Wait for Region’s integrity report will continue
It may be some time before regional council — and the public — hear reports from its integrity commissioner about the alleged bad behaviour of some of its members.
Niagara Region’s interim integrity commissioner John Mascarin was ready to deliver his findings on code of conduct violations in February, Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn said. That didn’t pan out. Mascarin was ready again in March, but wasn’t included on council’s agenda.
This Thursday’s full meeting of council appears to have been the next logical date, but that’s not going to happen.
Mascarin’s reports are now scheduled to be delivered May 18, Matt Robinson, the Region’s associate director of corporate communications, said in an email.
Asked for an explanation of what happened in February and March, all Robinson would say was Mascarin was never part of the “public” agenda for those meetings.
“This is childish,” said Augustyn. “I expect more out of our leadership at the Region. This is unbelievable that this type of manipulation is occurring. It has been delayed for what — three months? Why? Aren’t we supposed to be open for business?”
Mascarin didn’t respond by deadline to a request for an interview.
The current delay will allow staff to write a report for councillors about the options and cost of a Charter of Rights review of the current code, Robinson said.
St. Catharines Coun. Andy Petrowski called the whole process “a gong show.”
“At the end of the day I am asking to delay Mascarin’s findings,” said Petrowski, who has said he is the subject of three of the complaints and that they are politically motivated.
“All three of my complaints challenge my freedom of expression.
“The public and council deserves to know if Mascarin’s interpretations comply with the rule of law or not. I say emphatically they are not. Barring that, why should they come forward early?”
The decision to ultimately delay Mascarin’s reporting this month was made by at a pre-council meeting by the “corporate leadership team,” which consists of CAO Carmen D’Angelo and the regional commissioners, Robinson said.
Last week, Port Colborne Coun. David Barrick, who serves as the chairman of the Region’s corporate services committee, accepted a suggestion from Petrowski that a staff review of the code for possible charter violations was in order.
A call to Barrick for this story wasn’t returned.
The report requested by Petrowski will also address whether Mascarin has jurisdiction over some of the complaints.
That concern came about because of a poorly worded resolution by council that gave staff authorization to hire Mascarin on an interim basis in December.
“The regional chair made the motion on Dec. 9,” Augustyn said. “If there is a problem with the literal interpretation of the motion, I expect the chair to make recommendations to council on how we can fix this issue, so there isn’t a time when we aren’t covered by the integrity commissioner.”
A call to Caslin’s director of communications wasn’t returned.
In a memorandum dated April 21, Sterling Wood, the Region’s acting director of legal services, said a “literal reading ” of the resolution leaves the impression Mascarin can only act on complaints received before the beginning of the competitive search process for a permanent commissioner. Wood said the way the original motion is worded means “clear authority for Mr. Mascarin to deal with those matters is absent.”
Mascarin, a Toronto lawyer, is looking into more than 20 complaints about the behaviour of regional councillors.
The code of conduct — and how violations of it are dealt with — has given this council and the chair’s office repeated headaches.
In 2015, councillors decided to rid themselves of an integrity commissioner to save money and out of the fear the process could be used to settle political scores.
Council agreed to let the regional chair’s office handle them.
However, the chair’s office soon discovered that it didn’t have the resources or proper tools to deal with the complaints.
By the end of 2016, council reversed course and reinstated the integrity commissioner, hiring Mascarin on an interim basis.
Ed Smith, a local activist, has a complaint against Regional Chairman Alan Caslin pending.
It illustrates how the process can come off the rails in even straightforward situations.
Mascarin has had to recuse himself from Smith’s complaint, emails from Mascarin to Smith indicate.
In late January, Caslin wrote a letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne asking the premier to intervene with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in a bid to save a Chinese firm’s $1.5-billion development plan for Niagara Falls, which is known as the Thundering Waters project.
The letter claimed that if the ministry doesn’t change the designation of a provincially significant wetland located in the heart of the development, the project is in jeopardy.
Smith said he filed a formal complaint about Caslin in March.
Smith contends it was improper for Caslin to go to bat for the developers without the approval of council.
“It has come to my attention that our firm is acting on behalf of the proponent for the Thundering Waters development project in Niagara Falls,” Mascsarin wrote Smith. “As such, it would be inappropriate for me to review and consider your recently filed complaint … Accordingly, I am suspending my investigation of this complaint, and I
am recusing myself on this matter.
“I will be discussing with the acting regional clerk to whom the complaint may be referred.”
Robinson responded in an email to The Standard, by saying ,“Complaints
are confidential, and as such we do not comment on them.”
Smith, for his part, wonders why the Region would hire a representative from a law firm that represented the Chinese developers.
“The role of the integrity commissioner is perhaps one of the most important in our pursuit of good governance, especially in a council such as this,” Smith said. “Thundering Waters is one of the biggest and most controversial development proposals for Niagara in its history. To hire their legal organization to act as our integrity commissioner is unthinkable.
“The people of Niagara deserve a very thorough explanation from the chair, and they also need to store this event in their longer term memory.”