At its meeting Monday night with less than one month to go before the Oct. 24 Elliot Lake municipal election, city council will entertain a Notice of Motion from Coun. Ed Pearce.
He's asking for full cost disclosure of the money city taxpayers have spent over the last four years on Integrity Commissioner (IC) costs.
Pearce remains before Small Claims Court where he's suing the city, former city IC E4m Solutions Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie and two lawyers and their associated firms in Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie.
He wants someone to pay the Ontario Court of Appeals awarded costs along with punitive damages, after he was forced to defend himself when opposing lawyers and E4m appealed an earlier court decision that found him guilty of a conflict of interest while on the council.
Pearce is seeking $35,000 in Small Claims. So far, none of those being sued, neither the city, nor E4m nor two lawyers and their respective firms, have accepted responsibility for making the court-ordered payment to Pearce.
On Monday night, Pearce is presenting the notice of motion in which he plans to ask the council for a full costing of legal fees and other money that Elliot Lake taxpayers have shelled out related to all IC investigations.
He alleges that incorrect information is being disseminated publicly about the hundreds of thousands of dollars the city has spent to date on these files.
Pearce wants to make sure Elliot Lake citizens know the real costs of each of the IC cases the city has been involved with, along with projected costs going forward and associated future spending implications.
The full text of Pearce's Notion of Motion follows below:
September 26 Notice of Motion:
Whereas over the last four years, the City of Elliot Lake has had numerous inquiries, investigations and charges brought against sitting members of council for breaching Council’s Code of Conduct and/or the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act,
and Whereas the City of Elliot Lake has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for the subsequent investigations and court proceedings, and Whereas incorrect or exaggerated information is being disseminated in public forums,
and Whereas it is in the public interest to know the real cost involved in each of these cases and so be better informed as to the impact these cases have had on the finances of the city and their implications going forward,
It is hereby resolved that staff be directed to bring a fulsome report to the next Council meeting detailing the costs for the various Integrity Commissioners, their investigations, the cost for the law firms involved and any other costs associated with the Integrity Commissioners’ regimes during the life of this council.
And I so move.
Monday night's council meeting will be live-streamed on the city's website at 7 p.m.