Council followed rules in closing meeting last summer: report

In what will likely be its final report for Greater Sudbury, the city's closed-door meeting investigator has cleared council following a complaint from last summer.

The complaint was related to a meeting in July when councillors met behind closed doors to decide whether to grant former Auditor General Brian Bigger an unpaid leave of absence. Bigger was granted the leave and ran successfully for mayor in the October municipal election.

Amberley Gavel, the private firm hired to conduct investigations after the former city council fired Ontario Ombudsman André Marin, was asked to investigate the meeting.

According to the firm, the complaint alleged city council should not have met in camera to “suspend the auditor general department until after the Oct. 27” municipal election.
The complaint said councillors should not have met behind closed doors to vote on what should be done with the AG's office while Bigger was running for mayor.

However, Amberley Gavel's investigation found that, according to Ontario's Municipal Act, council did have the right to close the meeting, since they would be discussing a personnel matter involving an identifiable individual.

Staffing options for the department while Bigger was on leave also involved discussion of specific employees, as well as consultation with the city's solicitor. Therefore, city councillors had the right to close the meeting to the public, the report concludes.

However, while finding councillors had the right to meet behind closed doors, the report did admonish them for the vagueness of the meeting notice. The agenda said only that councillors would meet in camera to deal with “one personnel matter” in accordance with the Municipal Act.

“We see no reason why the item could have been titled, 'Auditor General's Request for Unpaid Leave of Absence and the Impact on the Auditor General's Office,'” the report said. “This would have maximized the information available to the public while not undermining the reason for excluding the public.”

Amberley Gavel is the firm contracted by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to conduct closed-door meeting investigations in cities that don't use Marin. City council in Sudbury hired them in 2013 after years of squabbling with Marin.

With Bigger's election, however, and with a largely new city council, a vote at Tuesday's meeting is expected to restore Marin to the post.