A workplace harassment probe involving a Barrie councillor and a city employee continued behind closed doors Monday.
Councillors met to consider confidential advice concerning the response of Aird Berlis to its review of city staff’s handling of the complaint that led to the investigation. The Toronto law firm has expertise in workplace law, including harassment, and was hired by the city last October. The meeting went from approximately 5-7 p.m., then resumed just after 8 p.m. until 10:55 p.m., Monday.
Councillors received confidential March 2 correspondence from Aird Berlis concerning a review of human resources, human rights policies and procedures, and directed staff to address the recommendations contained in confidential correspondence from Aird Berlis in updates to the violence in the workplace policy and workplace human rights policy and procedure.
And third, CAO Michael Prowse is to report back to councillors concerning all the actions undertaken by the city resulting from the workplace investigation and recommendations provided for in the Aird Berlis confidential correspondence.
City council will consider final approval of these actions at its March 22 meeting.
Coun. Sergio Morales tried to amend the above actions, asking that Aird Berlis LPP be directed to investigate staff’s preparation and presentation of a confidential memo, and how it differed from previous memos of similar nature based on direction given Monday.
“I think anybody who’s been paying attention to this very significant and important issue has more questions than answers,” Morales said. “I think this amendment is more than appropriate. We have taken very important steps since October to address this issue the best way we can. We’ve retained external legal advice, if the motion… passes, we’ll be taking significant steps in terms of the procedures and policies to ensure essentially that this never becomes an issue again.
“But we need to go one step further into a couple of the checks and balances that would have broken down in the process, and that includes the presentation and preparation of staff memos and the matter in which they — this one specifically — it’s just frankly inconsistent with similar situations or situations that could even be close to similar in the past,” he added.
“I wish I could go more into detail," Morales said. "Obviously, there’s confidentiality involved, but it is very prudent as we have a competent law firm, they’ve already have done initial investigation so it’s not unreasonable to take that extra step to just close off those loose ends, get full transparency, full accountability, full justice in order to make sure that any future scenario has the preparation and presentation of staff memos is done consistently, appropriately, responsibly and timely.”
Only Couns. Natalie Harris and Gary Harvey supported Morales’ amendment. It failed.
“Paragraph 3 does cover, I believe, much of what was specifically referenced in the amendment,” Mayor Jeff Lehman said.
Coun. Mike McCann did not vote for or against the amendment, but did vote for the main motion, which passed unanimously.
Late last year, a settlement was reached relating to the investigation into workplace harassment. City council approved a motion "that Aird Berlis and city staff be authorized to finalize the minutes of settlement as discussed at the confidential general committee meeting on Dec. 15, 2020, subject to reasonable modifications. That the mayor and city clerk be authorized to execute minutes of settlement and other associated documentation to give effect to the settlement."
What the settlement was and who is involved was not part of the motion council passed. Neither the councillor nor the employee have not been publicly identified.
Corrective measures were also put in place. They include the unnamed councillor undertaking training relative to workplace violence and harassment, funded by the city and approved by the city’s chief administrative officer 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 to council for their conduct.
In the Ontario legislature Monday, Orleans MPP Stephen Blais — the Liberal municipal affairs critic — introduced the Stopping Harassment and Abuse by Local Leaders Act. If passed, it would create a process to vacate a municipal councillor’s seat for violations of workplace violence and harassment policies.
“In any other work environment, individuals would lose their job for these types of behaviours; municipal councillors must be held to that same standard,” Blais said. “Harassment and violence have no business in the workplace, and certainly no business around the municipal council table.”
Ottawa and Brampton have concluded investigations into serious cases of workplace violence and sexual harassment by members of council, the Orleans MPP's office said. In these cases, the most severe penalty that can be imposed on a municipal councillor is the suspension of pay for 90 days. This punishment was applied in the Brampton case and was applied multiple times in the Ottawa case.
“Surely everyone can agree that there are some actions so egregious, such as workplace violence and harassment, that would warrant losing your job,” said Blais. “We need to give municipalities all of the tools available to protect employees from this kind of treatment.”
If passed, his bill would permit municipalities to direct the integrity commissioner to apply to the court to vacate a member’s seat for failing to comply with the municipalities' workplace violence or harassment policies.
