PETERS: Sanction Bill Sarai? Sure. Remove him from office? Ridiculous.

Mistake #2: Sarai should have ditched the recording straight away.

Instead, he tried to leverage it when its content wasn’t actually particularly damning.

Mistake #3: Having failed to leverage the recording, the councillor should not have waited as long as he did to come clean.

Eventually, he did come clean, though, and his fellow councillors will have a chance to decide what consequences he will be subject to.

Sarai didn’t do anything illegal but he exercised poor judgment, resulting in an embarrassing ordeal for him and for all of council.

Thankfully for council, it does not need to reinvent the wheel. It has already set a pattern for itself to follow.

Council is quite experienced in setting consequences for the mayor for Code of Conduct breaches. If it believes those were appropriate and justified for one member of council, the same should be applied to another.

What’s preposterous, though, are calls for Sarai’s resignation — largely coming from the same crew who have faithfully come to the mayor’s defence.

This horde repeatedly cites a respect for democracy as a rebuttal to the sanctions council has enacted against Hamer-Jackson.

The mayor, himself, is prone to emphasizing that he was elected fair and square in the 2022 municipal election.

That’s true.

What’s also true is that 3,439 more people voted for Sarai than for Hamer-Jackson.

It’s very difficult to remove an elected official from office precisely because of the system’s respect for democracy.

For that reason, punitive measures against Sarai may be appropriate, but there’s no reason for him leave office.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: Sanction Bill Sarai? Sure. Remove him from office? Ridiculous.

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