There are Ontario municipal councils “addicted” to secrecy going to great lengths to keep their residents in the dark, ombudsman André Marin says.

Marin’s second annual report on local government transparency delivered Wednesday found that 19 of 96 meetings investigated by his office were found to be illegal because they violated the Municipal Act guidelines.

“There is, in my view, a putrefactive decay in democracy at the municipal government level due to the insistence on officials to continue conducting city business secretly and illegally,” Marin told a Queen’s Park press council.

Marin said not only are there no consequences in the law for holding secret meetings, he accuses the province of enabling the practice by not introducing penalties. And he added that municipalities that don’t like him sticking his nose into their business can opt out of his jurisdiction.

“Meanwhile, hanky-panky continues to take place in the backrooms, and councils are continuing to cling to cloak-and-dagger old-school boardroom politics,” he told reporters.

“Unfortunately, some councils appear to be addicted to secrecy.”

The general rule of thumb is that in-camera meetings can only be held when dealing with property and personnel.

The most complaints filed with the ombudsman’s office dealt with municipal councils in London (64), Sudbury (54), Lambton Shores (13), Oshawa (eight) and Fort Erie (seven).

Of the 444 municipalities in the province, only 191 have agreed to ombudsman oversight. Sudbury dropped out after Marin took council there to task publicly for secret meetings.

Marin explained that complaints more than doubled from last year’s total of 128. Nearly six years ago, the province amended the Municipal Act to introduce a public complaints system to enforce the open meetings requirements.

Pat Vanini, executive director for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, downplayed Marin’s findings, noting that municipalities host 22,000 meetings a year to discuss more than 100,000 agenda items.

“Closed meeting investigations reflect concerns about less than 1 per cent of all municipal agenda items,” Vanini said in an email statement.

“Municipal governments are infinitely more open, transparent and accountable than provincial and federal governments,” she said.

Marin said his investigators have found some municipal councillors will try every “trick” possible to hold secret meetings, including posting wrong times for meetings, gathering at off-site locations and using electronic communications.

The ombudsman’s report even noted that the Township of Leeds and Thousands Islands council argued that an unscheduled meeting held about a year ago wasn’t secret because the door was left open.

“I issued a report last Friday reprimanding them . . . and they proceeded on Monday to oust my office’s jurisdiction. I can’t think of any line of work where you can simply shoot the messenger and get rid of oversight,” he said.

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“I say that’s no good for democracy, that’s not good for accountability at the municipal level.”

The report also cites the case of London, Ont., Mayor Joe Fontana and six councillors holding a secret meeting in a restaurant, then later arguing the gathering was mere happenstance. Cellphone records and other evidence proved otherwise.

Marin noted that he has no jurisdiction in Toronto, but that did stop him from poking fun at the goings-on at city hall with troubled Mayor Rob Ford.

“It (the ombudsman’s report) can’t begin to match the headlines coming out of Toronto city hall and it isn’t going to mentioned on any late-night comedy shows,” said the outspoken Marin.