The Town of Fort Frances council approved the payment of $36,250.50 for integrity commissioner services; the budget had reserved $5,000 for the service.
This came in the form of two bills from Darrell Matson. The first bill, $18,636.53, was for legal services sought from Aird & Berlis LLP. The other bill, $17,613.97, was for labour services to produce the report submitted when an anonymous complaint was filed against Coun. Douglas Judson.
Council also decided that they will looks at any outstanding expenses and fees for the remainder of the year 2021 as they come.
The town is yet to be billed for the report produced by Paul S. Heayn for investigating the anonymous complaint filed against Fort Frances Mayor June Caul. Heayn estimated his report to cost about $7,000.
Municipal clerk, Gabrielle Lecuyer, said in a report to council that the current budget for 2021 only provides funds relating to advice and education from the integrity commissioner.
“However [the budget] does not take in consideration the cost of an investigation,” the report states. “It is difficult to estimate future services provided by the Integrity Commissioner Services particularly relating to investigation, that said staff will provide recommendations during budget deliberations for budget requirements and/or suggestions.”
The integrity commissioner component was added to municipalities in 2019 when council passed a bylaw to adopt a Code of Conduct for council members, local boards and committees of the Corporation of the Town of Fort Frances.
Since then, the town has been including a budget for the integrity commissioner services.
Dawn Galusha, town treasurer, said when the bylaw was added in 2019, the town budgeted $10,000. Galusha said in 2019, the town only spent $600.
“Then we thought we’ll cut it in half for 2020,” Galusha said. “And that year, I don’t believe that we spent anything. Then 2021 rolls around and we said we’ll keep it at $5,000.”
Galusha said since the integrity commissioner bills exceed the budget, the remainder of the money the town owes will be paid from the tax base fund.
The bills combined will account for about 0.2 per cent of the town’s annual general budget.
Galusha also said the town has not yet discussed the budget for the integrity commissioner services for 2022.
“Managers are starting to prepare their budget, and then they’ll go to council in January,” she added.
