Debate over city hall emails continues
Activist says councillor has not released all correspondence after commissioner appeal
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
Despite a groundbreaking decision by Ontario’s information commissioner, Oshawa city hall watchers are claiming they still aren’t getting the full story.
In January, following more than two years of battling with the city for the release of emails between Nancy Diamond and investigator George Rust-D’Eye, hired in 2013 to investigate allegations made by former auditor general Ron Foster, the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) ordered emails between the two to be released.
From the time the initial Freedom of Information (FOI) request was filed more than two years ago, the city argued the emails aren’t in their control because they were sent using Diamond’s personal iPad, and not using the city’s internal server. The emails also didn’t deal with city business, they claimed.
The IPC disagreed and ordered they be released.
Rob Vella received the package soon after, but immediately was skeptical about the information he was reading.
According to his FOI request, he was looking to receive all communication between Diamond and Rust-D’Eye between March 1, 2013 and Oct. 1, 2013.
What Vella received were two emails, the first sent from Rust-D’Eye at 10:58 a.m. on May 21, 2013. “George’s long bio” is the subject line, the body of the email is blank, but has a 20 page attachment which is Rust-D’Eye’s lengthy resume.
When contacted by The Oshawa Express, George Rust-D’Eye, citing “confidentiality duties”, declined to answer questions about the emails.
The second email was sent by Diamond at 2:30 p.m. the same day and includes a copy of the motion that would pass at council that night with a 5-4 vote and result in Rust-D’Eye’s hiring.
“Attached is what I anticipate is the final resolution. If you see any problems, you would have up until about 5 p.m. to let me know,” Diamond writes.
Diamond also refers to the fact the two have been discussing the fee for Rust-D’Eye’s services.
“You have, of course, noted how I am negotiating for a full-time fee,” Diamond writes.
She finishes the email by claiming she will email him following “to-night’s (lengthy and rowdy) meeting.”
It was this last line that caught Vella’s attention.
“By that email, it appears there’s others,” he says. “You can tell that there’s obviously other ones. She’s mentioned other ones.”
Diamond tells The Oshawa Express she did a full search for the emails on her computer.
“I did the search on the computer. That was what came up,” she says.
Diamond also notes there may be confusion in the fact that the response to Vella’s initial FOI request stated that 22 pages of correspondence existed, and 20 pages of that consisted of Rust-D’Eye’s resume.
Vella says he has contacted the IPC about what his options are as the files released do not seem complete.
When contacted by the The Express, the IPC explained that their order was in fact complete, as it only dealt with the single email exchange from the very beginning, because at the start of the process, it was the only piece of correspondence the city claimed existed.
“The city only identified one responsive record and that order is based from there,” says Trell Heuther, a senior communications advisor with the IPC. “It is done, in terms of what the adjudicator ordered.”
While that may be the case, Heuther says that Vella does have options if he believes there is more information to be gleamed, confirming that they are still in discussions about what happens next.
“We are going to work with (Vella) to determine next steps,” he says. “There’s a number of things we can do, and every situation is unique.”
For that reason, Heuther would not say what options are currently being considered by Vella and the IPC.
A larger issue
While the fight for more transparency is ongoing between Vella and the IPC, other city hall watchers have taken a different avenue to enforce openness and accountability within Oshawa’s civic administration.
According to Oshawa resident Jeff Davis, documents have been sent to some of the province’s top administrators, including the Attorney General of Ontario, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Premier Kathleen Wynne as a well as the leader of the opposition Patrick Brown and provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath.
He says the documents are an appeal for help with a problem that “continues to go unchecked” regarding wrongdoing and conflict of interest. They are also appealing for an independent investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.
The Office of the Attorney General and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ted McMeekin were unavailable for comment.