Municipal information request response times vary widely

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How easy is it to obtain public information from municipal governments?

A month ago, the Windsor Star set out to find out.

Emails were sent to every municipal chief administrative officer in Windsor and Essex County, requesting basic information that should be readily available to the public.

Response times from the municipal governments varied widely but, eventually, all provided answers to questions around integrity issues, taxes, development fees and incentives, budgets and number of employees.

Response times from municipalities varied widely.

On Day 1, administration in Lakeshore, Tecumseh, Leamington, LaSalle and the County of Essex all acknowledged receipt of the request.

Later that day, responses to all the questions were sent by LaSalle’s CAO Joe Milicia.

Amherstburg CAO John Miceli followed on Day 2. Day 3 brought responses from Kingsville CAO John Norton, County of Essex CAO Mike Galloway and Leamington CAO Peter Neufeld.

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On the next business day following the weekend, Tecumseh CAO Margaret Misek-Evans provided the information.

A week after the first request for information was sent, a second email was dispatched to the four remaining municipalities that had yet to respond — Windsor, Lakeshore, Town of Essex and Pelee Island.

Windsor’s new CAO Jason Reynar replied immediately. Six days later, Lakeshore CAO Truper McBride came through with the requested information.

That left the Town of Essex and Pelee Island.

This time, phone calls were made.

Pelee Island CAO Janice Hensel explained that the township was having internet issues and asked that the questions be emailed again.

Essex CAO Chris Nepszy could not be reached so a voicemail message was left.

Six days later, the Star sent a third email to Essex and Pelee Island administrators who responded that day.

Nepszy was the sole chief administrative officer who answered the questions by providing only links to reports on the town’s website.

Population numbers are taken from the 2016 census (the 2021 census is underway). Some communities provided updated population figures but for a comparison we’ve used the 2016 numbers.

Employee totals include administration, full- and part-time staff, but exclude seasonal hires and volunteer firefighters.

LaSalle and Windsor employ municipal police forces with Windsor contracted to provide municipal policing in Amherstburg. The remainder of the county utilizes the services of the OPP.

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The county’s 842 employees include 398 Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Service personnel, who serve the entire county and the city, and 320 staff members at Sun Parlour long-term care home in Leamington.

The county population was 181,530 in 2016.

Windsor had a population of 213,985. There are approximately 3,200 people employed by the city.

Amherstburg’s population was 21,936. The town employs 154.

Essex had 20,427 residents. Employees number 85.

In Kingsville, there were 21,552 residents. There are 60 employees.

Lakeshore had 36,611 residents in 2016. It has 271 employees.

LaSalle registered 30,180 in the census. It has 150 employees.

Leamington’s population was 27,595. There are 251 people employed by the municipality.

Pelee Island has the lowest population at 235 permanent residents. Numbers swell during the summer months when cottagers and tourists arrive. There are about eight staff.

Tecumseh’s population was 23,229. It has 122 employees.

Municipal governments charge development fees on new construction, helping to pay for infrastructure and services associated with growth, including for roads, parks and recreation, water and wastewater, fire and police protection, libraries and transit.

Fees vary according to the type of residential building or commercial space being constructed and where the construction is located in the municipality.

The County of Essex does not charge development fees.

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Occasionally, municipalities offer incentives to attract developers. Incentives take various forms but can include waiving of fees, grants, incremental property tax increase grants or building rehabilitation loans.

LaSalle has a “development charge holiday” on multi-residential units, while Kingsville, Tecumseh and Pelee Island limit incentives to community improvement plan areas.

Amherstburg is currently developing a plan.

Every municipality sets annual operating and capital budgets and collects property taxes.

The Star set out to compare the amount of taxes a residential property owner pays on $100,000 of property value in Windsor and each municipality and what the county collects.

Leamington’s Neufeld offered a lengthy explanation of what he called “meaningful comparisons of tax rates.”

He said differing house values or assessments between municipalities, various service levels, infrastructure investments, debts, deficits, debt servicing and reserve levels as well as the urban/rural/commercial/industrial makeup all contribute to the tax rates.

“These variables and differences within the region require a different tax rate structure by municipalities to provide similar or more services,” Neufeld wrote.

“To not give consideration to the above noted factors while comparing local tax rates could lead to misleading conclusions some see as the affordability of one community in comparison to another.”

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Taxes

*Amount of tax paid on residential property value of $100,000 

The size and composition of a municipality, the age of its infrastructure, the community’s needs for services, all contribute to the size of its capital and operating budgets.

The Star asked each municipality’s CAO for the 2020 and 2021 total capital budget amounts and total operating budget amounts.

Operating Budget

Municipality                     2020                    2021

And, finally, all local municipal governments employ the services of an integrity commissioner.

Advising council on issues of conduct and ensuring complaints against municipal representatives are investigated, the integrity commissioner also determines if a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, if it has merit and if it requires further investigation or can be resolved in some other way.

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Sanctions can be recommended, if warranted, but councils have the final say on what happens.

Annual public reports are produced, although they do not typically include the nature of complaints. Reports for 2020 have not yet been received by most municipalities.

Leamington had one complaint in 2019 but it was determined it did not warrant further investigation.

There was a question in 2019 around gifts given to councillors in Essex that the commissioner determined did not offend the code of conduct. Recently, the commissioner dealt with multiple complaints from the public around a councillor’s controversial COVID-19 tweets.

Amherstburg’s integrity commissioner dealt with 10 complaints from July 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019, all involving members of council.

Three files resulted in letters of admonition to a councillor, two reports were issued and five were discontinued or dismissed.

Two more complaints were filed during the first eight months of 2020 — one was resolved informally and the investigation is ongoing for the second.

Windsor reports its integrity commissioner has “not brought any further investigation reports from December 2019 to the present date.” The remaining municipalities reported no complaints filed over the last two years.

jkotsis@postmedia.com

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