By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The third round of the ongoing sparring match between Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi and former mayor William Steinberg took place at the July 2 council meeting.

Previous debates between the two concerned town parkland on Queen Mary Road being potentially sold to make way for houses, and spending by the Mayor and council on trips to municipal conferences and salary increases. The June meeting concluded with Levi asking the SPVM to eject Steinberg from the meeting after the latter declined to relinquish the microphone, following a 15-minute debate between the two.

At the July meeting, Levi read the rules regarding conduct at council, pointing out that the Mayor is the chairman of the meeting and that certain behaviours are prohibited, including disobeying an order of the Mayor regarding order and decorum. The Mayor added that violations of rules could result in a $100 fine for a first offence and $200 for repeated offences. The bylaw also says a question can be asked, followed by a statement of no more than one minute.

Levi said the council rules would be adhered to strictly.

“These are not rules that were created by this mandate, they have been here for 20 years. We have been very lenient over the past four years at these council meetings during question periods, but there was a very unfortunate situation at the last council meeting, which basically crossed the line into civil disobedience and we have an obligation to carry out these meetings in the proper fashion and decorum.”

It was under these conditions that Steinberg asked his question.

Steinberg alleged that just after Levi was first elected Mayor in 2021, “you told the administration that you wanted your block of Merton and the sidewalk sections in front of your new house done that spring and summer….and it was done as requested,” Steinberg said. “The road and sidewalk sections were not amongst the worst in the town.”How do you justify this favouritism?” Steinberg asked.

Levi said Steinberg’s allegation was an “absurd, fallacious claim, that I directed Public Works to repave my street. I looked into it, because I saw that you wrote another slanderous piece [at billsteinberg.ca],” the Mayor said. “As it turns out, in 2019, when you were Mayor, there was a five-year plan [for] repaving roads, and Merton was scheduled to be repaved in 2022. You can file all the access to information requests that you want to regarding this. Merton had a scarification (road surface condition) rating of 54 back in 2019. It is absolutely absurd to suggest that I had anything to do with repaving my road. This was done under your watch! There was an entire schematic presented to me by our former Public Works director. You are more than welcome to file an access to information request, all the back up documentation showing it was scheduled in 2019 when I was not Mayor. It’s all there for your perusal.”

Steinberg then sat down and the council meeting proceeded. n