If you file a complaint against a city council member with the city’s integrity commissioner, a group of at least four of the city’s elected officials want to know your name.
In addition to prohibiting the anonymity currently granted, they also want everything that complainants send to the city’s integrity commissioner to be sent directly to them.
A motion to this effect was filed by Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent, Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti, to be voted on during city council’s Oct. 8 meeting.
However, even if the motion passes on Oct. 8, it might not matter.
“The Municipal Act says that I get to decide what is and is not confidential with respect to my investigation,” city integrity commissioner David Boghosian told Sudbury.com.
That said, he clarified that city council members “may not appreciate that I read that as giving me an overriding power to grant anonymity, but I do agree it should be an exception and not the norm.”
The Municipal Act dictates that the integrity commissioner “shall preserve secrecy with respect to all matters that come to his or her knowledge in the course of his or her duties.” (223.5.1)
The act also provides exceptions to this, allowing the commissioner to disclose information “as in the commissioner’s opinion is necessary.” (224.5.2.3)
The Municipal Act is provincial legislation, which overrides anything the city’s elected officials decide.
The councillor’s motion makes no mention of the Municipal Act or its potential for making their motion inactionable.
For his part, Boghosian believes anonymous complaints should be the exception.
“I do think anonymous complaints should be the exception rather than the norm, for accountability for the complainant and in fairness to the councillors,” Boghosian said.
“I do think there’s some merit to this position, although by no means should every single complainant be identified. There should be exceptions and opportunities to grant confidentiality.”
Certain situations, such as city employees submitting complaints which might put them in an awkward position in their place of work, may require anonymity.
The second part of the city council members’ motion, which requests that all information provided to the integrity commissioner also be given to the subject of the complaint, is pretty much what Boghosian said he already does.
However, the existing provision allows him the option to provide a summary of a complaint instead of the full, verbatim context.
In the event the motion was to pass on Oct. 8, Boghosian said he might still redact identifying material from whatever is sent to city council members in situations where anonymity is granted.
Sudbury.com reached out to all four members by phone and email this morning. Fortin and Labbée respond by the time of publication.
“People should have the right to face their accuser,” she said in an emailed response.
“Right now, you or me or anyone else can file a complaint for political or personal reasons or to discredit council or the city,” she added. “This is wrong and leads to abuse of the process and undermines the purpose of the integrity commissioner in the first place.”
She also writes that it can have a “chilling effect” on her as a city council member, “who needs to be able to express my thoughts and opinions publicly as representative of Ward 4 and the city without having to worry about somebody hiding behind the mask of anonymity because they don’t like me or something that I said.”
In her response, Labbée said the motion isn't limiting anyone from bringing forward a complaint.
"It speaks to the need for fairness in the process by identifying the complainant and being accountable to the taxpayers who have to pay for the complaints, and it gets costly," she said, adding that her concern is with frivolous complaints and "no accountability if they remain anonymous."
Whether a complaint is anonymous or attributed to a named person, Boghosian’s investigations serve to determine their validity before his final report reaches a public city council meeting. In these public reports, Boghosian delivers his findings on whether city council members have breached the city’s Code of Conduct.
The Oct. 8 city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The meeting can be attended in person at council chambers within Tom Davies Square (200 Brady St.) or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
