How to check City Hall
An election is one way to hold city hall to account. It is not the only one, and it comes once every four years. Between elections, four tools let any Londoner see what was decided, question it, and put a request on the public record. Here is what each one does, what it costs, how long it takes, and a real London case where it worked.
How to check the work
Ask the Ombudsman
The Ontario Ombudsman is London's closed-meeting investigator. If you think council or a committee met behind closed doors when it should have been public, you can ask for an investigation. The Ombudsman also handles complaints about most provincial and municipal bodies.
- COST
- Free
- TIME
- Slow. The last London closed-meeting case ran about ten months from the meeting to the published report.
- WHO
- Anyone can file. You do not have to live in London.
In March 2023, three members of a five-member council committee, a quorum, toured a shelter with its director and discussed a $760,000 funding request. Hours later the committee recommended approval. The Ombudsman found the tour broke the open-meeting rules: no public notice, the public could not attend, and no minutes were kept.
Ombudsman Ontario, report on the City of London, January 2024 ↗START HEREFile a closed-meeting complaint through the Ombudsman's office. How to complain — Ombudsman Ontario ↗
File a records request
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request forces the City to hand over records it holds: emails, contracts, reports, invoices. It reaches the City and its boards and agencies, and can reach a councillor's own records when they acted as an officer of the City.
- COST
- $5 to file. The fee cannot be waived. If a record sits with an outside consultant, the consultant's invoice for finding it can be added on.
- TIME
- As of July 1, 2026 the City has 45 business days to answer, roughly nine weeks. Until June 30 the deadline was 30 calendar days. The change came in a provincial budget bill.
- WHO
- Anyone can file.
In 2024 a records request revealed that the London Police Services Board had paid a public-relations firm about $104,000 to help make the case for its $672-million budget request. The records came back heavily redacted. It was a records request that made the spending public at all.
CBC London, September 16, 2024 ↗START HEREThe City's FOI page has the form and explains the $5 fee and the 45-business-day timeline. Freedom of Information requests — City of London ↗
Read the audits
London has no Auditor General. Instead it hires an outside firm, MNP, to audit City operations, and those reports go to a five-member Audit Committee (the Deputy Mayor, three councillors and one unpaid citizen accountant) at public meetings. The reports are posted whether or not they are flattering.
- COST
- Free to read.
- TIME
- Published as each audit finishes, on the committee's public agenda.
- WHO
- Anyone can read them; the meetings are public.
An MNP audit received in September 2025 found that of the five homelessness hubs the City's plan set out to open by May 2024, only two were operating, and both were full with waiting lists. The auditors named the reasons: land, zoning and operating money.
City of London Audit Committee, Housing and Homelessness audit, September 10, 2025 ↗START HEREAudit reports appear on the Audit Committee's agendas in the City's meeting portal. Council and committee meetings — City of London ↗
Speak to a committee
You can address a council committee in person, online or by phone on any item on its agenda. This is called a delegation. It is the most direct tool on this page: five minutes, on the record, before the vote.
- COST
- Free.
- TIME
- Register in writing by 9:00 a.m. the business day before the meeting. Your request must name the agenda item it relates to.
- WHO
- Any Londoner. You get up to five minutes.
In May 2026, residents delegated against a long-term-care rezoning at 945 Bluegrass Drive. City staff had recommended approval; council refused it 10 to 5. Showing up in the room changed the outcome.
City of London Council minutes, May 12, 2026 ↗START HEREThe City's meetings page explains how to register as a delegation and lists the email for each standing committee. Council and committee meetings — City of London ↗
What London doesn't have
Some accountability tools that other cities have, London has chosen not to build. That is a council decision, and a fair thing to ask candidates about.
- No Auditor General. Hamilton and Ottawa have one; London contracts an outside firm instead. An Auditor General is independent and sets its own agenda; a contracted firm works to the scope the City gives it.
- No closed-meeting investigator of its own. London relies on the provincial Ombudsman, which keeps the review independent but slow.
- No public lobbying registry. There is no public log of who lobbies council. A 2023 motion to study one was defeated.
A recent test council failed
In October 2024, after the police-board PR spending came to light, two councillors moved that tax-funded boards and agencies be told not to spend public money lobbying council. The motion was defeated 5 votes to 10 at committee, and council later only noted it. Thirteen of the fifteen members who voted are on a ballot this October, so you can ask them directly.
SEE HOW EACH MEMBER VOTED →Ask your candidates
- Would you vote to stop city-funded boards from spending public money to lobby council?
- Would you support a public lobbying registry, or an Auditor General for London?
You don't have to wait until October to use any of the tools above. The election is one check. These are the others.
Sources Ombudsman Ontario, open meetings ↗MFIPPA, s. 19 (45 business days) ↗IPC Ontario ↗