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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2015-09-16, Page 66 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Because you love your life. MedicAlert®.The bracelet with an emergency hotline linked to your medical record. Call 1-866-734-9423 or visit www medicalert.ca MedicAleri Lets You Live Life. SWIM W1TJI US! Free Trial for the Huron Hurricanes Aquatic Club begins on Monday September 14th & runs for 2 weeks, ending Thursday September 24th Anyone 6yrs+ interested in joining please come by & check out what we have to offer! Trial dates & times are: Vanastra - Monday 6-7pm, Wednesday 5:30-6:30pm. Goderich - Tuesday 5:30-6:30pm, Thursday 4:30-5:30pm. Registration to follow Always accepting new members Please see our website, www.huron-hurricanes.com, for more information & fees or contact Coach Kristy Lyon at swimcoachkristy@gmail.com or 519-955-1784 Some members of council admit problems have "spun out of control" within the chambers ss Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor As the mayor of Huron East and council members spoke about a potential review, the tension grew around the horse-shoe shaped table at council on Sept 8. Almost every other Tues- day Seaforth's historic town hall is available for the pub- lic to attend or voice their opinion pertaining munici- pal affairs. This particular meeting welcomed an unusual pres- ence of approximately 20 Huron East staff members. A few matters were dealt with throughout the first hour of the meeting and then the topic of the potential council and staff review made its way towards debate. Deputy Mayor Joe Steffler thanked the crowd of mostly munici- pal staff for attending and directed the conversation to them. He mentioned the review document that had been given to all of council and said, "this is not a witch hunt." With an estimated cost of $14,000, Steffler admitted the review as being "a lot of money", but said, neverthe- less, he believes, "we have not done our jobs as council." The deputy mayor shifted his focus back towards council and stated, "so let's do this review, find out what we haven't done as council." He said in a firm tone, "if it's negative, suck it up, you've done wrong, suck it up, let's get on with life." If accepted, the proposed review would be conducted in four phases - the discov- ery, dialogue, decision of action plan and evaluation process and assessment of the impact of changes. Not much information was given about exactly who would be handling the review, although it was mentioned she is from Tecumseh, Ont. "Until we recognize as council, A) we have to respect each other and B) for only one vote, if we don't get our way, move on, "I don't feel by interviewing 12 of us that's going to change, peo- ple don't want to change their attitude. Paying an out- side consultant is not going to change how we run, said Tuckersmith Ward Coun. Ray Chartrand. He does not agree with the submitted plan. After reading the report, Grey Ward Coun. Alvin McLellan said it upset him especially once he reviewed the first paragraph of the proposal because it has Steffler and Mayor Bernie MacLellan as the team interviews and the team retreats. The mayor specified that he too was "surprised" to see his name attached with those two positions. "Bernie to me it seems that you've got a bridge to burn with somebody and believe it or not, I'm sorry, I do not trust anything right now with you involved," McLellan said to the mayor. "You have to gain some respect back." MacLellan rebutted McLellan's accusations, as he said there was `no truth at all" in the statements. "So you can state whatever you want, but guess what, I wasn't involved in orches- trating whatever this pack- age is," said the mayor defending the claims identi- fied by McLellan. Grey Ward Coun. Dianne Diehl was also critical of her colleague. Most of Die- hl's concerns pertained to how the document was worded. "I think the biggest problem sitting around this table is we have to bury our beefs that we have with each other or whatever the devils going on and get on with things," she said, "We don't know what's coming next from you Bernie and I'm sorry that's just the way some of us feel. It's incredible how things have spun out of control in the last two months." To calm the situation, MacLellan explained to I think the biggest problem sitting around this table is we have to bury our beefs that we have with each other or whatever the devils going on and get on with things," said Grey Ward Coun — Dianne Diehl council the reason his and Steffler's names were attached to the review. According to MacLellan, he and Steffler met with the woman from Tecusmeh for a coffee. The woman responsible for the assess- ment chatted with MacLel- lan and Steffler about a pos- sible performance review. The mayor said he made it clear to this woman that it would have to be passed over to the administration committee before moving forward. Seaforth's Ward Coun. Nathan Marshall joined the discussion and admitted that the council as a whole has failed in giving Huron East CAO Brad Knight the proper training in reviewing staff. "We need to press reset, then we need to utilize a per- sonal or administration committees to actually do these reviews annually because that's what they're there for," Marshall said. " We can't bicker about some- thing like this, if you don't like the wording suggest some changes." After Marshall's remarks, the mood seemed to settle, council moved its attention back to the abundance of staff workers in attendance. Members of the large group, which filled almost all the rows of chairs in council chambers, said they had read the review, so they decided to attend. The group of staff employ- ees refused to comment on the sensitive topic, one member told The Exposi- tor that she "liked her job" so she could not say any- thing. The mayor was "curious" to what really prompted staff to make an appearance. "I don't know how many times I've been told as a council member that the staff shouldn't be coming to council." With the CAO and the mayor sitting directly next to each other, the quarrels began once again, as Knight explained why council chambers had been packed with an uncommon public attendance. Knight told MacLellan and Steffler that changes need to be made because the docu- ment "puts stress on the staff," which is why the Huron East staff showed up to council. "Bernie, I look at this and it says the client is the mayor, the contact information includes your email," Knight said. "I've had two or three meetings that you've now pushed stuff into the pack- age that you have not talked to me about." In response, MacLellan called Knight's comment a, "completely inappropriate statement and not the truth. Not even close to the truth." After 40 minutes of argu- ments throughout the meet- ing Steffler intervened on MacLellan and Knight's back and forth exchange. "The discussion is over," Steffler said. "The problems are not all with Bernie or with Brad, you just heard I made a mistake and I'm going to admit it. Council then passed a motion, put forth by Steffler, to refer the proposal to the CAO and the personnel committee for review with no specific date determined.