THUNDER BAY – The conduct of Coun. Rajni Agarwal will once again be discussed at Monday’s council meeting – this time relating to her work as a board member of the Fort William Business Improvement Area.
Principles Integrity, the city’s integrity commissioner, issued a report that said Agarwal breached the code of conduct all councillors must follow.
The report said Agarwal breached rule No. 9, relating to code of conduct at council and committee meetings, and rule No.12 for not treating members of the public, one another, and staff appropriately and without abuse, bullying or intimidation.
The integrity commissioner’s investigation started on Oct. 16, 2023 with a complaint alleging Agarwal was "rude, abrasive and chronically late for meetings, resulting in significant disruptions and causing delays.”
The report said she also wrote grant applications to the Clean, Green, and Beautiful Committee without bringing these back to the Fort William Business Improvement Area (FWBIA) for review and approval.
It also alleges she "participated in the (Clean, Green, and Beautiful) Committee decision to grant the funds, despite being a member of the FWBIA on whose behalf she was seeking the grant funds.”
The integrity commissioner’s suggested penalty for breaching the code of conduct is for council to remove Agarwal from the FWBIA board, which is an unpaid position.
The FWBIA board hopes Thunder Bay city council chooses not to remove Agarwal from the board.
In a statement issued to council on Friday morning on behalf of the board, Scotia Kauppi said the FWBIA board does not agree with the findings of the report.
“As board members, we have found Coun. Agarwal to be a motivated, positive, productive, and engaging board member who has contributed greatly to moving our agenda forward.
“We have found her to be respectful, considerate, and willing to learn and adjust to the direction given by this board.”
Kauppi, who joined the board in 2017, also said the board has addressed the issues from the spring and summer of 2023, and the protocol for submitting projects and applications for all board members has been reviewed and established.
“We have had no issues whatsoever with Coun. Agarwal and would respectfully ask you to NOT remove her from our board,” Kauppi’s statement said.
Another member of the FWBIA board, Aldo Ruberto, who joined in December 2023, said in an interview that Agarwal has been a pleasure to work with.
"Working with her the last couple of months has been fantastic," said Ruberto, a former longtime city councillor.
"I’ve been on boards for 16 years – things get heated sometimes and that’s on the chair to control it. When the meetings are over, we shake hands and move on to the next thing. At the end of the day, we’re working together."
Ruberto said any board member on any board could phone the integrity commissioner to complain about something.
"Some personalities are stronger than other personalities," he said.
The integrity commissioner’s report said as a council-appointed member of the FWBIA board of directors, Agarwal's "conduct has been disruptive, argumentative, and problematic, and this behaviour caused multiple other members of the FWBIA to resign.”
Those resignations were tendered by the chair, treasurer and another member of the FWBIA, "citing Coun. Agarwal’s frequent disruptions and disrespectful behaviour."
According to the report, Agarwal frequently arrived 30 minutes to an hour late to meetings and her entrances were described as distracting.
“She would usually demand a summary of the events that had already been discussed. Coun. Agarwal would become very upset if her demands for a review were not met. She has been abrasive and rude, and this behaviour is evident in the recorded meetings.
“She frequently interrupts other board members, talks over them, yells or speaks condescendingly, and refuses to move on to other issues if the issue has not been resolved to her satisfaction.”
The report also said she overstepped her role as a member of the FWBIA by “unilaterally submitting funding grant applications to the Clean, Green and Beautiful Committee on behalf of the FWBIA without direction” and without providing the applications to the FWBIA board for approval.
In an interview with Dougall Media, Agarwal said there were definitely some issues on the board. She also said she would let the coordinator know when she would be late.
“The BIA had three members that were very contentious,” she said.
“Those three members have resigned. Those three members did not follow proper procedures and conduct in meetings. The (former) chair did not hold the meetings properly.”
Agarwal said a major issue was the accountability of funds.
“As a BIA, we have to be accountable to everybody about every penny and what we’re spending money on. I was extremely upset with the financials because it wasn’t a financial report.
“It was a typed piece of paper with numbers on it that didn’t come out of an Excel spread sheet. . . . It didn’t have it tied to the budget,” Agarwal said.
She said she did not approve or agree with the financial reports that were presented as they did not show the reconciliation of funds.
"What we received was a one-page document with numbers on it which were not at all any resemblance of a financial statement. The BIA auditor in later meetings also said financial statements need to be presented with full reconciliation."
Agarwal said the BIA directed her at the meeting on June 3 to make applications for projects that they were working on -- including for banners and artwork.
She said the BIA is proceeding with two grant application projects -- for street banners with inclusive Indigenous art and the refurbishment and placement of the metal arch currently on Victoriaville Mall to Paterson Park.
According to the integrity commissioner’s report, council’s role on Monday is not to re-investigate the findings of the report but to review the report and decide on sanctions.
Agarwal has previously been investigated by the integrity commissioner.
