Vaughan
November 22, 2008 10:06 PM
Caroline Grech
More questions are surfacing around two cheques Vaughan Regional Councillor Joyce Frustaglio signed more than a year ago, but this time it’s the longtime politician asking the questions.
A day after the Vaughan Citizen reported on an anonymous package that included copies of cheques the politician signed to her son’s two companies, Ms Frustaglio angrily said she is taking the issue to the city’s integrity commissioner herself.
“First of all, I’m the one that’s going to call an investigation. I’m the one that’s going to take it to the police and I’m the one that’s going to the integrity commissioner, because whoever got these cheques committed a criminal act as far as I’m concerned,” Ms Frustaglio said, vowing to get to the bottom of it. “This is becoming a very, very seedy frightening environment to be quite honest with you.”
Ms Frustaglio reiterated that she was not involved in the approval of the invoices or the work done by son Steve Frustaglio’s companies Vitrilex Surfaces Inc. and SLF General Conracting Ltd. Ms Frustaglio said her son is a sub-contractor and didn’t appear in front of council on these jobs.
Ms Frustaglio’s comments come a day after Mayor Linda Jackson called for an investigation into the matter.
But while the mayor is calling for an investigation, not all councillors agree.
Tony Carella thinks the situation is more embarrassing than a conflict of interest.
“The embarrassment is the worst thing about it. Somebody who delivers an anonymous package to your office has an axe to grind. They sought to embarrass,” Mr. Carella said. “Has she done anything illegal? It’s not a conflict of interest.”
Mr. Carella said that there is a process where cheques are vetted through several people before it reaches the mayor’s office.
“My advice to her to is next time look what you sign. I don’t think this requires an investigation.”
The city’s code of ethical conduct is now under review and is expected to come before council for approval in the spring.
It has a clause in it that says: “The decisions that a councillor makes will be based on the proper best interest of the municipality, without consideration of personal gain. He/She believes that personal glorification or profit secured through the misuse of his/her position or through misuse of public time is dishonest and therefore unacceptable.”
The city does have a nepotism policy, spokesperson Madeline Zito said, adding the policy prohibits staff members from having family members work directly with their relatives.
While some councillors don’t believe an investigation should happen, York University political science professor Robert MacDermid said the issue is one that should be handled by the integrity commissioner.
“It strikes me that the most obvious thing is that the integrity commissioner should be looking at something like this. The councillors have a code of conduct. They’re expected to follow that. There’s a complaint process that can lead to the integrity comissioner ruling on whether that is appropriate behaviour or not,” Mr. MacDermid said.
Councillor Alan Shefman admitted the code of ethical conduct needs some work and Vaughan politicians are in the process of refining it.
“The code of conduct as it stood was a very good document for when it was approved many years ago. But things have changed with respect to integrity and accountability at the municipal level. We see the need to revise it,” Mr. Shefman said.
He added that he is concerned with how the cheques were made public.
“How did that cheque with the signature get out in the public? That’s a really significant issue and one that, really, I’m just appalled by. Where it would have come from,” Mr. Shefman said. “From my perspective, there’s only very few places that could have come from.”
Councillor Peter Meffe said the issue is whether or not there was involvement in the approval process.
“If Joyce played a role in the approval process, if she played a role in that, then certainly that’s not appropriate,” Mr. Meffe said. “I’ve never seen this come to council. My position is you shouldn’t be duly involved in influencing any decision of staff when it comes to tenders and you should follow the conflict of interest guidelines period.”
Mr. Meffe added that for jobs such as the ones Ms Frustaglio’s son’s companies were paid for, small items don’t often come to council, which would not have given an opportunity for the regional councillor to declare an interest.
“It’s a sideshow and the people who wrote the script have no interests in serving the best interests of the residents,” Mr. Meffe said.
Councillors such as Ms Frustaglio, who hope to have the integrity commissioner deal with the issue, are out of luck.
As of Friday, city integrity commissioner W.B. Weissglass resigned due to health reasons.
“His resignation is strictly for health issues that are personal. Strictly health issues that are personal,” city spokesperson Ms Zito said. “He’s been a wonderful asset to Vaughan. He put into place a complaint protocol.”
Mr. Weissglass was hired in April.
The mayor was unavailable to comment.