William Steinberg

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi had the SPVM expel former Mayor William Steinberg from the June 9 council meeting following a fractious debate between the two men over reimbursed expenses for hotel stays during conferences and council salaries.

“I hereby order you to leave these premises at once,” Levi told Steinberg.

Steinberg, who was accused by a member of the audience of violating council meeting decorum rules that he himself enforced, had declined to depart from the microphone after approaching it a second time. Levi had told Steinberg to wait for the second question period at the end of the agenda, but the former mayor remained at the microphone. A lengthy recess then took place.

(According to Article 12 of the town’s Bylaw 740, if a resident insists on speaking “without being granted the floor,” this may “justify the expulsion from the meeting by order of the Chairperson (Mayor).” Levi told The Suburban this bylaw was adopted by Steinberg and council and “I was enforcing his own rules.)

“This is exactly what I told everyone you would do,” Steinberg told Levi after officers entered the council chamber. The police then escorted Steinberg outside the Adessky Community Centre, where they told him he committed no crime but had to stay out of the council meeting.

During the meeting, Steinberg brought up pre-2024 allegations he posted at billsteinberg.ca, including a salary hike of 40.5 percent for councillors, Levi staying at a $900 per night hotel in Dallas, Texas during a conference and councillors travelling outside Canada to various locales for conferences.

Regarding councillors’ salaries, Levi responded that his predecessor (Steinberg) “erroneously advised council that the mayor’s salary had to have been three times the councillors’ salary. We looked into that and that was never the case. I looked at the amount of work that council puts in — this is not just about showing up to a council meeting. You know better than anyone else the amount of work involved.They deserve every single dollar.”

Steinberg countered that the salary difference between mayors and councillors is the norm, but not a rule.

Steinberg added, “We kept the salaries in line with the size of the town. [The councillors] conned you, Mr. Mayor, because of their greed, and you fell for it! Many residents want the councillors to pay back the money!”

As for the Dallas hotel stay, Levi said the Omni was the hotel of the conference, and that he did not book it. The hotel was $480 US a night, plus taxes.

Levi then countered with his own allegations about Steinberg’s own reimbursed expenses, including mileage. The former Mayor told The Suburban the mileage figures came from driving to agglomeration meetings and conferences in Canada.

Following Steinberg’s departure, Levi said slanderous accusations were made against the council, and that the items at billsteinberg.ca were incorrect. One audience member interrupted, calling the council “crooks”.

“Some of these councillors use their personal vacation time from their full-time employment [to attend conferences],” Levi said. “They are in constant communication [with the town] when they are away on personal vacations.”

Levi added that what happened at the meeting was “very unfortunate.This is not the way to address concerns about the allocation of resources. There is a proper way to ask questions, and it was not adhered to at all.”

Levi added that “there were accusations against me that I should reimburse the town. I haven’t taken a single dollar. Thank God I’m financially stable, I don’t need the town to pay for anything, certainly not to travel away from my family so that I can bring back better insights and resources to better serve the town. Every single dollar I’ve been paid as Mayor, I have donated to local charities. I take nothing from this town!” n