions without Constitutional lawyer Morris Manning.

So far, Aspden has rung up $15,000 in legal bills, all being covered by Barrie taxpayers.

And that has some councillors calling for a review of the bylaw, which was designed to protect councillors from vexatious lawsuits as they performed their civic duties.

“What I would like to see is to have the bylaw reviewed to make sure it’s being used in the spirit in which it was enacted,” said Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard.

“I want to make sure its intent is being used properly.”

Bylaw 2006-094 protects the mayor and councillors if they acted “honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the City”, and the individual had “reasonable grounds for believing that his or her conduct was lawful”.

In his plea to OCCPS, Aspden acknowledged he unintentionally broke the law.

But Ward and other councillors maintain he did know better, because last Jan. 8, he warned councillors not to write such letters, especially on city letterhead.

“Within three weeks, that’s exactly what you did,” said Ward. “What I’m asking is why at the (OCCPS) hearing did you say you made a mistake in good faith and had reasons to believe your conduct was lawful, when you told members of council on more than one occasion not to write such letters?”