December meeting under investigation
Dec. 17 meeting with OPUC was closed to the public
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
Why would an education and training session with the Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation be closed to the public?
Residents were asking that question on Dec. 17 when council did just that, closing the doors on a meeting with the OPUC to discuss “local distribution company trends in Ontario,” according to the agenda published online.
Well, someone has taken that question to the provincial ombudsman.
The city recently received a letter dated Jan. 18 from Ontario’s watchdog, claiming a complaint had been filed regarding the meeting and an investigation by the office’s Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team was being opened.
According to emails between the ombudsman’s office and city clerk Sandra Kranc, the watchdog will be looking into documentation connected to the meeting as well as reviewing any audio or video that is available from the meeting.
Under the Municipal Act, municipalities are allowed to close their meetings to the public for particular reasons, including matters relating to property sales or acquisitions, personnel matters, labour relations, pending litigation and advice that could be subject to solicitor-client privilege.
While it remains unclear what exactly the OPUC and councillors discussed during the closed meeting, emails obtained through an FOI request indicate a presentation was given by Atul Mahajan, OPUC’s president and CEO, on a particular issue.
Nadeige Carter, the executive assistant for OPUC, informed Kranc on Dec. 14 that “They are going to be presenting on a very sensitive topic – Atul will being the presentation on a stick, can we ensure he gets the stick back at the end of the presentation.”
Previous brushes with the watchdog
The ombudsman’s office is no stranger to the halls of Oshawa city hall, having fielded several complaints over the last few years.
In 2008, the ombudsman found Oshawa’s previous council under former mayor John Gray had closed a meeting inappropriatley when meeting with a recycling company that was subject to odour complaints. A year later, Oshawa council would again be found in the wrong for closing a meeting with a private business regarding lobbying of the federal government.
As well, members of the previous council are no stranger to the watchdog sniffing around either.
Between April 1, 2011 and Aug. 31, 2012, four complaints were lodged with the ombudsman regarding closed meetings. In each of these cases, council was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Most recently, the acquisition of 199 Wentworth St. E. for the city’s consolidated operations depot drew a pair of complaints regarding closed meetings.
First, in May 2013, a complaint reached the ombudsman that councillors Nancy Diamond and Bob Chapman and now former councillor Roger Bouma had met inappropriately at city hall over a holiday weekend to discuss the hiring of a private investigator to look into the auditor general’s explosive AG-13-09 report.
Secondly, a complaint was filed regarding a possibly inappropriate meeting of councillors prior to the turbulent Sept. 3, 2013 meeting. The complainant alleged that six to eight members of council met prior to the meeting to discuss terminating the office of the auditor general and to request police presence at the meeting.
The meeting, which saw independent investigator George Rust-D’Eye present his final report, resulted in the elimination of the auditor general’s office and the arrest of two residents. The charges were later dropped.
In both of these cases, the watchdog found no wrongdoing on behalf of council.