29 Facts About Rick Chiarelli

Richard "Rick" Chiarelli was born on c 1964 and is a politician in Ontario, Canada.

Rick Chiarelli was an Ottawa City Councillor, and is the second cousin of former Ottawa mayor and 2022 mayoral candidate Bob Chiarelli.

Rick Chiarelli represented the College Ward covering part of Nepean and Ottawa's west end.

Rick Chiarelli was for a time the longest serving municipal politician on Ottawa's city council.

Rick Chiarelli grew up in the Qualicum-Graham Park neighbourhood of Nepean, and has lived in Nepean his whole life.

At age 16, while attending St Pius X High School in Ottawa, Rick Chiarelli formed the Ontario Students Alliance for Fair Funding to fight for the equality that was promised in the Canadian Constitution.

Rick Chiarelli began to speak at hundreds of schools and the OSAFF quickly grew to over 70,000 members across Ontario.

Rick Chiarelli has a law degree from the University of Ottawa, but is not a member of the Law Society of Ontario.

Rick Chiarelli ran for election on Nepean City Council in 1994 in the newly created Nepean Centre Ward and was re-elected by acclamation in 1997.

Rick Chiarelli defeated sitting Liberal MPP Alex Cullen, who was an "outspoken and independent minded MPP" and would later cross the floor to join the NDP in his defeat.

Rick Chiarelli would go on to lose the election to Progressive Conservative Gary Guzzo.

Rick Chiarelli, who had been a leading opponent of amalgamation, faced long-time Councillor Al Loney in what was thought would be one of the tightest election battles of the year.

Rick Chiarelli prevailed by nearly 2,000 votes, and became councillor for Baseline Ward.

In 2006, after ward boundary changes, Rick Chiarelli faced a challenge from cycling activist Brett Delmage in the newly created College Ward.

Rick Chiarelli won despite criticisms that he appeared to be "bored with his job", and sometimes slept at council meetings.

Rick Chiarelli's campaign focused on improving police and fire services in his ward and a desire to keep property tax increases to a minimum.

Rick Chiarelli was easily re-elected in 2010 running on a campaign of wanting to "keep taxes down" and having council focus on "'core' services", as well as his work with the plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park, improving Centrepointe Town Centre and the launch of the Bells Corners business Improvement association.

Rick Chiarelli was again easily re-elected in 2014, an election which made him the longest serving city councillor.

Rick Chiarelli faced tougher competition in 2018, defeating lawyer Emilie Coyle by 1,300 votes.

Rick Chiarelli campaigned on maintaining roads and infrastructure in the short-term.

Two complaints concerned Rick Chiarelli asking female staffers if they were comfortable not wearing a bra and one of the women recalled during her interview how Rick Chiarelli described revealing outfits worn by others and asked her what her thoughts were about wearing shirts that showed the side of a woman's breasts.

The complainant said Rick Chiarelli did not explicitly tell her that her job offer was conditional on her willingness to go to bars and flirt with men or on her willingness to not wear a bra and said it wasn't clear if she'd be pressured to do those things once she got the job.

Rick Chiarelli recommended Chiarelli's pay be suspended for ten months at a value of more than $79,000.

Rick Chiarelli filed for judicial review of the Commissioner's report as well as the Council-imposed suspension, alleging that they were biased against him.

On November 20,2020 the second report was published and recommended Rick Chiarelli be removed from all committees and have an additional six month's pay withheld for "incomprehensible incidents of harassment" against staff.

Kulhanek, who did not know of Rick Chiarelli before receiving his messages, learned from a friend about his prior allegations and then decided to entertain herself by responding to him.

Rick Chiarelli was ordered to pay the Commissioner $40,000 in legal costs and the City was ordered to pay Rick Chiarelli $20,000 in legal costs.

On November 4,2022, the City's Integrity Commissioner published a third report on Rick Chiarelli, finding that he had used the power he held as an employer to bully and harass a younger female staffer who worked in his office from 2013 to 2015 in violation of the Council's Code of Conduct.

The report recommend that Rick Chiarelli's pay be suspended for 90 days and that he should make a public apology.