City council in Sudbury votes to amend complaint protocol, ending anonymity

When people lodge a complaint with Sudbury's integrity commissioner about a member of city council, they can do so anonymously. Currently, around half of complainants request anonymity, but four city council members want that changed.

Councillors Mark Signoretti, Mike Parent, Natalie Labbée and Pauline Fortin presented a motion Tuesday night to amend the city's Code of Conduct and Complaint Protocol.

The motion passed, and it essentially insists that people who submit complaints, about council members in some cases, sign their names to the complaints, and provide material about the nature of the issue. 

David Boghosian, the city's integrity commissioner, says he generally agrees with the motion.

"I think the presumption should be that a complainant should be public. Their names should be out there," he said.

"I think it's only fair to councillors in most cases that they know who their accuser is."

Boghosian is also the integrity commissioner for more than a dozen other municipalities in Ontario, and says Sudbury is "on the high side" for the number of complainants who ask to remain anonymous.

While Boghosian says he's in general agreement with the motion, he feels it goes too far, in his opinion, since it leaves no opening for anonymity when it's needed.

"I'm thinking in the case of a city employee making a complaint, or there may be circumstances, narrow circumstances, with members of the public where they have legitimate reasons not to want to be identified with respect to a particular complaint."

Boghosian has said earlier that even if council amends the protocol to demand that people identify themselves when making a complaint, the province's Municipal Act does override municipal bylaws and grants him the authority to allow a complainant anonymity if it's determined there are legitimate reasons to do so.