City hall has restricted access to a controversial public activist and his wife whom staff say have been bothering and tying up their time.
The city has sent a notice under the Trespass to Property Act to Timothy Sywyk of Elgin Street, head of an environmental group called the Brant Eagle Project and a frequent presenter at council meetings. The notice, sent Wednesday, prohibits him from being on city hall premises during December except under certain conditions.
There are three exceptions: he may attend meetings of council or its committees of the whole; he may attend for meetings with staff and council members at times and duration mutually agreed upon in advance; and he may walk into the foyer only to drop off written materials for staff or councillors, if they are left with the security officer.
He was also given a set of conditions to abide by, or face the possibility that his limited ability to enter city hall may be terminated.
Sywyk's wife, Lizette, also received a similar notice Thursday when she went to city hall to pick up documents for an Ontario Municipal Board appeal that her husband is launching against a development project on Grand River Avenue.
Timothy Sywyk emailed The Expositor and several citizens around the city the first page of the notice, accompanied by a lengthy, angry statement against the action.
He declined to release the second page, which contained a list of conditions governing his behavior, and other undisclosed matters.
Citing privacy legislation, city officials also have said they can't release the full document, which was written by Sandra Lawson, general manager of engineering and operational services, city manager John Brown, and city solicitor Larry Tansley.
LEGAL COUNSEL
"Until I speak to legal counsel, I won't allow the other part to be public," Sywyk said in an interview Friday.
In the interview and the e-mail, Sywyk castigated the action, charging that officials are trying to ban him from city hall altogether. The email uses inflammatory language to insult councilors, city staff and the mayor and criticize how they run the city. He also exhorts others to stand up to city hall.
Lawson said Sywyk was given the notice as a result of complaints from staff about his behavior in dealings with them.
"When people come to city hall, they have general enquiries or come to pick up a licence, or some such thing, and if they're coming to meet anyone, they normally have an appointment," she said.
"Mr. Sywyk was coming in every day, sometimes two and three times a day, getting in front of staff and taking up a lot of time. Sometimes he would say he was going to the planning department and end up trying to go into the mayor's office."
The notice is not a ban, she said, but a corrective measure meant to still allow him proper access.
"He is not banned from city hall. He can come in, but he has to make an appointment. I don't think that's unreasonable."
Lawson said officials were already in the process of writing a more comprehensive policy governing behavior of the public in city hall and other municipal buildings, when the Sywyk matter arose.
She said the notices send to Sywyk and his wife are "uncommon" at City Hall, but "more common" in the social services department.
A fixture in the council chamber, Sywyk has repeatedly slammed councillors and staff in what Coun. Mark Littell considers "insulting" language for treating his issues in a matter he considers "deception and deflection."
BALD EAGLES
His issues include protection for bald eagles he says are threatened by development along the Grand River; the problem of major silt runoff into D'Aubigny Creek and the Grand from construction projects in the Shellard Lane area; the need for a waterfront master plan; and the actions of the city and developers in the native land claims dispute.
Sywyk is well known for going up to staff, running off a rapid-fire series of questions, videotaping their responses, and then flashing emails around the city saying he has obtained "damning evidence" on the subject.
In his most recent e-mail on the silt runoff issue, for example, he writes: "Amazing that these people who are to protect us from harm and act on our behalf have taken great efforts to gag us and allow this debacle to continue."
Sywyk said he intends to take his seat as usual at council on Monday.