[All] Concerns for Potential Conflict of Interest of Board Chair

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hello everyone

The Region of Waterloo is currently appealing the OMB decision. The story was just released. Details here: 
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/877864--region-appeals-omb-decision


On December 7th I sent a letter to the Ontario Municipal Board regarding concerns for potential conflict of interest with OMB chair Susan Schiller. She was the board member who worked on two different West Side Lands cases. 

Today I received a response from the Attorney General's office who informed me they are sending notice of the concern to the Executive chair of the OMB, Ms. Tanaka.

Below is the response I received and under that is the original email I sent regarding the potential bias. 

Paul Pupolo was the President of Planning and Engineering Initiatives Limited (PEIL) is currently the Chair of the Waterloo Economic Development Committee and is a Associate/General Manager of the Kitchener Office of IBI Group from 2007 til present. IBI was one of the firms who helped abolish the country side line recently at the OMB. He and his wife both worked for IBI at the time Susan Shiller chaired our OMB process for the West Side Lands. She was a special consultant for IBI at the time.

Details below. 

Lulu

________________________________________________________

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Avenue
Waterloo, ON N2V 2L2
butterflybluelu at rogers.com
 
 
Dear Ms. Lanteigne:
 
Thank you for your recent email regarding the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).  The Policy and Adjudicative Tribunals Division has been asked to respond on behalf of the Ministry of the Attorney General.
The OMB is an adjudicative tribunal that sets its procedures and makes decisions independently of government. To maintain this independence, neither the Attorney General nor Ministry officials can interfere in, or comment on, the OMB’s processes or individual cases.
As you are aware, the Ontario Municipal Board Act provides for any OMB order or decision to be filed with the Superior Court of Justice, at which point it is enforceable as a judgment or order of the Court.
We have taken the liberty of forwarding your email to Lynda Tanaka, Executive Chair of the OMB, so that Ms. Tanaka may be aware of your concerns.
We appreciate you taking the time to share your comments with us.
 
 
Policy and Adjudicative Tribunals Division
Ministry of the Attorney General



----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
To: "ontario.municipal.board at ontario.ca" <ontario.municipal.board at ontario.ca> 
Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 3:50:52 PM
Subject: Concerns for Potential Conflict of Interest of Board Chair
 

Hello

I wanted to inform the OMB about potential conflict of interest regarding two OMB processes that took place in the city of Waterloo Ontario regarding OMB appeal PL071044 and PL091182. Both of these hearings involved a proposed subdivision known as Vista Hills which is a property owned by Louise Pupolo, wife of Paul Pupolo and fellow employee of a planning firm called IBI.  Mrs. Pupolo's husband is the Associate/General Manager of the Kitchener Office of IBI group and has been since October 2007 as noted online here:  http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/paul-f-puopolo/27/633/b6 and Louise is the graphic designer for IBI as seen here: http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/louise-puopolo/8/65b/29

Both of these hearings had Susan de Avellar Shiller as the chair who provided the final rulings in regards to these hearings. I found the following information online which states:  Susan de Avellar Schiller was a Special Consultant at the Center for Collaborative Policy and a Senior Consultant for the IBI Group.  
http://www.pas.gov.on.ca/scripts/en/bios.asp?boardID=682&persID=158559


In spite of the potential conflict of interest she provided the final ruling for OMB case PL071044 and you can note that Louise Pupulo's name is listed as a party in the final ruling:  http://city.waterloo.on.ca/Portals/57ad7180-c5e7-49f5-b282-c6475cdb7ee7/DS_DEVAPPROV_documents/OMBWestside.pdf

Later on Ms. Schiller was acting as chair in the final hearing of PL091182 which I was involved with again, regarding these same properties on May 6, 2010 and once again she failed to declare conflict of interest in spite of the fact Louise Pupolo is still named as a party.  http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/e-decisions/pl091182-May-06-2010.pdf   

Is there a set protocol to address conflict of interest concerns to assure a fair and reasonable process.  Was Ms. Schiller allowed to choose her case or was it assigned to her. If it was assigned I would like to know by whom it was assigned.

Thank you kindly for your time. 

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.,
Waterloo Ont.
N2V 2L2
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