An integrity commissioner has ruled that Councillor Adam Candon “inadvertently” breached the city’s code of conduct by taking part in a recent vote on a downtown condominium project.

In rendering her decision, commissioner Janet Leiper also recommended that no sanctions be imposed against Candon.

“In voting on the project, Councillor Candon failed to avoid a conflict of interest and was in breach of the Code of Conduct,” Leiper wrote. “His actions ahead of time by seeking advice and following that advice, reveal that he was acting in good faith and his breach of the Code of Conduct was inadvertent.”

Candon said he accepts Leiper’s ruling but is concerned because he had sought legal opinion giving him clearance to participate in the vote.

He said he will refrain from votes on all planning issues that appear before council until he is given clearer direction on what constitutes a conflict of interest or breach of the code.

“It came as a surprise to me,” he said of the decision on Tuesday. “It’s so incredibly broad it blindsided me. But I do respect the decision of the integrity commissioner.”

The issue under investigation involved a Sept. 20 vote in which councillors narrowly approved, 7-6, the zoning for a 15-storey downtown condominium project called the Capitol.

Candon, a real estate agent, had been promoting the Capitol on his business website called Condo Kings.

The motion in favour of the zoning change would have failed without his vote.

The future of the project is also up in the air.

One of Leiper’s recommendations is that council conduct a second vote to reconsider the Capitol project – and that Candon abstain from the process.

Candon said he supports the re-vote.

Mayor Bryan Paterson was bringing a motion to council Tuesday evening to have council reconsider the Capitol project at its next meeting in November.

Four private citizens have launched appeals against the project at the Ontario Municipal Board, all opposing its height and whether it fits in with the surrounding neighbourhood.

Paterson said he understands reconsideration could result in a tie vote which would defeat the project.

“I personally believe it’s the right project for the downtown but I’m more concerned about the integrity of council,” said the mayor. “I will bring it forward knowing very well it may lose.”

In her report, Leiper makes a clear distinction between pecuniary interests as they fall under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and conflict of interest as it is defined in the City of Kingston’s Code of Conduct for Councillors.

Candon had sought a legal opinion that, as it turned out, only pertained to the conflict of interest act.

Leiper wrote that when Candon “received an opinion that he was not in a conflict of interest as defined by the MCIA, the advice did not go far enough in considering all of his obligations.”

Candon said he has been in touch with the Kingston law firm where he first sought the advice and that they do not agree with the integrity commissioner’s ruling.

“Their stance is that I did not break the code of conduct. The two lawyers could not disagree more,” he said. “It makes me wonder if I should be a city councillor. I’m going to stay on council but I have to make sure I can make decisions in a transparent way. It’s too easy for people to attack me. Another councillor not in business would not have had this conflict.”

The mayor issued a press release on Tuesday calling for “a full review of the policies and procedures related to conflict of interest and the Code of Conduct for members of Council. My expectation is a review will bring forward changes to clarify the actions that should be undertaken by members of council to avoid conflicts of interest and a transparent method for proactively addressing complaints from the public.”

The motion will also call for retaining an on-call integrity commissioner “available at the request of council at all times to provide valuable independent and arms-length assessments when a conflict of interest question arises.”

Christine Sypnowich, one of the private citizens who originally questioned whether Candon had breached the code of conduct, said she wasn’t surprised by the ruling.

“It’s heartening to get that affirmation from an impartial investigator,” she said. “Our doubts were warranted. At the same time it’s troubling that the discussion was pushed to one side by the councillor and the mayor.”

Sypnowich said she was surprised that Candon did not offer an apology in the press release he sent out Tuesday about the ruling.

“There’s no hint that he regrets his actions,” she said. “Even if that is all true, if he made a mistake, perhaps in light of bad advice, he still made a mistake. The buck stops with him.”

The president of the Toronto company building the Capitol condominium, IN8 Developments, called the re-vote process “complicated” and that it doesn’t necessarily put an end to the project.

“It’s not so simple as to say, let’s start again. Either way, we’re going to the Ontario Municipal Board,” said Darryl Firsten.