The controversial Thundering Waters proposal continues to be a lighting rod as another heated exchange between Councillor Carolynn Ioanonni and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Ken Todd occurred at last night’s Niagara Falls City Council meeting.
The two clashed over who knew what and when regarding bio-diversity off-setting, a controversial concept associated with Thundering Waters, that would have seen Provincially significant wetlands recreated elsewhere on the property to accommodate aspects of the development.
Last night, Councillor Ioanonni highlighted comments written by the city's Director of Planning, Alex Herlovitch that indicated staff at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) did not support the science of bio-diversity offsetting.
The correspondence to the developer’s representative suggests that they avail themselves of their political contacts, including those at the municipality, if they wanted the secondary phase of their plan to gain support.
Two months after the correspondence, NPCA Board Chair Bruce Timms and then CAO Carmen D'Angelo appeared at an April 2016 council meeting, proposing the Thundering Waters land as a potential location for a pilot project on bio-diversity offsetting.
Council that evening deferred a decision on the controversial concept as a planning application from the developer had yet to come before them.
Ioannoni believes the CAO had a responsibility to inform Council at the 2016 meeting that NPCA staff did not support bio-diversity offsetting, a conclusion first uncovered in the September 2018 Auditor General’s report.
Ioannoni: ”It is your job as CAO to tell this council that what they were saying is true or not.”
Todd shot back "how do I know that that's true, I don't know what their board activities are councillor, that's not my job."
This is not the first time the two have clashed.
An inquiry conducted by an external lawyer, which cost the municipality $55,000, was launched into whether Todd called Ioanonni a bitch under his breath at a June 2016 Council meeting.
The related report concluded that both Todd and Ioannoni violated city policies but did not determine whether the epithet was uttered.
Ioannoni continues to maintain that it was.
