A Niagara regional councillor has been asked for his resignation after an explicit photo was sent from his political email account.
The image of a naked woman perched on a stool, her legs open was sent from Andy Petrowski's email account to 95 recipients Monday. The message was in response to a notice from Niagara Region about upcoming lane closures on a St. Catharines bridge.
Screen grab, NEWSTALK 1010
The email includes a dig at Pomerleau, the construction company behind the rebuild of the century-old Burgoyne Bridge. The project has been marked by cost overruns, forensic audits, staff departures and an OPP investigation.
Six minutes after his message landed in the inboxes of reporters, news outlets, utilities, community groups and transportation providers Petrowski sent a second email.
"I apologize to everyone for the previous e-mail just sent...this was sent in error as a terrible message by someone who was using my iPad I thought to send a private message. I am very sorry for this unacceptable and inappropriate transmission."
He tells NEWSTALK 1010's sister station 610 CKTB in St. Catharines that he takes full responsibility for the lack of judgement in leaving his access to the regional email system unlocked but did not say he himself hit send.
Niagara Regional Chair Alan Caslin calls the content of the first email from Petrowski's account "reprehensible" and Petrowski's conduct "completely unacceptable" for someone of his position.
Caslin spoke to Petrowski Monday afternoon and asked for his resignation.
"We certainly have seen our fair share of misconduct from this particular councillor," Caslin told CKTB's Fedoruk Monday. "This egregious conduct is certainly in excess of what we've seen in the past and (that's) the reason why I have in fact asked for his resignation.
Caslin are Petrowski were expected to meet Tuesday morning to talk about the limits of the councillor's use of his regional email account and electronic devices. Each councillor is entitled to an iPad and phone provided by the region or they can choose to be reimbursed for use on their own devices.
This is far from the first time the brash Petrowski, has been taken to task for his behaviour both online and off. He has been blasted by fellow councillors, constituents and the region's integrity commissioner for intimidating, misogynistic, homophobic and Islamophobic comments and tweets.
Earlier this month, integrity commissioner John Mascarin found Petrowski had violated council's code of conduct three times. Two of the infractions are tied to Petrowski's incendiary twitter account where his bio proclaims him to be "Pro Trump", "Pro Jesus" and "Pro Speech".
Last January, Petrowski gave up his seat on the Niagara Regional Police Services Board after a text message was sent from his phone to that of the local police chief
"Hello clown are you a tyrant?," the text asked.
Petrowski said the message had been sent by a friend after he had left his phone unattended at a party. He said we was resigning from the police board to spend more time with his ailing father.
In 2013 Petrowski was found to have violated council's code of conduct by bullying and intimidating regional staffers.
At least a handful of other formal complaints against Petrowski in recent years have been dismissed.