By David Judd
NORFOLK County is stuck with a bill for $2,500 after the county’s integrity commissioner rejected complaints by Waterford paralegal Warren Cummings.
David Boghosian, a Toronto lawyer who acts as Norfolk’s integrity commissioner, billed the county $2,502, including HST, for investigating and quickly rejecting five complaints filed by Mr. Cummings in September.
There’s no mechanism for council to recover its costs of dealing with frivolous complaints, CAO Al Meneses told councillors last Tuesday.
On top of the $2,500 bill for Mr. Boghosian’s services, five or 10 county staff spent hours responding to Mr. Cummings’ complaints.
“It’s very costly to taxpayers for sure,” Mr. Meneses said.
Mr. Cummings’ frivolous complaints were dismissed and Norfolk County was left with the bill, Mayor Amy Martin said.
“It appears as though members of the public can make up whatever they like and contact the integrity commissioner for things the integrity commissioner doesn’t have jurisdiction over, for statements that aren’t actually based in reality or accurate and for other perceived slights that aren’t applicable to what the integrity commissioner actually does,” Mayor Martin said.
At Mayor Martin’s suggestion, Norfolk at a rural municipal conference in January will lobby the provincial government to allow municipalities to claw back money spent on frivolous complaints.
Costs for frivolous complaints would be added to complainants’ property taxes.
In a report to council, CAO Meneses noted three of Mr. Cummings’ five complaints weren’t in the integrity commissioner’s jurisdiction.
The two remaining complaints were dismissed for lack of merit.
Mr. Cummings has objected to council’s May 10 decision to expand Norfolk towns’ boundaries by 1,354 acres to allow construction of 30,000 homes over 25 years.
In addition to his failed complaints to the integrity commissioner, the Waterford paralegal has asked Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to compel Norfolk County to release decades of traffic, water and sewage studies connected to development applications in Waterford.
In July, he also asked the court to review council’s deliberations and correspondence with Queen’s Park regarding the proposed boundary adjustments.
Mr. Cummings was on the agenda to speak at last Tuesday’s council committee meeting.
However, he did not appear.
Mr. Meneses declined to say why Mr. Cummings did not appear at the meeting.
—
Originally published December 18, 2024
