City ‘disappointed’ but moving on from incident at open house

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This article was published 30/03/2023 (1308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon will be “moving on” following an incident last Friday between city staff and a small crowd of people who the city claims confronted employees disrespectfully.

On Wednesday, the Sun reported that an open house held last Friday at the West End Community Centre took a turn for the worse when a few city employees were inundated with questions by a large group of concerned citizens.

City manager Ron Bowles had described the confrontation as “highly charged and racist.”

The incident was recorded on camera by Rick Macl, owner of The Shed Cannabis Store, who was part of the group.

That confrontation had prompted the city earlier this week to indefinitely pause open house public consultations that had been taking place across Brandon.

But a toned-down statement issued by the city on Wednesday afternoon described the interaction as “inappropriate and unsafe behaviour” and again reiterated the open houses have been paused. It also suggested that city staff encountered belligerent behaviour more than once from attendees at “two public engagement events.”

“A small group of citizens used these events to discuss theories not related to the Brandon City Plan project and city staff were treated disrespectfully,” the statement reads.

The statement further noted that more than 100 public engagement sessions had been held by the planning and building department with more than 2,000 residents participating in the project and providing feedback “that formed the vision.”

Updates on the Brandon city plan will be provided in the future.

On Wednesday, Bowles told the Sun the wording of the second statement was “just evolution” and said city staff want to move forward instead of dwelling on the incident.

“Are we happy? We’re not happy with [what happened], but we’re moving on with managing the city,” he said.

Bowles refused to disclose the comments he initially described as racist, saying there was “nothing to gain” by doing so.

“We’re disappointed, but we’re moving on to build a city plan,” Bowles said. “Our employees are OK, and they’ve moved on.”

He did acknowledge, however, that the city was unprepared for the nature of the questions by the group that confronted city planning staff last Friday, and that as they move forward with plans to consult residents, they will be keeping this in mind.

“We weren’t prepared to engage the way they wanted to engage,” Bowles said. “We want all of Brandon to be involved.”

However, this may or may not include future open houses, as Bowles suggested they may not be the best route for community engagement. He did not elaborate on what other kind of events the city is considering.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Macl expressed concern that he was being accused of making racist comments by the city and said he did not see any evidence of people making those kinds of statements toward any city employee.

While listening to the recording, the Sun was unable to distinguish any racist comment made by the event’s attendees, including Macl.

“People should not be throwing around slanderous comments when they’re not substantiated,” Macl said. “It was hurtful to be associated with something like that. I would never. If there was, I was unaware of it. If there was, I condemn it.”

Macl agreed that people at Friday’s open house had eventually stopped listening to each other and that questioning was getting out of hand.

He suggested the city try more of a town hall style of public event, where city planners could take questions from an audience.

“I totally encourage that. The way the town hall was done, it wasn’t made conducive to talk about it.”

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @MattGoerzen