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Centre Wellington council strikes down proposed legal fee reimbursement bylaw

Originally meant to look at reimbursing legal fees from last year's integrity commissioner investigation, some councillors found the bylaw too broadly written and had potential to create more division
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Centre Wellington's municipal building at 1 Macdonald Square, Elora. Keegan Kozolanka/GuelphToday file photo

CENTRE WELLINGTON – Centre Wellington council has struck down a bylaw that would have expanded legal fee coverage for councillors, including fees incurred from integrity commissioner investigations. 

Currently, councillors have some legal fee coverage through township insurance but a costly investigation by its ntegrity commissioner resulted in council directing staff to bring such a bylaw forward.

In June 2019, mayor Kelly Linton had made an integrity commissioner complaint about councillor Stephen Kitras over an email accusing the mayor of rewarding contributors to his 2018 election campaign with positions on an advisory committee. 

This email was sent to some current and former council members and some members of the public. 

Kitras was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by an integrity commissioner report after incurring almost $2,000 in legal fees to defend himself for which he was not reimbursed.

The mayor noted to council that the report also proved allegations made by Kitras were false. 

The bylaw in question covered all councillors and staff legal fees with some exceptions. Lawyer Kevin Thompson said to council this was in line with other municipalities who have overarching legal compensation policies that are not specific to integrity commissioner investigations.

Linton said he was against the bylaw as it was written because he didn’t think councillors should be reimbursed for defending their poor behaviour.

“I’d only be in favour of such a bylaw if a complaint that was filed was declared by the integrity commissioner as frivolous,” Linton said to council. “I’d never support a bylaw that would reimburse a member of council just because that person had to invest time and money that was a direct result of their initial malicious behaviour.”

Councillor Kirk McElwain expressed to council that he didn’t think the accuser should be compensated and it could set a bad precedence.

“I think it gives another opportunity for that person to say ‘Oh it doesn’t cost me anything so I may as well take it to court,’” McElwain said. “I think it’s not really addressing the issue we were trying to address here.”

Kitras was careful in his discussion as he was only allowed to participate because they weren’t directly deciding if he would be compensated for legal fees incurred. Kitras also said he had issues with the way the bylaw is written.

“It’s written so that we will be needing lawyers more and it will be incurring costs to the taxpayers,” Kitras said and noted thousands had already been spent on this investigation. “I find this bylaw as it is written will incur more and more costs and it will actually incur more division.”

Councillor Bob Foster, McElwain, Kitras and mayor Linton voted against this bylaw, defeating it 4-3.


Keegan Kozolanka

About the Author: Keegan Kozolanka

Keegan Kozolanka is a general assignment reporter for EloraFergusToday, covering Wellington County. Keegan has been working with Village Media for more than two years and helped launch EloraFergusToday in 2021.
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