The Town of Tecumseh is being asked to consider a policy to deal with baseless, unreasonable, or frivolous complaints. Town council received a report at its July 28 meeting detailing that while most complaints received by the town are submitted in good faith, there have been and continue to be ongoing instances where complaints become repetitive, frivolous, or otherwise unreasonable in nature and are placing an unreasonable strain on municipal time and resources. Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says the proposed policy is quite a large file, and council wanted to take a better look at it before discussing it. “It’s multiple articles in that bylaw for everybody to be able to digest it, so we’re going to hold off until the next meeting,” he says. The goal of the proposed policy is to develop a transparent and consistent process for identifying, reviewing, and managing such complaints where warranted while maintaining the public’s ability to access municipal services and raise legitimate concerns. The proposed policy would establish a framework for addressing complaints intended to abuse, intimidate, harass, manipulate, or otherwise misuse the town’s complaint process. It proposes that anyone who submits three or more complaints regarding the same subject matter, property, or individual within a rolling 12-month period, where investigations resulted in no new findings or no contravention, could have a series of measures taken to put restrictions on any future contact with town staff and potentially services. The issue will return to town council on Aug. 11.
