Orchard: 1, Dan McLean: 0
Orchard: 1, Dan McLean: 0
Following a July Orchard exclusive, the Ward 13 Calgary city council oaf had some 'splaining to do.
The City of Calgary’s integrity commissioner has confirmed an Orchard scoop from the summer revealing that city council’s resident oaf attempted to participate in a public hearing while golfing with his developer buddies, but was late to the vote.
You might remember a story I dropped on July 27, in which a Calgary City Hall source provided me with a screenshot of what appeared to be Coun. Dan McLean hanging out on the golf course while calling in remotely to a council meeting.
If not, here’s a refresher:
One civically engaged Orchard reader filed a complaint to the City of Calgary’s integrity commissioner that very day, alleging McLean violated several Code of Conduct stipulations.
Well, integrity commissioner Ellen-Anne O’Donnell released her report into the incident on Dec. 12 and she agreed.
According to O’Donnell’s report, McLean immediately fessed up when she asked him whether he’d been at the golf tourney on July 26, which was hosted by the developers at Shane Homes.
“I was invited to the event as Councillor for Ward 13, and I felt it was important to attend this event as many of the attendees were Calgary business leaders who were doing development and business in Ward 13,” McLean told the commissioner.
The issue, however, wasn’t simply that McLean was calling into a council meeting from a golf course. You can technically participate in a meeting from wherever you want.
The issue is that it impeded his ability to participate, with the Ward 13 dunce joining a surprise roll call out of turn, inhibiting him from casting a vote on the motion at hand.
O’Donnell refers in her report to a “social media post” of the screengrab of McLean on the green — that would be mine.
“As of August 25, 2023, the post had 16,700 views. A news article by an Edmonton journalist was also published, with a link to it on Twitter,” O’Donnell wrote.
Edmonton journalist is how I will be remembered in the annals of Calgary municipal politics.
But a slight clarification: the social media post in question was the link to my article alongside the photo.
Gloating aside, O’Donnell’s report is interesting as a catalogue of the excuses McLean made for pretending to conduct his duties as a councillor while golfing.
According to O’Donnell, McLean said he called into the council meeting around 1 p.m., because the golf tournament ran longer than expected. The roll call he missed occurred around 2:40.
Shoulda played nine-hole, bud!
But he insisted that he was in fact present for the roll call vote. It just so happened that at the exact moment he was called his cell reception went out, so nobody could hear how present and attentive he actually was.
McLean suggested he was being persecuted by Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who didn’t allow him to vote after calling in late.
“[Sic] Common occurrence that at Council Meetings where remote attendees at times have technical difficulties resulting in a delayed vote, sometimes even after vote is closed, a vote is re-opened and recorded to accommodate the remote attendee,” McLean wrote to O’Donnell.
He added that while other councillors attend council remotely due to lame ass personal reasons, he was actually representing his constituents at the golf course that day.
O’Donnell called bullshit on McLean’s excuses.
She argued McLean ought to have known that there was a risk of his cell reception being limited on a golf course.
“I do not accept Councillor McLean’s submission that attending the golf tournament was in the realm of conducting City business,” the commissioner wrote.
“This was leisure/ social event that was not as important as attendance and participation at Council Chambers for the Council Meeting.”
The commissioner noted that “reasonable Calgarians” might draw a “negative inference” from the fact that McLean was hanging out with developers while logged into a council meeting.
Another interesting part of the report is when O’Donnell outlines the physical impossibility of paying attention to council business while attending a golf tourney:
Just the focus required to hit the ball, so to speak, would undermine anyone’s ability to concentrate on such a Meeting. In my opinion, being on a golf course, participating in the game, socializing, driving a golf cart, and keeping track of one’s score would have caused significant distraction from the Council Meeting.
O’Donnell concluded that McLean’s little escapade was “contrary to the best interests of the city, reflected poorly on the meeting process, and was an example of this councillor putting his own interests ahead of the city’s interests.”
She ordered McLean to write a letter of apology to city council “accepting responsibility for the poor decision” within a month.
The Ward 13 councillor was, shall we say, unrepentant, according to reporting from Adam MacVicar at Global News.
“I’ve seen other city councillors participate remotely at events. I’m not saying that’s right and I won’t do that again, but I think this a double standard,” McLean said. “I think this is political. I’m very critical sometimes of the mayor and council’s criticisms, and this is maybe a timely distraction.”
While McLean says he will write an apology, he “noted he also has lost trust in O’Donnell in her role as integrity commissioner,” MacVicar wrote.
This is reminiscent of recent remarks from Edmonton city councillor Jennifer Rice, who blamed accusations of bullying from former staffers on her having voted against Edmonton’s 2023/24 operating budget.
But this isn’t the first time McLean’s colossal idiocy has gotten him into trouble with the integrity commissioner.
Last year, he was rebuked after photos emerged of him hanging out indoors in December 2021 without wearing a mask.
In this case, he outright denied any wrongdoing, blaming the optics on the magic of photography.
“I was at a table with food and beverage in front of me but you can take a photo of someone without food and drink in front of them,” McLean said.
“Anybody can come after you with a photo and there can be sanctions against you … That’s a dangerous precedent.”
Later in the year, he was kicked off his committee assignments, although no integrity complaint was filed, because he appeared in a video with fellow conservative operatives Craig Chandler and Jonathan Denis doing racist impersonations of Indigenous people.
Looking forward to what the new year holds for Coun. McLean.