A majority of councillors are commending chief administrative officer (CAO) Michael Prowse for his exceptional leadership to the City of Barrie during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a closed-door session, they gave initial approval to a motion to that effect Monday.
But three councillors — Sergio Morales, Gary Harvey and Natalie Harris — voted against the motion, which will be considered for final approval at the June 14 council meeting.
“I don’t feel CAO Prowse has shown exceptional leadership overall,” Harris said. “I feel he fell very short of his duties with respect to the (workplace) harassment investigation on many levels. I am bound by confidentiality, and therefore cannot comment further. But I stand firm in my personal opinion that CAO Prowse’s work was not exceptional.”
Asked to respond to Harris’ statement, Prowse declined comment Tuesday afternoon when contacted by BarrieToday.
A workplace harassment investigation last year involving a Barrie councillor and a city staff member resulted in a settlement.
Neither the councillor nor the employee were formally identified.
Corrective measures were also put in place, including the councillor taking training relative to workplace violence and harassment, funded by the city and approved by the CAO and/or director of human resources, the councillor being required to strictly comply with the city’s staff-council relations policy, to only make contact with staff through the appropriate management, and the councillor being requested to issue a written apology to the complainant, if requested, and council for his conduct.
Monday’s motion reads that in light of his exceptional leadership to the corporation during the COVID-19 pandemic, including his role as incident commander for the City of Barrie’s Emergency Operation Control Group, CAO Prowse be commended for his performance and the corporation’s achievements during this challenging time.
Also, that the director of human resources be directed to document CAO Prowse’s commendation in accordance with the direction provided during the closed portion of the meeting held on May 31, 2021.
“I think our CAO has provided exceptional leadership during the pandemic and that is shown in the accomplishments of the corporation during this time, and the very difficult issues that the CAO has managed,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman.
“I am honoured and humbled that council chose to publicly recognize the exceptional efforts of not just myself and the executive management team but all the city employees who have contributed so much over the last 16 months to our community,” Prowse said Tuesday.
“The organization remains focused on moving the community forward by driving innovation, customer service and openness in everything we do," he added. "I simply could not be prouder of this world-class team and am delighted that council shares in that belief.”
Morales tried to remove the first part of the motion.
“As bound by the confidentiality laws, I’m not discussing what was discussed but the intro, the prelude is not relevant to actually turning out the motion and I don’t want… other levels of government sometimes do this accidentally, just because a member of council might vote against it does not mean it contradicts the ‘due to the exemplary work of CAO Prowse’,” he said.
“It is not relevant at all to the motion and the content can still be carried out without that language," Morales added.
But only Harris and Harvey joined him in voting to remove the paragraph.
Harvey also spoke to the matter on Monday.
“I just think it’s important to get on the public record that my sentiments with the other two councillors (Morales and Harris) this is not the time for this particular situation to be going the way this motion’s directed,” he said.
When asked to clarify his comments Tuesday, Harvey said he could not as the matter had been discussed confidentially.
