After receiving another report on closed meeting complaints in Erin, Mayor Allan Alls announced someone has filed a fourth complaint.
At the April 19 council meeting, Alls said there has been another complaint on the actions of council in a closed meeting.
“All I can say is that we’ve had another request from somebody in a citizens group for another investigation for a closed meeting policy and we expect a report from the meeting investigator very shortly,” he said.
“Somebody likes spending taxpayers’ money, because it costs money every time this gentleman shows up.”
In his most recent report, closed meeting investigator John Maddox stated he received a complaint dated March 7 regarding an Oct. 6 resolution asking for a cost-benefit analysis for a bylaw enforcement officer.
The report was never brought to the public, therefore the complaint alleged it was inappropriately undertaken in a closed session.
The complaint was similar to two previous complaints, one filed by the Wellington Advertiser, about the same issue. Maddox, who provided a report on those complaints in January, found no wrongdoing by council but offered a number of recommendations for the closed meeting process.
In the April 19 report, Maddox reiterated his recommendations and “will comment no further with respect to this application other than to reaffirm the recommendation of my previous report.”
Councillor Jeff Duncan asked if there was any way to collect a fee on the complainant if “the finding comes back as frivolous.”
CAO Kathryn Ironmonger said, “We do not have the ability to charge, however, in the report that’s coming back the investigator indicated that he was going to make a recommendation on how he was going to deal with subsequent complaints.”
Councillor Matt Sammut said, “I’m glad we can’t, because I think that would be wrong because what may seem frivolous to us, to someone else it may have been a real issue.”
He added council had to improve its communication to the public.
“If the public is misunderstanding things and having the wrong perception that’s because we’re missing the communication link with them,” Sammut said.
Councillor John Brennan said, “You walk a fine line between entertaining the public’s right to lodge a complaint and we shouldn’t do this to deter that, but on the other hand you do have some people who may take advantage of that and do.”
Duncan suggested Maddox come to council to give a presentation on the right and wrong way to conduct closed meetings.
Ironmonger said council should wait until the next report and formulate questions from there before scheduling a presentation.
“Perhaps it might be more clear to council when the next report comes,” she said.
