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Coun. Rick Chiarelli will slip through a side door, possibly this Wednesday, more likely though at the last council meeting of the month, Nov. 27. He will probably stay just long enough for his attendance to be duly recorded before slipping out, thereby meeting the minimum requirement to keep his shaky political career alive.

Chiarelli has become the poster boy for bad law when it comes to bad behaviour by city councillors, whether it’s in Ottawa or anywhere else in Ontario. And some people want to do something about it.

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Even if the integrity commissioner comes down hard on him in the wake of serious, yet so far unproven, allegations of unsavoury conduct involving female office staff, there isn’t much city council can do beyond kicking him off a committee or two or cancelling a few pay cheques.

It can declare his seat vacant, but only after an absence of three consecutive months. And so, without better tools for city councils to deal with troublesome members, it all comes down to this — a silly game where the city’s longest-serving municipal politician must play tag by showing up for work a bare minimum once every three months in order to keep his job and his pay cheque.