By Pepper Parr
March 2, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The Committee of Adjustment is the only Board that pays the people who are appointed.
The work is complex and calls for a level of understanding of property matters that few people have.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and her husband Pete dining with Diane and Nick Leblovic.
It is important work that deals with minor property variances. The city doesn’t always agree with the Committee of Adjustment.
Members of the Committee are usually people who apply to be members – Council decides who is to be appointed.
Leblovic is a member of the Committee but does not appear to have taken part in very many CoA hearings even though there are reports that the CoA schedule is months behind. What usually takes less than three months is now taking more than six months for a CoA hearing.
Nicholas Leblovic, a lawyer, and a close friend and confident of Mayor Meed Ward, is the only person who was part of the Mayor’s Campaign Committee in 2018 that was part of that Campaign Committee during the 2022 campaign.
Leblovic is reported to have approached two people who are active in civic matters to join the Committee of Adjustment. It appears that Friends in high places is part of the political culture in Burlington.
On a full disclosure level Leblovic is the first person to sue me for $1 million. He chose to represent himself and the matter went know where. It was Abraham Lincoln who said: A man who represents himself, has a fool for a client.
Interesting article if you consider that the Committee of Adjustment wields considerable influence in the City and can impact the lives of citizens in a number of ways, both favourable and not. Who chooses the members since they are not elected and who ensures that their rulings are appropriate and without bias? Are they thinly disguised patronage appointments, the result of inherent cronyism or are the members selected on merit and for the sake of the skills and experience that they can bring to the table? Where is the system of ‘checks and balances’ and do we truly have a ‘separation of powers’ or just an extension of the political bureaucracy? Also interesting is the markedly different per diems. I doubt that Mr. Leblovic would agree that he is the least worthy member of the Committee but why is he paid so much less? Overall, I believe that this is an anachronistic body the function and existence of which should be questioned.