Niagara Falls council taunts Ontario Ombudsman, hikes fee for filing complaints against themselves to $1,000

Ignoring advice from the Ontario Ombudsman, legal experts and advocates, Niagara Falls City Council waived its normal rules of procedure and voted to double the cost to file a complaint against municipal elected officials, from $500 to $1,000, at the request of an unelected councillor.

The decision Tuesday evening further insulates council members in Niagara Falls from accountability—no matter how disturbing their behaviour is, short of a criminal investigation, nothing will be done unless a member of the public puts up a thousand dollars. 

The latest move is part of a City Hall culture opposed to the rules of Council’s Code of Conduct, which is supposed to govern the behaviour of elected members who are supposed to adhere to its strict rules. 

Instead, the decision to charge $1,000, prevents council members from being held to the high standards the Code of Conduct establishes. They can now, effectively, behave badly with little worry of a complaint being brought against them. 

On Tuesday, Councillor Vince Kerrio—who was appointed to fill a council vacancy last year after he lost his seat in the 2022 election—walked a motion onto the council floor requesting the fee to file an integrity commissioner complaint be hiked to $1,000 ahead of the municipal election this fall. He made it clear this was to prevent complaints from the public and, as a result, block scrutiny of council’s behaviour before voters head to the polls in October. Kerrio was also responsible for the decision to increase the fee to $500 last term. 

“The silly season is going to start,” he said. “I’m sure that a whole bunch of these (complaints) are going to come out of the woodwork, again. That’s why I wanted to address it now, prior to the next election.”

Kerrio did not answer questions from The Pointer. 

City Clerk Bill Matson informed council members that while there is nothing within existing legislation preventing them from increasing the fee, he indicated it would not be supported by the Ontario Ombudsman. 

“Obviously this council has heard from the Ombudsman in the past, the City of Niagara Falls I believe does have one of the higher, if not the highest fees,” Matson said. Most Ontario municipalities, in accordance with the Ombudsman’s direction, either charge no fee, or a minimal one around $20, to cover basic administrative costs (Mississauga, for example, like the vast majority of municipalities in Ontario, does not charge any fee).

This didn’t deter Kerrio, who is also responsible for a motion last month to charge local resident Joedy Burdett $4,000 after he filed a complaint against all of council.

Experts have questioned whether the motion is even legal. Ontario’s Ombudsman has repeatedly provided clear direction to municipalities, that such fees undermine the very essence of the integrity commissioner’s accountability function.

In August, the Ombudsman gave the City of Hamilton its Good Governance Award for its decision to remove the $100 fee it previously had in place to file integrity commissioner complaints. 

“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,” Dubé wrote in a press release. 

“As far as the Ombudsman goes, if he wants to come up and help us pay our legal fees I’m glad to wipe out the $500 even,” Kerrio said.

Niagara Falls Councillor Vince Kerrio introduced a surprise motion Tuesday evening to increase the fee for filing integrity commissioner complaints against members of council from $500 to $1,000.

(City of Niagara Falls)

Council members claim the integrity commissioner filing fee is essential to prevent frivolous complaints from individuals with “personal vendettas” against council members, which they claim cost the municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars. While not mentioned by name, council members have recently expressed frustration with resident Joedy Burdett, who recently filed a complaint against Councillor Mike Strange for using his local connections to try and block advocates with Women of Ontario Say No from attending a council meeting last year. 

Strange is currently facing a criminal charge for allegedly assaulting his intimate partner. He has denied any wrongdoing in the case which goes to trial in April. 

Burdett also filed a complaint against all of council for blocking his attempts to delegate before them. 

In December, council members were told that between 2021 and April 2024, complaints from Burdett cost the municipality approximately $144,955. Matson shared this figure during a council meeting, citing a report from the legal department completed in 2024. It’s unclear how many complaints are included in this cost. Matson also said that since April 2024, three other complaints have been filed by Burdett, all were dismissed, and cost the municipality $35,318. 

Looking at costs in isolation is not a good indicator of the measure of a municipality’s accountability system, experts say. If a complaint requires thorough investigation by the integrity commissioner, it suggests there are legitimate grounds for filing the complaint. 

“There would be no reason for an integrity commissioner to investigate a complaint unless they thought there were reasonable and probable grounds to believe that a contravention may have occurred.” Rebecca Hines, a Toronto-based lawyer who works as a municipal integrity commissioner, previously told The Pointer

In Burdett’s complaint against Strange, Maynard ignored key pieces of evidence when making his decision to dismiss it. Strange’s efforts to bribe members of the Falls View Hose Brigade with pizza and beer to attend City Hall to block out WOSN members clearly violated council’s Code of Conduct requirement to 

“at all times conduct themselves with decorum” and ensure a “decision-making process of Council” that is “open, accessible and equitable and respects the City’s governance structure.” 

Strange spoke in favour of Kerrio’s motion, claiming it will stop residents from filing complaints that would “bankrupt the city”.  

“It’s ridiculous. It’s a waste of staff time, it’s a waste of the integrity commissioner’s time, and it’s a waste of money that we need.”

The assertion that every complaint comes with an exorbitant cost is not supported by experts, even those who work as integrity commissioners in other municipalities.

“If what you’re really trying to do is prevent frivolous and vexatious complaints, the mechanism is through the integrity commissioner and their preliminary review and intake process,” Hines says, adding it does not take long to determine whether complaints have merit, meaning they require very little time, or money. 

According to Matson, the 12-page report delivered by Maynard dismissing Burdett’s complaint against Strange cost $6,183.97. 

This information may form part of a staff report Niagara Falls councillors had requested, and according to CAO Jason Burgess, was set to be delivered to council at its next meeting. He suggested councillors hold off on voting to increase the fee until they could review the requested report. 

“If the timing wasn't urgent we could be very clean with the process,” he said.

Councillor Lori Lococo, who voted against the motion alongside Councillor Mona Patel, told her fellow elected officials she was not supportive of the increase, and advised it would be better to have a vote after staff’s report on this issue came to council. 

“I would hate to see that we changed it, that it is so unreachable for anybody, just because of one or two people who are putting in a complaint,” she said, noting that other municipalities in Ontario have much smaller fees, just to cover administrative costs, and some have no fee at all. 

“The Ombudsman clearly directed us not to have such a high fee,” she said.

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé wrote to Niagara Falls City Council in February 2023 indicating that his office had received complaints regarding the $500 fee. He made it clear there should be no fee at all. 

“Charging a fee to complain 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.”

It’s not the first time Dubé has addressed the issue with fees for complaints generally. 

“While some municipalities have chosen to implement a complaint fee, my Office has publicly denounced this practice as it penalizes complainants for exercising their statutory rights, and may prevent legitimate complaints from being brought forward due to concerns about financial cost,” he wrote previously. 

Officials in the Ombudsman’s office declined to comment on Kerrio’s motion, but reaffirmed previous statements to the municipality. 

“I can confirm that the Ombudsman continues to stand by the position that there should be no fee for filing complaints to an integrity commissioner,” Linda Williamson, the director of communications for the Ombudsman’s office, said. 

Williamson also pointed to the Ombudsman’s Codes of Conduct and Integrity Commissioners: Guide for Municipalities, which explains:

“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. He 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.’” 

Councillor Lori Lococo voted against the motion to increase the filing fee for integrity commissioner complaints to $1,000.

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer files) 

Along with the now $1,000 fee, Niagara Falls also does not allow any person who is not a resident of the city to file complaints. This was recently an issue after Mayor Jim Diodati had a trio of peaceful protestors arrested inside council chambers. Two of them were barred from filing complaints as they did not live in Niagara Falls—despite being directly impacted by the mayor’s actions.

“Under his leadership, the City of Niagara Falls has put up barrier after barrier to avoid accountability. This isn’t about saving taxpayers money — it's about avoiding scrutiny,” Niagara Regional Councillor Haley Bateman previously told The Pointer. Bateman was one of the women arrested at the request of the mayor.  “His antics are unbecoming of a mayor…The public should be paying close attention as these events continue to unfold.”

Kerrio dismissed the $1,000 as being a real financial barrier, suggesting that if residents had a concern they could “get together and raise the money” or start up a GoFundMe page. 

“If they win, they get all their money back,” he said. “They should be putting up a fee, and they should be putting up a bond, so if they lose they cover the taxpayers’ cost as well.”

Kerrio is a long-time politician in Niagara Falls who, before losing his seat in the 2022 municipal election, had served on council from 1980 to 1985 and then since 2003. He finished 10th in the 2022 election with 5,471 votes. After the passing of former councillor Wayne Campbell in February last year, Kerrio was appointed to fill his vacant seat for the remainder of the term. 

On Tuesday, Burgess told councillors they would need to waive procedural rules in order to vote on the motion, which did not form part of the public agenda ahead of the meeting. This meant neither staff, nor members of the public, had a chance to review it ahead of Kerrio introducing the surprise motion. 

Council ignored this recommendation and voted to abandon its established rules and approve the motion anyway. 

It was seconded by Councillor Ruth-Ann Nieuwesteeg and supported by Councillors Chris Dabrowski, Tony Baldinelli, Victor Pietrangelo and Strange. It’s unclear how Mayor Diodati voted.

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