Being a municipal integrity commissioner in Ontario is lucrative work.
ICs are billing anywhere between $225 to $290 per hour.
Recently reported annual billing rates include $59,000 in Grimsby, $77,000 in Niagara Falls, $40,000 in North Shore, $39,698.44 in Chatham-Kent, and $94,000 in Kingston.
One IC recently charged $27,000 for a three-page-long report.
ICs have dozens of municipalities on their rosters, and can easily obtain seven-figure revenues with a few associate lawyers working on investigations.
(Tony Fleming is IC for about 80 municipalities.)
This is why it is surprising that no lawyers or firms bid on the contract for Welland.
As reported by Metroland’s Dave Johnson, “no one applied for the position.”
Johnson’s been reporting extensively on the numerous IC investigations involving Welland Councillor Tony DiMarco.
DiMarco is prohibited from engaging with Welland’s CAO following his verbal attacks on the CAO’s integrity, cannot attend City Hall without the mayor’s permission, and is banished from in-person attendance at Council meetings. He’s frequently booted from video meetings.
DiMarco called the mayor an A-Hole in 2023. (Video on YouTube)
Among the most sanctioned councillors in Ontario, DiMarco appears to be so unmanageable that nobody wants the job, even with the guaranteed billing of investigating a man who says, ‘nothing is going to change me.’
Welland is well known for it’s transparency.