HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-09-17, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015.
Councillors express trust concerns with McLellan
The growing cancer of distrust
continues to hold Huron East
Council hostage as a proposed
human resources review has been
referred to the municipality’s
personnel committee.
An item discussed at council’s
Sept. 8 meeting, labelled “Team
renewal process for Chief
Administrative Officer’s
Administration Team” generated
intense, sometimes heated
discussion amongst councillors,
several of whom said they didn’t
trust the intentions of Mayor Bernie
MacLellan.
“I do not trust anything right now
with you involved,” said Councillor
Alvin McLellan to the
municipality’s mayor. “You have to
gain respect back with council.”
McLellan said that the decline of
council’s productivity, as well as
growing distrust between the mayor
and a number of councillors, began
with “one issue” and subsequently
went “downhill fast” and when he
first read the document, he was
extremely upset.
The document, which was
included in the meeting’s agenda,
listed the mayor, as well as Deputy-
Mayor Joe Steffler as the client for a
$14,000 human resources review of
the entire municipality. McLellan
and several other councillors,
however, felt the document was
directed squarely at Chief
Administrative Officer Brad Knight
and with the mayor listed as the
client, councillors questioned his
intentions.
McLellan suggested that the
review would take the municipality
in the wrong direction and that the
concept behind it “didn’t cut it” with
him.
When Steffler introduced
discussion on the topic to council,
the first thing he said, however, was
that the process would not be a
“witch hunt” and that it wasn’t
aimed at anybody. The review, he
said, would encompass the entire
municipality, from senior staff to
front line staff to council. There also
weren’t quotas to be met, he said,
saying that if everything is found to
be working well, then no changes
will have to be made.
He said that council had “gone off
the tracks” in recent months and it
was time to get the group, and the
municipality, back on course.
Several councillors also took issue
with the details of the timeline,
suggesting that first contact with the
consulting firm, which is located in
Port Stanley, allegedly took place in
late June, months before council had
officially approved any action.
Councillor Ray Chartrand, among
others, accused the mayor and
Steffler of taking action on a review
of Knight without council’s
knowledge or permission.
The mayor assured council that
the process is not a witch hunt aimed
at one employee or department in
particular. He also took offense to
McLellan’s comments, saying that
they were baseless and accusatory.
The mayor said that he saw the
document at the same time his
fellow councillors did, and he was
just as surprised as they were to see
his name as the client. He assumed
that it was there because he is the
head of council and nothing more.
He said council was accusing him
of trying slip something throughout
without council’s permission and
that wasn’t the truth.
Several councillors, however,
referenced a vote of council that
went against the mayor’s wishes as
being the beginning of a discord
between the mayor and council.
Despite referencing it, councillors
would not expand upon the closed
meeting.
Councillor Dianne Diehl said that
after the mayor “lost a vote” was
when “things have spun out of
control here and yes, we all know
where it started.”
Diehl also echoed McLellan’s
sentiments, saying that the mayor
had a lot of work to do before he
would regain the trust of several
councillors around the table.
Talk of distrust of the mayor
among councillors began earlier this
year when he wrote and released a
letter to numerous local media
outlets entitled “A Message from the
Mayor” in late May that detailed a
closed-session vote, naming
councillors who had voted against a
particular motion – again, the
motion in question was not
elaborated upon.
Councillor Nathan Marshall said
that council needed to “press the
reset button” on the entire review
and get over its personal conflicts
with one another, otherwise the
municipality could look at several
years of inactivity.
He asked councillors what they
needed from the mayor to regain
trust in him, saying that they may be
waiting a while and Huron East
didn’t have that kind of time.
“Does he have to do five good
deeds? You may be waiting a long
time – you may not be,” Marshall
said. “That might be two or three
years down the road. Is that what
you want? To do nothing for two or
three years?”
Marshall said he felt that council
had failed over the past five years in
not reviewing the CAO, who is
supposed to be council’s lone
employee.
Councillor Larry McGrath said he
wasn’t in favour of the review for a
number of reasons. First, he said, the
cost of $14,000 is too high and
second, the municipality
commissioned a similar report in
2003 and no changes were made as a
result.
In addition, he said council was
focusing on the wrong target,
suggesting that staff isn’t the
problem in Huron East, council is.
McLellan agreed, saying that
council is spinning its wheels and
shouldn’t point fingers at staff.
Both the mayor and Knight,
however, did some finger-pointing of
their own, as Knight accused the
mayor of circumventing the normal
chain of command system, twice
slipping in a suggested CAO review
behind his back, submitting agenda
items with other staff members in
the office so Knight wouldn’t know.
In turn, the mayor accused Knight of
bringing his concerns with the
review to a councillor, rather than to
the mayor himself.
The mayor also noted the
approximately 20 municipal staff
members in the gallery of the
meeting, saying that it has always
been procedure, as dictated by
Knight, that if staff members have an
issue, they shouldn’t be coming to
council meetings, saying that it
wasn’t proper.
As the argument continued,
Steffler stepped in and said the only
way to move forward would be for
the two men, as well as other
councillors, to “bury the hatchet”
and that “the past is the past”.
The next steps of the process,
however, were also up for debate.
Councillor John Lowe suggested
that matters regarding both
administration and personnel should
be dealt with first by the
administration and personnel
committees, neither of which were
consulted on the review.
He said that circumventing the
committees was not proper
procedure and that it wasn’t fair to
them.
A motion was then made to refer
the recommendation to the
personnel committee, then to the
administration committee before
recommendations would be made to
council, which was carried.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
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Mommy and me time
Coreena Otten, shown holding Kylie, was one of the moms
who took advantage of the Mom and Baby Yoga taster put
on through SHINE Yoga studio at Blyth East Side Dance
Studio on Saturday. Also participating are, directly behind
Otten, Shalen Reid with Paisley and, behind Reid, Jennifer
Van Driel with Colton. The program, run by Shannon Scott,
is one of several offered that day and that will be offered at
the site starting soon. For more information, visit
shannonrosescott.com (Denny Scott photo)
Defensive driving suggested
as motorcycle deaths up
So far this year 25 motorcycle
fatalities have been recorded on
OPP-patrolled roads and police are
appealing to riders to use their
defensive driving skills to keep
themselves safe.
One of the important things that
riders learn when they take a
motorcycle training course is to
“drive as if you are invisible”, which
addresses the fact that car drivers
who are looking for bigger vehicles
sometimes don’t notice
motorcyclists in their path,
especially at intersections. “I never
saw him” is something heard all too
often at the scene of a motorcycle
crash.
Defensive riding is the most
important key to safe motorcycle
driving; ride to expect the
unexpected. Riders are reminded to
be aware of other motorists at all
times and be ready with a counter
manoeuver to avoid their mistakes.
This year 22 operators and three
passengers have died in motorcycle
crashes. Fifteen of those deaths
involved persons between the ages
of 45 and 65 years of age. Four
people died while on a motorcycle
in west region alone within the first
week of August. The OPP is
reminding all drivers to always have
a watchful eye for motorcycles; the
safety of motorcyclists is the
responsibility of everyone.
Motorcycle riders should be aware
of where a motorist’s blind spots lie
and spend as little time in them as
possible. If you can see driver’s eyes
in their mirrors, then they have the
ability to see you too.
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