A lawsuit launched by an Orillia man who says he was libeled in a city press release has been ended with a $20,000 settlement and a retraction by the municipality.
“It was never about the money,” Allan Millard said yesterday. “It was about vindication, that we did the right thing and that there was going to be some accountability.”
Millard sued the city for libel after it issued a statement in 2006 implying that he pursued an environmental assessment of the MURF property while believing the request was without merit.
In a retraction to be posted on the city’s web site, the municipality acknowledges the release was “incorrect.
“The City did not intend to imply Mr. Millard knowingly pursued an unmeritorious application, or that he caused the City to incur $250,000 in legal fees,” the retraction reads.
Millard’s application for an environmental assessment “was meritorious” the city adds.
The local man is now offering to return his $20,000 libel settlement to the city if council agrees to authorize a judicial investigation of the recreation project by the end of August.
“For transparency and accountability,” he added.
Millard in a letter delivered to city hall on Wednesday raises more than a dozen issues he wants addressed under the proposed judicial review.
Among them is the transfer agreement that saw Molson Canada donate the contaminated West Street property to the city.
Millard asks, “what legal advice was given to the city to cause the city unconditionally to purchase contaminated property without testing and to accept totally liability in perpetuity?
“If legal advice was ignored or not sought, what were the non-legal considerations which led to the improvident purchase?” he adds.
Millard questions why the city is continuing its relationship with Shaheen and Peaker Ltd., a consulting firm involved in the development of a twice-rejected risk assessment for the property.
“Why, apparently, has the city never tendered the risk assessment work or negotiated a contract for payment contingent upon the acceptance of a risk assessment by the ministry?” he asks.
Other questions focus on the dumping of soil, excavated from the contaminated site, at Orillia’s landfill.
Later in his letter, Millard asks whether “any politician, or his friends or family, have any interest, direct or indirect or contingent, in any property within 400 metres of the boundaries of the MURF site.”
Ontario’s Municipal Act allows for a review by a Superior Court judge when requested by council resolution.
The judge may investigate an alleged breach of trust or other misconduct by a politician, staff or others connected with the municipality.
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Allan Millard, a longtime opponent of the proposed MURF site, has won a $20,000 settlement, plus legal costs, from the city of Orillia.
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