TRANSPARENCY
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O ’ Connor , city solicitor for Ottawa , says that the requirement for codes of conduct and integrity commissioners will be “ a real game changer ” for Ontario .
“ You will have about 400 municipalities waking up saying , ‘ My goodness , I need a code of conduct for my members of council . I need an integrity commissioner .’ That will be a significant change for the integrity regime for smaller municipalities that don ’ t have the resources , that don ’ t have the time and money to make these changes . And this will be imposed on them by another level of government ,” he says .
O ’ Connor sees the potential for smaller municipalities to incur expensive investigations by overzealous commissioners into frivolous or vexatious accusations against elected officials . “ That ’ s where the expenses start racking up ,” O ’ Connor says . Some investigations , where there is no finding of guilt ,
Rick O ’ Connor
can cost $ 10,000 , $ 15,000 or $ 20,000 , he says . A small town in Ontario , he notes , might be able to handle one but might not have the resources to handle three or four such investigations in a year .
O ’ Connor ’ s advice to municipalities is to set up policies and procedures where commissioners can deal with investigations summarily if warranted .
“ Some integrity commissioners feel ‘ I have to investigate .’ No , you don ’ t . First , you ask , ‘ Is this a problem ?’ If there is , yes , go ahead and investigate . If no , don ’ t investigate and deal with it summarily . So there has to be that two-step process .”
On other issues of transparency , O ’ Connor says several elements in the revised Municipal Act are overdue , such as the ability to move in-camera to protect third-party commercial interests . Previously , he says a “ bizarre dichotomy ” allowed municipalities to refuse to disclose a document to protect those commercial interests , but wouldn ’ t allow councillors to go in-camera to discuss it because of the narrowly defined range of subjects that are allowed to be held in-camera in Ontario . “ There was a disconnect between the privacy legislation and the in-camera legislation that , to the credit of the minister in the new legislation , have in some cases joined the two ,” he says .
Professor David Siegel of Brock University says increased transparency is a fact of life for all levels of government and argues that municipalities simply must cope with the demands expected of them .
“ We are playing in a somewhat different environment than we used to , but the emphasis on transparency has not occurred suddenly ,” Siegel says . “ I would tend to disagree somewhat that local governments are being put upon so differently than provincial or federal governments . All levels of government have been moving to more transparency .”
Siegel agrees that the public must realize that increased transparency is not free : “ People will have to recognize that transparency comes with a cost .”
Fleming says municipal governments have always been subject to much more scrutiny and transparency than other levels of government , which , in his opinion , causes them to be creative and nimble .
“ In my days as a city manager we might moan and groan and complain about all of that stuff . But the proud tradition of people who work in municipal public service is to suck it up , knuckle down and figure out how to deal with it and be really quite innovative while you ’ re at it ,” he says .
Jeffrey Abrams , who recently retired as city clerk for Vaughan and chairs AMCTO ’ s Municipal Act advisory team , says there is a balancing act to be achieved .
“ Municipalities are creatures of statute . They don ’ t have a lot of inherent authority and they are perhaps disadvantaged by a catalogue of municipal legislation that is getting a little tired ,” Abrams said .
“ There is a balance to be had between full transparency and
12 Q2 2017 www . amcto . com