Mayor Larry O'Brien says "it's been a shitty week."
But despite what some government ethics experts and former politicians say, he believes his decision not to take a leave of absence while he fights criminal charges is in the public's best interest.
In an interview yesterday, Mr. O'Brien said after being charged Monday morning, he consulted with friends, advisers and family on whether or not he should temporarily step down as mayor.
After this, he said he went through "a process of not only thinking my way through the situation, but feeling my way through the situation, and the end result was I decided not to run and hide."
Mr. O'Brien said he expects to be criticized for staying on, but believes it's the right decision and in the "best interests of the City of Ottawa and me personally.
"Council and I have made substantial progress in terms of increasing the efficiency of decision-making at City Hall over the last year, and more specifically over the last four or five months," he said.
"I bring to council a business mind, and council has an extraordinarily large accumulation of political expertise, and the combination is starting to show synergies.
"It's starting to work, but it's still fairly fragile, and I wouldn't want to lose the momentum that we're starting to gain."
He disagreed with critics who believe the public good is in jeopardy if he stays in office while facing the charges.
The Ontario Provincial Police charged Mr. O'Brien with attempting to bribe and purported influence peddling. It followed an eight-month investigation.
The charges stem from allegations that Mr. O'Brien offered to help get rival mayoral candidate Terry Kilrea a job on the National Parole Board if Mr. Kilrea dropped out of the municipal election last year.
Mr. O'Brien denies the allegations.
If Mr. O'Brien is convicted on either charge, it is grounds for removal from office.
But, under the law, Mr. O'Brien doesn't have to step aside while the charges go to court, and council has no power to limit his power or responsibilities.
However, he could do these things voluntarily.
After the charges were laid, Mr. O'Brien said he would reserve his decision on what to do pending the outcome of the charges until consulting the public and council.
A day later, Mr. O'Brien declared he had received "a clear and resounding vote of support" for staying in office, and that is what he is going to do.
=
O'Brien: Experts advise mayor
to take temporary leave of absence
Continued from PAGE C1
No city councillor is yet calling for him to step aside, but many say they are waiting to see how the situation plays out before making any final decision on the matter.
Critics of his decision to stay in office while facing the charges say the allegations strike at the heart of Mr. O'Brien's moral authority to govern the city and add that it's standard practice for politicians facing such allegations to step aside until the charges are dealt with in court.
"These are serious charges under the Criminal Code that call into question the public trust given to him during the election, the election itself, and the integrity of his office," said Sean Conway, a 28-year Liberal MPP, former cabinet minister and associate director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen's University.
"As difficult and as painful as it might be, it would be my advice that he step aside until these charges are dealt with in court."
Mr. Conway, 56, said there is plenty of precedent for this approach in Canadian politics.
He said the issue centres on putting the public good before personal desires, and that if Mr. O'Brien stays in office while fighting the charges, the dark cloud hanging over him, his office, council and the city will remain.
"Successful leaders govern with a degree of moral authority, and these charges call into question that moral authority," Mr. Conway said.
Greg Levine, a lawyer and author of The Law of Government Ethics: Federal, Ontario and British Columbia, agrees with Mr. Conway's assessment.
Like anyone else accused of a criminal offence, Mr. O'Brien is presumed innocent until proven guilty, said Mr. Levine. But he needs to be "realistic" about his ability to discharge his responsibilities as mayor while fighting criminal allegations of attempting to manipulate the democratic process and dealing with the controversy surrounding the case.
Mr. Levine said he felt at the very least, some of the mayor's duties should be reassigned to other members of council, but that a temporary leave of absence would be the best approach.
"Having someone act in his place for the time being, I think would be best," he said. "These are serious allegations."
Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory, who was in Ottawa yesterday morning, said Mr. O'Brien has a responsibility as a public figure to set a high standard of integrity.
But as for what to do when a city's mayor faces criminal charges, "there is no established practice that would've happened in every case because these things don't happen very often," he said.
Mr. Tory also noted that a person facing charges is innocent until proven guilty.
"You have to sort of weigh a number of these different considerations in coming to a conclusion," he added.
"It is something people have to take their own best advice on and try to determine what's best for the system."
Penny Collenette, an expert on government and ethics and the federal Liberal candidate for Ottawa Centre, said the mayor finds himself in a "perfect storm" of ethical, political and legal considerations.
"The mayor has been charged, and the charges are very serious because one of the charges goes to the heart of the election mandate," she said.
"The mayor has not been convicted and we must keep that in mind. However, simultaneously, the protection of the public interest and the governance of Ottawa must be a top priority, not only for its citizens but for the city's reputation."
"If the mayor is to remain on the job during what may be an extended and stressful period of time as he waits for a trial date and undergoes the trial itself, he and his colleagues on council must clearly explain to the citizens of Ottawa the way in which council will collaborate in order to provide effective decision making."
Ms. Collenette didn't offer an opinion on whether Mr. O'Brien should step aside or not, but said that at the provincial and federal levels it's a clearer situation.
She also said the situation is a chance for council to show it can work together in a collaborative fashion, and it might consider setting a policy that would make the answer to this question clear if something similar were to happen in the future.
"Council must struggle with some tough political challenges," she said. "Our city's governance, management and reputation are at stake. Citizens need to be protected and decisions need to be made. I know that we all wish them well as they take on a tough task."
As of yesterday afternoon, there were seven Facebook groups that urged Mr. O'Brien to resign from his position, and two groups that supported the mayor
Though there are more groups that don't support the mayor, these seven show the most recent activity.
In total, the groups that opposed Mr. O'Brien had about 1,150 members. There were only about 35 members in the Facebook groups that supported Mr. O'Brien.
The biggest group, self-described as "10,000 Ottawans who think Mayor O'Brien should resign" -- had 528 members and was still growing yesterday.
Some Facebook users thought he made his decision to remain in office too quickly.
"I was upset by O'Brien's complete lack of leadership in wasting no time by declaring that the public had somehow spoken!" said one Facebook contributor.