Article content

Not even 18 months into his five-year contract, David Boghosian has left his position as the city’s integrity commissioner.

Article content

Council voted 7-6 during its meeting Tuesday to end the municipality’s relationship with the Toronto-based lawyer.

District 11 County. Bill Leduc introduced the motion the same night Boghosian filed a report after receiving complaints about posts allegedly made by the councilman on Facebook.

Boghosian said he had no jurisdiction to investigate the complaints; However, he criticized the posts and encouraged voters to make their opinions known in 2026.

“If the Count. In fact, Leduc shared these posts, he did so in his personal capacity. The conduct alleged in the complaints is not sufficiently related to city business to justify a finding of noncompliance with the Code of Conduct,” Boghosian wrote, calling one of the posts transphobic and beneath the dignity of a council member in exercise.

Article content

“Count. Leduc claims he did not post this and that someone hacked into his account to set it up,” the IC informed the council. “This decision means that the Code of Conduct does not apply in the particular circumstances of this case, but it does not mean that residents of Greater Sudbury have no recourse. “This is an issue that can be addressed at the polls.”

Leduc’s motion noted that Tom Davies Square has been “dissatisfied with the services provided by David Boghosian as the city’s integrity commissioner.”

He asked Eric Labelle, the city clerk, to provide Boghosian with “180 days’ written notice of the termination of his services.”

Leduc said he was concerned about Boghosian’s compliance with the accuracy.

“During the course of contracting with Mr. Boghosian, I found several discrepancies, inconsistencies and misleading information in his reports,” Leduc told his colleagues. “It is important that the reports have accurate information. The reports are live documents on our website, which could reappear and hinder the city council or even our municipality in the event of a possible investigation from external sources.”

Article content

Article content

Leduc said Boghosian had even accused staff of being negligent in reporting information to the council.

“This is clearly out of line; We would not tolerate anyone throwing staff under the bus,” Leduc said.

He also took umbrage with Boghosian’s comments about the polls and said the IC had a tendency to insert its own opinions into its reports.

Leduc also commented that Boghosian was wasting taxpayer money by filing reports based on investigations that went nowhere. For example, he said Tuesday that the IC submitted two reports to the council indicating there were no irregularities and no jurisdiction to investigate.

“I think these reports have been a distraction to the council and the public,” Leduc said, adding that he hoped ending the relationship with Boghosian would allow the council to focus its attention on “the biggest issues for our city and our residents.”

Article content

District 7 County. Natalie Labbee criticized Boghosian and supported Leduc’s motion.

Labbee had been investigated twice by the IC. Earlier this year, he recommended a 20-day pay suspension over comments she made on Facebook regarding pay increases for some city administrators and directors. Then on Tuesday he recommended a five-day suspension for comments Labbee made about a $5 dumping fee.

In both cases, the council voted against their recommendations.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Labbee criticized Boghosian.

“I supported the motion made to relieve the IC because I have growing concerns about the form and content of the reports presented to the council to date,” he said. “There has been at least one case of breach of privacy against a member of the public who made a complaint against one of the councilors earlier this year.”

Article content

Labbee said Boghosian had also revealed the name of a community member in one of his reports, even though the individual was never under investigation.

“Your online conduct or behaviors are not governed by the city’s Code of Conduct; “They are irrelevant to the process and did not deserve to have their name associated in any way, painting them in a negative light, but it happened and it is not correct or professional,” Labbee said. “That person specifically requested that Mr. Boghosian have his name removed from the public record of the report as well as the clerk’s office and that request was ignored or denied.”

Labbee said on several occasions that Boghosian’s reports contained “errors, omissions, personal anecdotes, mischaracterizations and opinions” that have negatively impacted the council.

Article content

“Those comments and summaries have unfairly contributed to compromising our public opinion as elected officials and, as a result, our level of competence and integrity,” he said. “These incidents are not unique to Greater Sudbury; several other communities are also experiencing this; as is well documented. I look forward to the province’s ruling on a better process, rather than what we have before us currently, where we are pitted against our peers in making decisions about sanctions and how they work.”

Leduc said IC reports should be brief and to the point.

“We don’t want reports to be long in nature, costing the taxpayer unnecessary money,” he said.

As Labelle noted, Boghosian doesn’t have much experience as an integrity commissioner. Labelle said when Greater Sudbury hired Boghosian in June 2023, he had another CI contract. Boghosian signed the contract in 2023 for five years.

Article content

District 10 Coun. Fern Cormier argued that the primary function of any IC is to “discover the facts”; However, Boghosian inserted his opinions and perspectives into many of his reports.

“A fact finder must present facts, so if there has been a violation, tell me what the allegation is, what the Code of Conduct says about that allegation, and then connect the dots and tell me why a sanction should be imposed.” Cormier said, adding that to date, he has found Boghosian’s reports to be “exceptionally commentative in their delivery.”

He said, paragraph after paragraph, he talked about “what you think about the position that an elected official has taken, I have a problem with that,” Cormier told his colleagues. But he said he was not willing to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Article content

District 4 County. Pauline Fortin had a business mind about the council election. He said that while a motion was passed to “fix some of the policies” regarding the IC, he believed the problem stemmed from Boghosian himself and his tendency to deviate from proper procedure.

“The integrity commissioner is a contractor and if you are not satisfied with the work of one contractor, you look for a new contractor,” he said.

Leduc, Labbee, Fortin, District 2 Count. Eric Benoit, District 3, Coun. Michel Brabant, District 5 Coun. Mike Parent and District 12 County. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann all voted in favor of dismissal.

Mayor Paul Lefebvre, District 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti, District 6, County. Rene Lapierre, District 8, County. Al Sizer, District 9, County. Deb McIntosh and Cormier voted against Leduc’s motion.

[email protected]

X: @marykkeown

Facebook: @mkkeown

Article content