Norfolk mayor has been showing off sh-t sandwich at more than one meeting

Lettuce, tomato and a pile of excrement stacked between slices of bread.

A trio of green, squiggly lines — presumably indicating steam or an unpleasant smell — extend above it.

It's an image of a "shit sandwich" Norfolk County Mayor Kristal Chopp presented to a provincial minister and has shown during at least one other meeting.

The cartoonish picture is being shared publicly for the first time, three months after CBC first reported on her use of the image and then requested it under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The county perviously said Chopp, an outspoken and sometimes controversial leader, was being humorous when she showed Steve Clark, Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the image during the 2020 Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) meeting.

The mayor used it to "make a point about Norfolk's poor financial situation," the county said in a statement, and the difficult budget decisions council had to make as it faces significant struggles.

"The minister and mayor have a good relationship, and it was meant as a humorous way to make the point."

But in a phone call Friday evening, Chopp said that description isn't accurate.

"I don't like the idea I was trying to be funny. I was not in any way."

Instead, she maintains the picture was meant to make a lasting impression during the busy meeting schedule and send a message about the very real issues facing the county.

"It's like speed dating. You have five minutes or 10 minutes with each [person] and I wanted to stand out, to make a point," she explained. "We are in a bad situation here in Norfolk County."

Regardless, Chopp isn't the only official who doesn't find the picture funny. 

"That's not how we do business in Norfolk County," said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett, who was not at the meeting with Clark.

The MPP said he's chaired multiple meetings between ministers and municipal delegations at ROMA, which were "conducted in a very business-like, respectful and time efficient way."

Barrett explained the meetings typically offer municipalities five or 10 minutes to make their cases and said at the time that he believes showing a picture like that would "of course" impact the county's relationship with the province.

"You don't bite the hand that feeds you. That's pretty simple."

Request for image takes months

A reverse image search shows the picture has been used on blogs, Twitter and to create memes as far back as January 2017. It's also one of the first results that shows up following a Google image search for "shit sandwich."

Norfolk County's version was only provided to CBC News following months of back and forth with information and privacy coordinator Kevin Klingenberg.

A request for the image and any notes the mayor had prepared for her meeting with Clark was received by the county on March 4.

Klingenberg sent an email six days later saying the request had been transferred to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing because it had a "greater interest for the records."

What followed was a series of emails debating whether or not the county, as creator of the original record, was responsible for responding to the request.

During a phone call on May 6 a senior management and privacy advisor with the ministry described the transfer as "peculiar" because the image was first created by the county or mayor.

"It seems like the county should be the one responding to your request as we definitely would not have a greater interest or even custody of the records," Mallory Hosam explained.

Before CBC filed an appeal with the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Klingenberg sent a new email on June 5.

In it he said the county had come across a document created following the request that included the shit sandwich and decided to provide it to CBC "as part of our overall commitment to open and transparent government."

Slideshow explained sandwich

Attached to the email was the slides from a presentation Chopp gave to the Port Dover Board of Trade in March 2020.

The second slide includes an image of an old-timey paper boy, referencing "one of the most talked about stories" not only in the county, but across the province and promises "the story behind the story."

The third slide is the sandwich.

"The image ... is the same as the one used in the January ROMA meeting with Minister Clark," Klingenberg confirmed.

During a phone conversation Friday, Chopp said she was aware of CBC's FOI request for the image when she attended the meeting.

"It really is reflective of all of the problems our municipality has faced. It's just layer after layer," she said. "That was my attempt at making it public."

The mayor's presentation goes on to describe what's in "the Sandwich," referring to gas wells, "short‐change on the Tobacco Fund" and a development moratorium in Port Dover.

From 2015 to 2018, the county says, Norfolk's expenses increased an average of $6.2 million per year, and its revenues are only increasing about $4.4 million per year.

Council made tough decisions around it's 2020 budget, including voting for an 8.4 per cent tax increase on the average home as well as closing a pioneer museum in Teerterville.

For her part, Chopp has pointed to previous councils, saying they mismanaged resources and depleted reserves to keep taxes artificially low.

After running through the stark financial reality the county is facing, the presentation points to a need to re-balance, with priorities focused on long-term stability and an increased focus on core services and infrastructure.

The slideshow also managed to serve up a second helping.

An image of another shit sandwich shows up on slide five, celebrating $3.1 million from Clark and his ministry to support a social housing project Indwell is constructing in Simcoe.

The much more realistic-looking image is included in a screengrab from HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, along with a subtitle describing a "slightly smaller shit sandwich with guac."