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Frank discussion about ‘fragmented’ council
ed the veteran councillor. “The team build- ing is absolutely needed – big time needed.” Councillor Denis Thibault questioned where council’s plan has been the past two and half years. He said council has “missed the boat” by not embarking on a planning session earlier with some many new staff and one new councillor. “I think the right word is fragmented,” he said, adding “we’ve not managed to do a fantastic job” so far in their term. He said a planning session may be good to set direction for council and administra- tion over the next five years, but warned that council members should not be focusing on the upcoming municipal election in 18 months when they embark on the exercise “To me, it’s sort of not really appropriate.” Veteran Councillor Denis Carr also re- mained unconvinced of the value of a plan- ning session, pointing to the perceptions senior staff have of council after seeing members in action the past 30 months. “I don’t think we’ve thrilled them the past couple of years,”he said with brutal honesty. “I don’t think how it (the planning session) is set up is going to work,”he mulled. “We’ve got to straighten out our own game first.” At the end of the debate, council mem- bers – although not unanimously – opted to go ahead with a strategic planning session as soon as possible and a team-building ses- sion afterwards if they decide it is needed. blowers was that the secrecy with which council dealt with their complaints during closed meetings over the past year left the public in the dark about the fact complaints were filed against the city. In fact, up until recently, the city would not even confirm that it was investigating whistleblower complaints. Fournier said city hall should have speci- fied in its agenda for the in-camera sessions that council was dealingwithwhistleblower complaints. He suggested in his report that council include wording in future in-camera agendas specifying when it is dealing with an issue related to the city’s whistleblower policy. When questioned by Councillor Elaine MacDonald about the specificity of the wording, he stressed the city could also specify on future agendas that it is deal- ing with an actual “whistleblower com- plaint” during a closed session while re- fraining from revealing any confidential details. “It would be perfectly fine. You’re restrict- ed to certain words,” Fournier assured Mac- Donald. Fournier also suggested all council mem- bers go online to learn best practices for the conduct of council meetings and to review reports online by Ontario Ombudsman An- dre Marin.
GREG KIELEC greg.kielec@eap.on.ca
A “fragmented” Cornwall city council showed a rare moment of introspection as it debated, last Tuesday, whether there is any value in spending $16,000 on a stra- tegic planning session more than halfway through its term. The frank discussion was in stark contrast to seemingly scripted debate of past meet- ings as councillors candidly spoke of divi- siveness on council and an administration that has lost its trust in its elected officials. One councillor after another spoke of the fragmentation of council, a lack of commu- nication with administration the first half of the term and personnel issues that pre- vented council members from setting the agenda for the city by ensnaring them in a reactionary mode. “We should have done this at the start, but we had too many distractions,” said Councillor Glen Grant, alluding to myriad personnel issues that mired council at the beginning of its term. “We were reactive in- stead of being proactive.” But he still felt it was best to proceed with a strategic planning session to give direc- tion to the next council, to be elected in late 2014, and the city’s administration, a point The city’s closed meeting investigator has vindicated Cornwall city council over its handling of two whistleblower com- plaints last Tuesday, but he still isn’t will- ing to give our elected officials a perfect score on governance. When asked to rate city council on its ad- herence to the Ontario Municipal Act, the law that governs all municipal governments in the province, Stephen Fournier indicated council still has work to do to get a perfect rating from him. “I’mgoing to put them squarely in a seven (out of 10) based on what I’ve seen in the last while,” Fournier said at the end of an in- terview with The Journal . “I see some improvement. I know there was a recommendation made the first time around and it seemed to take a little while to begin to be apparent that it was being followed. But I know, more recently, as I looked into later in 2012 I began to see good examples of that.” “I think there is room, as there is in any municipality, to continue to work on im- provements. There are a whole host of best practices that are starting to emerge . . . GREG KIELEC greg.kielec@eap.on.ca
Photo - Greg Kielec
Cornwall city councillor Denis Thibault dismisses a proposed strategic planning ses- sion for council more than halfway through its term as blatant electioneering during a special meeting at city hall last Tuesday. “To me, it’s sort of not really appropriate,” he told council.
first raised by Councillor Elaine MacDonald in advocating for a session to set direction for the remainder of the term. “I’d like to say do it all. Start now,” exhort- ed MacDonald to her fellow councillors. A strategic planning session was also ad-
vocated by Councillor Bernadette Clement, who said it could also serve as a team-build- ing exercise by council. The teamwork point was not lost on Coun- cillor Syd Gardiner.“As far as team building, I think we’re somewhat fragmented,” lament-
City cleared on closed meetings, but chided for lack of transparency
Photo - Greg Kielec
The City of Cornwall’s closed meeting investigator Stephen Fournier adjusts his mi- crophone before presenting his report last Tuesday, vindicating the city for dealing with two whistleblower complaints behind closed doors since they were filed early last year.
which would be good to have the city look into.” Fournier was tasked with investigating closed meeting complaints from two city employees – health and safety officer Di- ane Shay and deputy fire chief Robert Hick- ley --who filed whistleblower complaints against the city early last year. Hickley also recently filed an application to a judicial review of an alleged conflict of interest in- volving Mayor Bob Kilger and city council. Kilger has repeatedly denied he is or has been in conflict. In presenting his report at a special coun- cil meeting late Tuesday afternoon, Fourni- er said council was well within its right to discuss the case behind closed doors. In
fact, it is imperative under the city’s own whistleblower policy that confidentiality be maintained. He said the policy provides “fundamental protections to the whistleblower, the wit- nesses and the accused.” If confidentiality is not maintained during the process, then the confidence of employees in the policy will be “eroded”, he stressed. Fournier made it clear from the outset that the actual whistleblower complaints that precipitated the closed meetings com- plaints were beyond the scope of his in- vestigation. “So I will not speak to the sub- stance of these whistleblower complaints,” he told council. One of the complaints of the two whistle-
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