A unanimous decision of city council members during Tuesday’s meeting hired Toronto-based Principles Integrity to handle municipal integrity commissioner duties.
A service mandated by the province, municipal integrity commissioners handle complaints against city council members and recommend penalties when they conclude that Code of Conduct and Municipal Conflict of Interest Act violations have taken place.
Principles Integrity is composed of two principals, Janice Atwood and Jeffrey Adams, city solicitor and clerk Eric Labelle wrote in a report to city council members.
Both principals have been in partnership since 2017, and currently serve integrity commissioner duties for more than 60 municipalities and other public bodies.
The municipalities Labelle included in his report included Mississauga, Orillia, Pickering, Hamilton, Aurora, Collingwood and the Regions of York, Durham and Peel.
The two principals also have "significant municipal experience,” Labelle wrote, including stints as municipal solicitors.
A bylaw appointing both principals passed without city council discussion on Tuesday, which includes a five-year term and a start date of May 13.
Late last year, a split city council voted 7-6 to fire integrity commissioner David Boghosian, setting in motion 180 days’ notice of termination.
Boghosian hasn’t filed any reports on city council members’ conduct since this time.
Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc tabled the successful motion to fire Boghosian in response to what he described as the integrity commissioner’s reports criticizing city council members beyond the scope of whether they breach the city’s Code of Conduct. Leduc described Boghosian’s reports as “a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Leduc was the subject of a few integrity commissioner reports, most recently one centered on the city council member’s social media posts, which Bothosian described as “beneath the dignity of a sitting councillor, or anyone for that matter.”
Other Boghosian reports censured Leduc for “objectionable and impertinent” comments Leduc made when he wrongfully claimed they “tampered evidence’ against him, and a report in which Leduc was criticized for his conduct during a public meeting at which the city councillor shared personal information about city staff members who were being publicly ridiculed.
Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier later echoed this sentiment when he said Boghosian was hired as a “finder of facts” and that his reports were “exceptionally commentarial.”
Last year also saw Boghosian author reports regarding the conduct of Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée, Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann.
A request for proposals to handle integrity commissioner services was published on Jan. 17 and closed on Feb. 11 with six bids submitted.
The first stage of evaluation scored qualifications, experience, proposed workplans and financial proposals, and the second stage consisted of interviews with those proponents who scored the highest, including North York-based ADR Chambers Inc. and Principles Integrity.
Principles Integrity scored the highest among proposals received.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
