The Mayor of Niagara Falls has responded to a report by the provincial Ombudsman that took Niagara Falls council to task for holding a closed door meeting to discuss a controversial post secondary campus funding application.
Jim Diodati spoke to CKTB's Tim Denis this morning.
He says they were unaware the February 2015 meeting violated the terms of the Municipal Act for closed door sessions of council.
Diodati says they had the exact same thing happen in a 2013 meeting, where the Ombudsman investigated but they did not receive the findings from the provincial watchdog until after the 2015 meeting.
The Ombudsman's report also states that "during the meeting, council discussed the financial contribution that would be expected from the city if the project were to proceed, as well as various properties where the development could be located. These discussions were preliminary and high level because council had limited details about the proposal and did not know whether the funding application would be accepted. Council did not consider how the properties were to be appraised or sold, and the city was not engaged in negotiations to dispose of the properties. This meeting did not fall within the “acquisition or disposition of land” exception, or any exception, to the Municipal Act’s open meeting requirements. Further, because the meeting was not permitted to be closed to the public under the Municipal Act, council was not entitled to vote in closed session on a resolution directing staff to proceed with the partnership."
Diodati says they did discuss committing $10 million to the project, but he notes council only agreed to commit the money in principle to further the application.
The Mayor adding any final decision on whether to spend the money on a downtown university campus would have been voted on in open council.