It appears that city officials don't think much of former Ontario Superior Court of Justice George Valin's opinion in a recently submitted report to council.
Valin, acting as the City's Integrity Commissioner, investigated a Code of Conduct complaint against Mayor Al McDonald and Canadore President George Burton regarding the awarding of a $1.2 million contract, as members of Invest North Bay, to TWG Communications.
The disconnect surrounds whether Invest North Bay is a"board," as Valin reports, or a "corporation," as Invest North Bay argues.
The difference is crucial.
See: Invest North Bay conducting closed meetings in violation of Municipal Act says Ferris
In a report to council, Executive Director Ian Kilgour ignores Valin's report and continues to argue, "INBDC was incorporated as an independent corporation and not considered as a “Local Board” and has operated as such since."
The insistence that Invest North Bay is not a board comes in Kilgour's report asking City Council not to renew its operating agreement, but instead, have Kilgour prepare a report detailing terms of reference to turn INB into an Economic Advisory Committee instead.
Read the report by Kilgour here.
That flies in the face of Valin's report which clearly states Invest North Bay is a board of the city and falls under Ontario's Municipal Act.
Concerned citizen Kevin Ferris, in a letter to INB says the board "has been conducting closed meetings in violation of s.239 for the last 5 years." The secretive body, though funded entirely by taxpayer dollars does not post its agendas, minutes, resolutions or by-laws, and recently came under fire for hiding its conflict of interest policy instead of making it public as a board would normally have to do as public documents.
See: Here's the Conflict of Interest policy Invest North Bay doesn't want you to see
"The City has provided no backup for their argument that they are not a local board," Ferris told BayToday. "They are basically thumbing their nose at Valin They have a disregard for any regulations."
Valin is also a former North Bay councillor.
Ferris says as a board, INB directors have to follow the same rules and protocols as the city council, but call themselves a corporation to avoid opening their meetings and making documents public.
"The meetings have to be posted publicly, they have to post their minutes, if there is a closed session it has to be announced publically and the reason why."
Ferris and Nicole Peltier have filed a Freedom of Information request with the City to make all those documents public. A "Closed Meeting Investigator" under the Ombudsman office has also opened a file.
"If they think Valin doesn't know what he's talking about and he's wrong, they need to have it out with Valin because we have it in writing and we're going to hold them to that standard."
Council will receive Kilgour's report this evening.
BayToday reached out to Kilgour for clarification but received no response. We also called City Solicitor Peter Leckie who would have supported Kilgour's claim but again got no response.
Mayor Al McDonald did not reply to our request for an interview to explain why Valin's report was being ignored so we turned to a couple of people who have a lot of experience on council and boards.
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is a former mayor of North Bay and MP Anthony Rota is a former councillor. BayToday asked both to address the issue, but both declined to comment. TWG co-owner Bill Ferguson managed Fedeli's past two election campaigns.
City councillors have also largely remained silent.
Meanwhile, a source inside City Hall says another director has quit the Invest North Bay board. Jonathan Muterera is an Associate Professor at Nipissing University. He resigned last week. That leaves just eight directors remaining, only four of those being private citizens.
On its website, INB lists the current Board of Directors as:
- Mayor Al McDonald
- Councillor Dave Mendicino
- Councillor Marcus Tignanelli
- David Euler, North Bay CAO
- Steve Deacon, Deacon Wealth Management
- George Flumerfelt, Chief Executive Officer at Redpath Mining
- Larry Fuld,
- Jonathan Muterera, Associate Professor Nipissing University
- Tiz Silveri, Executive Vice President at North Bay Regional Hospital
