Integrity Commissioner Finds Deputy Warden Higgins Breached County Code of Conduct

Jeff Green | Jun 22, 2022

(Editors note - This version differs from the article that appears in the print edition. There were 4 lost paragraphs in the print edition version. They appear in italics in this version for print readers coming to frontenacnews.ca for clarification)

Frontenac County CAO Kelly Pender was not satisfied with the apology offered by Deputy Warden (and Mayor of North Frontenac) Ron Higgins in response to a report by the County's Integrity Commissioner.

The Integrity Commissioner's report, prepared by Meaghan Barrett of Aird Berlis LLP, was prepared in response to a complaint that was levied by Pender, acting on behalf of county staff, in response to emails that Higgins had sent to Joe Gallivan, the county's Director of Planning and Economic Development, this past January and February.

The Integrity Commissioner's report addressed a series of allegations of contraventions of the code of conduct, for members of Frontenac County Council, 9 in all, and in 8 of those cases the Barrett report concluded that the complaints were not substantiated and were therefore dismissed.

These complaints included allegations that Higgins made misleading statements, failed to accurately report on the decisions of council once they had been made, attempted to intimidate or pressure staff, and to make undue use of the influence of his office, and did not adhere to council procedures and policies.

The one aspect of the complaint that was accepted by Barrett is a breach of section 5.3 of the county code of conduct, that members of council “shall comply with the County’s Council and Staff Relationship Policy”.

The report concludes that by sending the emails to Joe Gallivan in the first place, Higgin's was overstepping the limits of his position as a member of council. Questions regarding the conduct of staff, or any business of the township generally, are supposed to be directed by council members to the Chief Administrative Officer and not directly to a member of township staff.

“It is evident from both the January Email and the February Email that the Deputy Warden contacted the Director directly with questions and concerns about particular files, and that he had done so in the past. The proper approach would have been to share his concerns with the CAO and/or the Warden, or to raise certain concerns in the context of a meeting of County Council,” the report concluded.

The entire matter started on January 14.

In an email to Joe Gallivan, Higgins said, among other things: “I am going to be reviewing the PPS, Official Plan, Zoning By-law and related policies and recommend changes on how we do planning in North Frontenac from policy right down to staffing and enforcement. I hope you now have a sense of how important this is to me and how it could potentially affect the county in the next term of office.”

After acknowledging that his own council did not support this initiative, Higgins said he would be doing it on his own and that he would either “file it in an admin report or use it in my upcoming campaign.”

The second email, dated February 8, centred on “Communal Servicing” an initiative that Gallivan has been pursuing, with support from Frontenac County Council, for several years, and will be the subject of a public meeting on July 13.

“Communal Servicing” is a means of freeing up specific land parcels in the county for urban style dense development by making it possible for communal modular water and sewage systems to be installed.

This kind of development has not been possible in Frontenac because, aside from the village of Sydenham, there are no municipal water systems in the county, and there are no municipal sewage systems at all.

At least two high profile projects in Frontenac County, the redevelopment of the former Sharbot Lake Public School site, and the proposed seniors housing project in Verona, would benefit from communal servicing.

While Higgins has supported the communal servicing initiative, in his email to Joe Gallivan in January, he said that he had been mislead about one aspect of it, the idea that a publicly owned arm's length corporation owned but not operated by Frontenac County, and any of the 4 Frontenac Townships who choose to participate, was the only option that could be considered.

Higgins said that the fact that privately owned communal servicing corporations are a possibility, was not adequately communicated by county staff or the consultants that were hired to work on the project.

After the February 8 email, CAO Pender sent Higgins an email, which included the following: … “your allegation has the potential to affect [the Director’s] ability to practice his profession, malign his character, and question his ethics. Your email also contains several factual inaccuracies that undermine the decisions of County Council. Such action is also a prima facie violation of the Council Code of Conduct.”

The complaint to the integrity commissioner was subsequently submitted by Pender.

At the end of the Integrity Commissioners report, the suggested remedy for Deputy Warden Higgin's breach of section 5.3 of the County Code of Conduct includes a public apology.

In his apology, which he read out at a meeting of Frontenac County Council on June 15, Higgins said, “I am now publicly apologizing to the Director of Planning in the manner that I addressed my concerns. I understand how upsetting this was for the Director. In future I will be more conscientious of how I address my concerns to the county staff and ensure I follow the chain of command and acknowledge that the CAO is the direct point of contact in such matters going forward.”

But the above was only the final sentence in an 1100-word statement that Higgins, who was home isolating because he had contracted COVID at the time, delivered to the meeting over Zoom. Joe Gallivan was not present at the meeting, live or virtually, as he was attending another meeting on behalf of the county.

The bulk of Higgins' apology included a restatement and some analysis of the matters in the two emails that led to the complaint being lodged.

Kelly Pender then responded,

“I take umbrage that the deputy warden is intimating that the option to enter into a municipal service corporation somehow eliminated the option for a private service … I take great umbrage that the deputy warden feels that staff went beyond their bounds with this, and feel that we followed the prescribed process to a T.

“Joe Gallivan takes his integrity and his responsibility to his profession as seriously as anyone who I have worked with in my 40 years of municipal service. I apologise that I am upset but I feel that the apology offered to this council by the Deputy Warden was a justification, not an apology.”

Warden Dennis Doyle then said it was time to take a break.

“We’ve been sitting here for two hours,” he said, “at public health they say you should never sit for more than one hour, so let’s take ten minutes.

When the meeting reconvened, the matter was not mentioned again.

Other items from Frontenac County Council

Nurse Call Bell System – the cost of a replacement system for the aging, and failing, call system for patients and staff at Fairmount Home, budgeted for $192,000, has come in at $328,000. Although some members of council were reluctant to approve the extra expenditure within the budget year, the view of Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith that the cost will only go up if the purchase is delayed, held sway and the matter was approved.

“I want that system to be in place before I end up there,” Smith said.

Public Meeting set for draft Business Case over communal servicing – On July 13, a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting will be held in South Frontenac to present and hear comments on the Draft Business Case, which is the next step in setting up a municipal communal service corporation in Frontenac County.

Once the business case is finalised, it will be up to Frontenac County Council to accept or reject it. If the county accepts it, any or all of the four member municipalities will decide whether or not they will opt in to the corporation.

CAO Pender said that aside from an initial investment from the municipalities who choose to participate, municipal tax dollars will not be used to maintain the corporation once it is up and running.

“It is not like a conservation authority or a municipal library system that is funded by municipal taxation. There is no mechanism in this for that kind of funding,” he said.

Clean audit – Auditors from KPMG, which has purchased the county's former auditor, Allen and Partners, delivered a 'clean audit' of the 2021 Frontenac County financial statements.