The cost to file a code of conduct complaint against elected officials in Niagara Falls has doubled, after councillors approved a motion for an increase.

According to the council, filing a complaint will now cost $1,000, up from the $500-fee that had been in place since 2021. 

The council says complainants would receive a full refund if a violation is found, but would forfeit their filing fee if no violation is discovered.

Coun. Vince Kerrio — who brought the motion that was approved by councillors on Feb. 10 — said the complaints process was being used for the wrong reasons, and the city was left to cover the bill for the investigations.

“The code of conduct has been used by different people for political gain,” Kerrio told CBC News on Monday.

“They’ve weaponized it against councillors they don’t like for whatever reason, or because council happens to do something that they don’t agree with.

“A lot of them were frivolous, or a lot of them were filed for the wrong reasons… A very small number of them are guilty. Most of them come back not guilty,” added Kerrio.

All complaints are judged by the municipal integrity commissioner who makes a judgment on whether or not the code of conduct was breached, Kerrio said, adding the city is billed regardless of the outcome.

“What then happens is the city gets the bill from the integrity commissioner, anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000 or $20,000 — guilty or innocent,” Kerrio said.

“The taxpayers pay the bill [ and] that’s where the problem starts.” 

Kerrio told CBC News he got “particularly upset” that these were happening.

He said “in a time when people are having trouble paying their taxes … [allowing] this to continue without trying in some way to get back some of the money, especially on the ones that were not guilty,” wasn’t something he could ignore.

Several code of conduct complaints in current term

A report from city staff to the mayor and councillors said the current term of council has seen several code of conduct complaints.

It says six investigations have been completed, totalling $79,049.17, and one is currently underway. None of the investigations have found any violations against any of the councillors, the report says. 

To address frivolous complaints, the city says staff can now prepare a by-law to recover costs from unfounded or repeated complaints.

The staff report noted that the office of the Ontario Ombudsman has made it known that it discourages any fees associated with the filing of complaints, but ultimately the decision to charge a fee rests with council. 

Ombudsman’s office says there should be no fee 

A spokesperson for Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube’s office said they are not commenting on the latest decision by the Niagara Falls council.

Linda Williamson confirmed that the Ombudsman “continues to stand by the position that there should be no fee for filing complaints to an integrity commissioner.”

Williamson noted that the Ombudsman wrote Niagara Falls council in February 2023, in light of complaints that the integrity commissioner did not have authority to investigate complaints about local board members.

The Ombudsman has strongly and repeatedly denounced the practice of charging a complaint fee because it penalizes complainants for exercising their statutory rights and may prevent legitimate complaints from being raised, Williamson said. 

She said the Ombudsman has noted that it is “entirely inconsistent with the primary intent of the integrity commissioner scheme, which is to foster democratic legitimacy and public trust at the local level.” 

Williamson said a number of municipalities have removed their fees and changed their codes of conduct in light of this position.

This past August, the Ontario Ombudsman’s office presented their first Good Governance Award to the City of Hamilton for its decision to remove a $100 fee to complain to its integrity commissioner, saying: “There should be no fee or other barrier to making a complaint, which is every resident’s right. It’s an important part of any democracy, especially at the local level.”

Responding to the position of Ontario Ombudsman’s office regarding fees for code of conduct complaints, Kerrio said: “If he wants to start coughing up some of the money to pay our taxpayers back,” he would move to eliminate the fee.

Meanwhile, the Niagara Falls council has also directed staff to investigate the possibility of eliminating anonymous complaints being filed. 

In discussions with the integrity commissioner, it was felt that changes to the code can be made to allow for this direction, which would also be in keeping with most other municipalities and how they handle this issue, the staff report says.