Political push at City Hall to fire Integrity Commissioner and find replacement

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis has motioned to fire the city’s integrity commissioner due to a lack of focus on local concerns.

A planned discussion with the Integrity Commissioner could be cut short by a motion to cancel city hall’s contract with Principles Integrity.

On Tuesday, a representative of Principles Integrity will attend the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) meeting to discuss their annual report.

However, a motion by Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen would terminate the Toronto-based firm’s contract to provide Integrity Commissioner services that include education and advice to council members as well as investigating Code of Conduct complaints.

Specifically, on April 1 the City Clerk would be directed to provide the required 30-day written notice to terminate the contract, and proceed with the recruitment of a new Integrity Commissioner.

In the meantime, the City Clerk would be authorized to arrange for interim Integrity Commissioner services from another municipality.

The motion reads, “a number of factors both in this report and in earlier reports, lead us to believe that London would be better served [by finding] an alternate provider for our Integrity Commissioner services.”

“This is a company that takes pride in saying they represent 60 [or more] municipalities, but what I’ve seen from the report is not a lot of London focus, but a lot of copy and paste,” Lewis told CTV News. ”We’re getting the same reports that other cities are getting, to the point where I’ve actually seen paragraphs in documents sent to councillors that include the names of councillors in other municipalities.”

During a council meeting two weeks ago, Lewis pointed out that the “annual report” covers a period of almost two years (July, 2023 through February, 2025).

He went on to suggest some of the information provided by Principles Integrity in the annual report is problematic.

“We’re getting advice on provincial legislation - that’s not something we expect to pay an integrity commissioner for,” explains Lewis. “We’re also being told we can’t advocate for our constituents.”

Principles Integrity was hired by city council to serve as its Integrity Commissioner in June, 2023.

According to its report, since July 2023, Principles Integrity responded to 18 requests from council members for advice about the Code of Conduct and received 39 complaints.

Of those complaints, it was decided that 34 did not merit a formal investigation, two investigations resulted in reports advanced to council, and three remain under investigation.

A companion report prepared by city staff reveals that the Integrity Commissioner has cost the city $68,901.77 since June, 2023.