Are city council code-of-conduct investigations worth the cost and bother?

An organization representing 110 districts and municipalities across northern Ontario is voicing concern about the cost of investigating and enforcing code-of-conduct complaints against elected councillors.

"Our members are concerned about the cost complaints have on municipalities and elected councillors," the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) said Monday after a meeting last week of its 11-member board in Callander, Ont.

"Municipal governments do not have the necessary tools to adequately enforce compliance with municipal code of conduct and support appropriate accountability when perpetrating violence and harassment in the workplace," the group said in a news release.

"Also, the province should increase the training of municipal integrity commissioners to enhance the consistency of investigations and recommendations across the province."

FONOM's concerns were made public eight weeks after two Sault Ste. Marie city councillors were strongly critical of what they termed a "frivolous" complaint to the city's integrity commissioner that was expected to cost taxpayers $6,500.

The Sault Ste. Marie Association of Ratepayers requested an investigation into comments made by Mayor Shoemaker and Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen at a city council meeting on March 18.

The complaint was rejected by Toronto lawyer John R. Hart, the city's acting integrity commissioner, who noted that the ratepayers' association asked for a code of conduct investigation without directly witnessing the March 18 meeting or even bothering to view the easily accessible video recording.

Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo and Ward 2's Luke Dufour considered the investigation a waste of time and tax dollars.

"Could you not have declared the complaint frivolous and advised the requester that they would need to actually review the behaviour in question as it is publicly available before making the complaint?" Dufour asked the acting integrity commissioner.

"There are cities smaller than us that have spent upwards of $300,000 and $400,000 a year on integrity commissioners, in order to adjudicate what to my mind are normal political disputes and disagreements," Dufour said.

Danny Whalen, FONOM president and a councillor in the City of Temiskaming Shores, said his group's biggest concern is that the Ontario government "has been claiming for some time they will bring forward a kind of a universal code of conduct, which they haven't done yet."

In an interview with SooToday, Whalen said FONOM is also deeply concerned with conflicting decisions made by locally appointed integrity commissioners.

"We find they're interpreting current codes of conduct and current procedure bylaws differently. So an issue for one integrity commissioner might not be an issue for another integrity commissioner. So we're getting different answers across the province, and this is a considerable expense for municipalities."

"We want a standardized code of conduct, but we also want a standardized training or interpretation for the integrity commissioners," Whalen said.

"Pretty much everywhere, every municipality is facing the same issue. One integrity commissioner might investigate it and send a municipality bill for $20,000.

"In another municipality, the integrity commissioner will investigate basically the same complaint, and it could be a $35,000 bill. We need to police the integrity commissioners. We're not opposed to them but there shouldn't be this varying degree of decisions and costs for the decision.," Whalen said.