Investigate us, council asks ombudsman

Despite having fired him last month, city council is asking Ontario’s ombudsman to conduct one more investigation in Sudbury.

Meeting March 26, councillors voted to send Andre Marin a letter calling on him to investigate the more than 50 complaints his office received about the way in which council voted to replace him as the city’s closed-door investigator.

Suspicions were raised when Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume introduced a notice of motion at the Feb. 12 meeting to replace Marin. Not only did council vote to deal with the motion at that meeting – something normally done only when the matter is time sensitive – it passed with little debate.

That led to the dozens of complaints to the ombudsman asking him to determine whether councillors held an improper, private meeting beforehand to determine the ombudsman’s fate.

Mayor Marianne Matichuk said the city’s new investigator, Local Authority Services, made it clear they’re not allowed to look into meetings held before council appointed them.

“Responsibility for investigations up until Feb. 26 lies with the Ontario ombudsman,” Matichuk said. “I would like to request our city solicitor send a letter to the ombudsman requesting he investigate the complaints we know he has received.

“I think we owe it to the public … to close this gap.”

Most councillors voted in favour of the mayor’s motion. While supporting the motion, Ward 10 Coun. Frances Caldarelli questioned Matichuk about comments she made in the media implying she knew councillors had gotten together in the lounge at Tom Davies Square before the Feb. 12 meeting.

“Were you quoted correctly?” Caldarelli asked. “Because no one else has any knowledge of any sort of meeting … To make those sorts of accusations with no explanation seems to me to be somewhat unfair.”

Matichuk said that’s one of the reasons she wants the ombudsman to look into the matter.

“I was told by a councillor that this was discussed in the councillors lounge,” she said. “And I was also told this by another councillor.”

The issue is important to a lot of residents, Matichuk said, and only a proper investigation can clear things up.

“There is a public perception that there was a closed meeting,” she said.

“With you saying something like this, obviously, people may believe it,” Caldarelli replied. “People were saying you had seen it, but I knew nothing happened. Saying that, ‘Well, someone told me,’ that doesn’t really cut it.

“It’s very sad when you reach that point.”

In the end, council voted to send Marin the letter.

The man who introduced the Feb. 12 motion, Claude Berthiaume, told Northern Life there was no secret meeting of any sort before the vote was taken in public. Berthiaume said he had spoken about his desire to replace Marin with his fellow councillors one-on-one, with the exception of Matichuk.

When he found there was widespread support for the idea, Berthiaume planned to bring it forward at the Jan. 29 city council meeting, but it was cut short by bad weather. So he introduced it at the Feb. 12 meeting.

“I showed my notice of motion to only one councillor before I introduced it,” he said, and the motion passed quickly, with Mayor Marianne Matichuk the sole vote against. “Did I discuss it beforehand? Yes, but only with one person at a time. There was no meeting.”

In wake of the decision, Marin announced he wouldn’t conduct any more investigations in Sudbury, despite the number of complaints he received.

“Although my Office is still Sudbury’s investigator until the bylaw appointing a new investigator has passed, given the clear will of council, I have decided we will not pursue investigations of these or any other new complaints. We will contact the complainants and offer to forward their complaints to the new investigator, or give them the opportunity to withdraw their complaints.”

In an interview with Northern Life on Feb. 14, Marin said there was no point in investigating Sudbury when council made its will known.

“Council wasn’t co-operating when we had full authority, and I can’t imagine they’ll co-operate any more now,” Marin said. “So there’s a point where you can’t keep beating your head against a brick wall.”

When contacted in early March, Marin’s office said he had nothing to add to his previous statements refusing to conduct another investigation in Sudbury.