Niagara regional council is 75% new - and the public is watching

Laura Ip is used to a fight. And when December hits, she'll have a big one.

Ip, founderof the Underdogs Boxing Club, is part of an elected Niagara Region council where all but eightof its 31members are new. On Oct. 22, Niagara residents booted out 75 per cent of council, demanding accountable politicianswith transparent motives.

Now the new council has to deliver.

The previous council was plagued with scandals, including allegations of cronyism and bullying of citizens andmedia. Ip pledged transparency, and won.

Now, "we've got an expense policy we have to fix," she said. "We've got the code of conduct we've got to fix. We've got the election of the chair."

"We can't take a year to learn all of these things before we start taking action. There are some things we've going to have to take action on right away in order to communicate to the public that they can, in fact, trust us."

The regional council turnover in Niagara is unprecedented, says David Siegel, a Brock University political scientist. But it wasn't a surprise.

Niagara residents have become increasingly angry, for example, at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA), which has regional councillors on its board.

There's a perception, says regional councillor-elect Jim Bradley, that the NPCA ismore interested in money than protecting natural resources.

Anauditor general report this year found the NPCAhad "significant operational issues." Those included board members who overstepped their bounds. Resident Ed Smith also compiled a report critical of the authority, and the authority sued him.

There were issues with the media too. Last December, for example, regional staff called the police on St. Catharines Standard reporter Bill Sawchuk. Sawchuk, they alleged, was secretly recording an in-camera session. An Ontario Ombudsman investigation found that he wasn't, and his removal was "unjust and wrong."

Then this spring, the Standard published a series of investigative articles around the hiring of CAOCarmen D'Angelo. Regional chair Alan Caslin, it says, gave D'Angelothequestions before his job interview. Then Caslin, the Standard reported, unilaterally extended D'Angelo's contract.

People paid attention. During the campaign, "people were angry," Ip said. "And they knew exactly why they were angry."

Caslin ran for regional council reelection in St. Catharines. He placed 20th out of 23 candidates. Sandy Annunziata, the Fort Erie regional councillor who chaired the NPCA, suffered a surprise loss to a political newbie.

"There's never been that much turnover before on council," Siegel said. "There was really quite a clean sweep here, and honestly, I think some good people were swept out with the bad."

'Number of missteps'

Bruce Timms, a 27-year regional councillor, lost his race. He'sreflective now about the"number of missteps" the public found unforgivable.

D'Angelo's hiring, Timms said, was "very badly handled." And the NPCA, which Timms has chaired, shouldn't have taken Smith to court.

Timms said he and others wanted the regional chair to be elected at large. Right now, it's selected among council ranks. Niagara expected a public regional chair election this time, but Premier Doug Ford called it off when he adjusted the size of Toronto city council.

"I'm disappointed," Timms said,"because the restructuring of the region needs to continue."

As for his own future, he doesn't think he'll run again. "I'm 65," he said. "I'm retired from most things."

Public will be watching

Bradley is a former 41-year St. Catharines MPP unseated by June's anti-Liberal tide. Residents are writing letters urging the new council to elect Bradley aschair.

Bradley is interested. He's a diplomat, he said. That's what council needs right now.

"There has been a lot of disruption over the last four years," he said. "There are genuine problems that have existed here."

Right away, he said, the new council has to show a course correction.

"The public is going to be looking for that."