Council advised to eliminate fee for registering complaints against council
Niagara Falls city council is shelving a recommendation to eliminate a $500 filing fee when it comes to registering complaints against council.
Ontario's Ombudsman has advised council to do that.
However, Councillor Mona Patel says a filing fee causes people to rethink a potential complaint, and thus saving taxpayers money. "Real complaints will get washed up in frivolous complaints, and the cost of all the complaints will be outrageous. I can't even imagine, if we didn't have $500 fees, we'd have complaints after every meeting... 10 complaints."
Councillor Lori Lococo agrees with the Ombudsman, adding the $500 fee should be reduced.
City Clerk Bill Matson says when the fee was $200, the city spent just over $90,000, and when it rose to $500, the city spent over $135,000.
"There was roughly 8 or 9 complaints filed, when that fee was $200. Since then, in 2022, when that fee was $500, we're roughly at the same number."
He also referred to the use of fees in general, saying if there wasn't a fee to run for mayor, there would be pages of names for candidates, of people who simply want to see their name on the ballot.
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