Depending on who you talk to, a political aide who cleaned up a non-political mess deserves either a gold star or a slap on the wrist.

Mike Patton took on extra duties last Thursday when he mopped up what he called a "poo apocalypse" in a downtown public library.

Ottawa Public Library

Thursday afternoon, Patton got a call from a frustrated patron who opened the men's bathroom door in the Ottawa Public Library to discover a toilet seat and surrounding floor covered in feces.

"Clearly someone was not feeling well and had a bit of a diarrhea issue, and it was all over the seat and the floor and the toilet, in the stall area," said Patton, who revisited the scene of the grime with CBC on Tuesday.

The patron first reported the mess to library staff, then to the acting branch manager.

But three hours later, when no action was taken other than to block off the bathroom, he called the office of Coun. Rick Chiarelli, chair of the library board.

"When the call came into the office, I asked him how he wanted us to proceed, and he said, 'Just fix it,' " said Patton, Chiarelli's assistant.

"So, I came over to see if the situation had been remedied and, unfortunately, nobody had had a chance yet to get to it, so I cleaned it up myself."

He found a mop and bucket in the basement and went to work.

The response? Library officials complained the aide took work away from unionized workers and suggested he mind his own business in the future.

Officials say because the cleaners work for the city, they are responsible for a number of buildings. When the problem happened, they were busy at another building.

Chiarelli pooh-poohed their explanation.

"When there's poop on the floor, the first action has to be to clean it up, not send memos and form committees and that kind of thing," Chiarelli said.

So far, the maintenance workers' union has not filed a grievance. But the library apologized to the public for any inconvenience.