Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa made a strange choice when he previously declared a conflict of interest on the Rand Estate file because he “lives in the vicinity.”

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, that is quite a standard.

This is a small town. Everyone lives in the vicinity of something. If proximity alone is enough to remove the lord mayor from one of the most important planning files in town, the same logic could knock councillors out of debates across Old Town, Virgil, St. Davids, Glendale and Queenston.

We said at the time it was a weak and baffling move.

We still think so.

But with the Rand Estate now back before council, Zalepa plans to be an active participant. What changed?

He says each application is evaluated individually and that because access off Charlotte Street isn’t proposed, the vicinity of his home is no longer an issue.

We don’t buy the spin.

We have consistently seen councillors declare conflicts when similar scenarios arise.

There used to be a code of honour about it, so much so that if you were paying attention, you could often predict which council members were going to step aside on an issue.

In this case, Zalepa has not changed his address, he is still in the vicinity, as much as he was before, and this application is about as close as you can get to the same thing coming back again. Minus one access road.

He says he received independent legal advice. Perhaps he hired a new lawyer, because he previously told The Lake Report he declared a conflict on Rand after speaking with “the town’s integrity commissioner and my own independent legal advice.”

All too familiar and quite bizarre.

If the non-pecuniary conflict was legitimate before, then it is legitimate now. If he believed he could not participate before because he lives nearby, then, to be consistent, he should declare the same conflict again.

We expect Zalepa’s vote will go the way it usually does: in support of insensitive development, accompanied by some polished excuse about trusting staff, following provincial policy or avoiding legal costs.

The same tired logic keeps being used to make elected officials sound powerless, as if councillors are merely there to nod along while planners, consultants, developers and provincial policy do the real governing.

As if local democracy barely exists in Ontario any more.

That is not leadership. It is surrender dressed up as responsibility.

The Rand Estate is not just another planning application. It involves heritage, trees, traffic, public access, stormwater, sewage, neighbourhood character and the future of one of NOTL’s most historic properties.

It deserves a council willing to debate it honestly.

Zalepa’s previous conflict declaration was either a real conflict or it was not.

If it was real, he needs to step aside again. If it was not, then he owes residents an explanation for why he removed himself in the first place.

What he cannot do is treat conflict rules like a political convenience.

Zalepa created this standard himself. Now he should live by it.