Embattled Fort St. John mayor Bruce Lantz responded to council's motion of censure for unacceptable behaviour at Monday night's city council meeting.
An abnormally packed public gallery was the elephant in the room throughout the meeting which finished with Lantz's address to the public.
"I put myself in a position where such allegations could be made," said Lantz.
Neither city council nor Lantz identified any details of what specific incident, or incidents, led to council's recent censure of the mayor.
"That is unacceptable and I accept full responsibility for that," he added.
He prefaced his apology by explaining that alcohol has always been a demon in his life and that after 30 years of sobriety a recent heart attack led him back to the drink.
"Something shifted inside of me, particularly when out of town - that led me on several occasions to drink in excess," said Lantz.
However, Lantz emphasized, at no point did his alcoholism affect his ability to execute his responsibilities as mayor.
Despite that, Lantz told council and the gallery that he wanted to apologize for putting them in a position where they felt they needed to take action.
Accordingly, Lantz said he's taken his own steps by seeking long-term counselling in order to make sure that something like this would never happen again.
Sharing his alcoholic battle with his constituents was actually a relief, said Lantz.
"I feel really good, it's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulder. This hasn't been comfortable for anybody, not on council, not for staff and especially not for my wife," Lantz said.
He explained that having people know he's an alcoholic is nothing new to him. When he quit 30 years ago, Lantz was working as a journalist, but he admitted that the limelight he was in then is nothing compared to the scrutiny he's under now.
"I made a point of not looking for any comments, but I've been around long enough to know that if you're in political life and you have a problem it becomes the property of the public and that's a little different then your next door neighbour fighting an addiction," he said.
Even with the public attention focused on his personal struggle, Lantz said his focus is on his family's struggle to deal with his addiction.
In spite of the recent scandal, comprised of speculative rumour and truth in equal parts, Lantz said he hasn't ruled out putting his name forward for the upcoming civic election in November.
Lantz said addiction isn't an issue that he speaks to lightly and it's especially not something he's trying to use to deflect from the scandal created by council's recent resolution.
Last year, in discussions with major Calgary energy companies, he said that he secured $500,000 in funding towards an addiction treatment facility for the city.
"It's a subject near and dear to my heart," said Lantz, "And given the fact that Fort St. John has one of the highest rates of alcohol and substance abuse in the province, makes it that much more important."
Lantz's efforts to establish an addictions treatment centre in Fort St. John seek to plug a gap in the city where there are treatment programs but nowhere to go for those who need residential treatment.
He added that he's engaged in subsequent talks with another energy CEO who has shown interest in matching the other company's $500,000 donation.
"I was talking to them about how prevalent addiction is among their workers and how we need to address those issues in order to ensure a healthy work force," said Lantz.
