Councillor may be in ‘conflict of interest’ following new role with Belleville Senators

Editor’s note: this article has been updated to clarify that while Councillor Miller’s role as play-by-play announcer is a direct result of an agreement between his employer and the Belleville Senators, he does not work directly for the Belleville Senators. 

A Belleville, Ont. councillor is being accused of violating the Municipal Act after accepting a role as play-by-play announcer for the Belleville Senators last month.

Councillor Jack Miller has been front and centre in attracting a new team to the Friendly City since the city’s OHL team, the Belleville Bulls, pulled out in March 2015.

The team was relocated to Hamilton. It had been a staple in the sports scene for over three decades and devastated longtime sports fans in the Eastern Ontario community.

Now, Miller has been offered his old job of play-by-play announcer for the city’s premier hockey club back.

The only problem, according to some, is that Miller is also a city councillor and voted to bring the team to the city. Local resident Bill Sandison says that’s a conflict of interest.

“To me, he has one of two choices — he either needs to walk away from that assignment of play-by-play, or he needs to resign from council. You can’t do both,” Sandison said.

He says the choice to put Miller in the announcing seat was an obvious one.

Miller, originally a sportscaster, was the voice of the Bulls for 34 years and was a staple at Quinte Broadcasting since the mid-1970s.

“I’d be naive to say that optics don’t play into it,” Miller admitted.

The councillor, first elected in 2006, says he sought legal advice on the issue and was reassured he didn’t violate the Municipal Act.

“If I wasn’t comfortable a year ago, I would’ve declared conflicts,” he said.

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“I was comfortable with the fact there was no relationship nor any inkling of one forthcoming. When it began to become evident that there was going to be a relationship, or the potential existed at least, I saw a lawyer.”

But that doesn’t sit well with Jonathon Rose, a political studies expert at Queen’s University.

“He voted to have the team move to Belleville, and by moving to Belleville he would understand there would be a need for a sportscaster, so he should have at that moment said, ‘I cannot vote to have the team move to Belleville, because in the future I may personally gain from that,'” Rose said.

But Miller maintains he had no inkling that he might become the new “voice of the Senators” when he voted to bring them to town.

“The reality of a conflict of interest is that if there’s a perception of a conflict, then there is a conflict — and that’s what elected officials should focus on,” Rose said.

Unless a formal complaint is made to the Ontario Ombudsman, it’s game on for Miller’s new play-by-play role.

Nonetheless, Miller says he’s been excusing himself from any city debates about the team since getting his announcing job back.

The Senators will play their home opener on Nov. 1.