‘Getting rid of Peter Kelly is easy’: documents

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — SaltWire Community has obtained a report that discovered a Charlottetown councillor responsible of harassing former chief administrative officer Peter Kelly two years in the past.

Simply earlier than Christmas in 2019, town employed Corrigan HR Consulting in Moncton, N.B., to research a harassment criticism Kelly had filed towards Coun. Bob Doiron.

This newspaper filed a request underneath the Freedom of Data and Safety of Privateness (FOIPP) Act and obtained the report from the Metropolis of Charlottetown on Could 27.

On March 23, 2020, Doiron was present in violation of council’s code of conduct bylaw following an investigation by the third-party consulting agency.

On the time, the Metropolis of Charlottetown wouldn’t go into particulars about what Doiron did.

The report signifies that Doiron accused Kelly of working in “rogue’’ vogue at one level and the way the councillor accused town and Kelly of spending near $1 million on asphalt paving with out council’s approval in 2018-19.

Doiron additionally gave an interview to media in Halifax during which he accused Kelly of approving value overruns of $500,000 associated to water and sewer work, with out bringing the expenditure again to council.

Following a sequence of interviews Doiron gave to the media, Kelly filed the harassment criticism towards the councillor.

Central to the criticism had been information articles that Kelly mentioned had been inaccurate and dangerous to his repute.

The investigative report states that on March 31, 2019, the MRSB Group, an expert service agency that gives bookkeeping, tax, valuation and enterprise consulting, performed an audit on town’s monetary statements and located no points with the street surfacing course of.

Then, on Dec. 6, 2019, Kelly submitted a FOIPP request to amass emails Doiron had exchanged with somebody the report always refers to as an “unidentified particular person’’. The report discovered pertinent emails had been exchanged between Doiron and this unidentified particular person on July 4, 2019.

Costly penalty

Following are particulars on how the Metropolis of Charlottetown and council handled Coun. Bob Doiron over allegations he violated the council code of conduct:

• Former Charlottetown chief administrative officer Peter Kelly information a criticism of harassment towards Coun. Doiron on Nov. 20, 2019.

• Moncton-based Corrigan HR Consulting is employed by town to research simply earlier than Christmas in 2019 and releases findings on investigation into Doiron’s conduct in March 2020.

• Report finds no foundation in Doiron’s preliminary accusations towards Kelly and finds the councillor breached council’s code of conduct bylaw.

• On March 21, 2020, council votes 6-0 in favour of the investigator’s findings. Councillors voting in favour included Terry MacLeod, Alanna Jankov, Terry Bernard, Mike Duffy and Kevin Ramsay. Councillors Mitchell Tweel, Doiron and Greg Rivard had been absent from the vote.

• Doiron forfeits 90 days of council pay, which quantities to about $10,000, the utmost permitted penalty underneath the bylaw.

• Doiron mentioned his authorized charges amounted to $8,000.

• The investigation and town’s authorized charges on this course of value taxpayers about $26,000.

Doiron refers to Kelly as a “weasel’’ in a kind of emails.

“Peter is such a sneak and will get his approach by having a variety of councillors in his pocket,’’ Doiron says within the e mail. “I simply don’t know tips on how to get him in one thing that he’s doing incorrect as a result of it simply flows off his again and is all the time another person’s fault.’’

The unidentified particular person responds, saying, “Eliminating Peter Kelly is straightforward’’ and the “paving (situation) alone is grounds for dismissal.’’

The unidentified particular person additionally refers to a “whistleblower letter I wrote to council’’ and guarantees to go to the provincial minister with him if Doiron feels he’s had sufficient.

“I simply need plenty of proof, then I can cling him,’’ Doiron responds. “The present council is managed by Peter, six of them will do something he says so if I’ve to look to get a vote of confidence from the council, I don’t suppose I may get it.’’

“I’ll show you how to get sufficient to bury them,’’ the unidentified particular person says.

“That will be superior,’’ Doiron responds.

Corrigan HR Consulting agreed with Kelly that the information articles and emails had been dangerous to his repute and breached the code of conduct.

“Furthermore, all accusations made by Coun. Doiron towards Mr. Kelly are unfounded,’’ the investigator says, including that Doiron ought to have recognized the feedback he was making had been inappropriate.

Doiron was fined $10,000 for breaching the council’s code of conduct.

Doiron responds

In an interview with SaltWire Community on Could 31, Doiron mentioned Kelly ought to have gone to the mayor along with his criticism so the three of them may have mentioned it.

“However, on this case, (Kelly) didn’t comply with process … he went straight to the HR committee and put this on the desk,’’ Doiron mentioned. “They voted to do what he needed. I needed to get a lawyer, and that value me one other $8,000.”

Doiron mentioned he was additionally urgent Kelly over his firings of the 2 deputy chief administrative officers, Scott Messervey in 2019 and Tina Lococo in April.

Doiron mentioned the entire course of has left him with a foul style in his mouth. He’s debating whether or not he’ll search one other time period on council in November.

“I’m not going to cover behind what I mentioned,’’ Doiron mentioned. “Certain, I mentioned these issues (within the emails). I assume that’s the world we reside in now. It’s a must to watch out what you say. We’ve councillors right here that determined to not hearken to something I needed to say or have a look at any of the proof and so they selected to not hearken to the whistleblower letters.’’

Doiron mentioned he filed an attraction towards having these emails launched, explaining that he thought-about them to be non-public, with the province’s privateness commissioner in February 2020 however nonetheless hasn’t obtained a choice.

SaltWire Community contacted the privateness commissioner’s workplace on Could 31, however the one that answered the cellphone mentioned the workplace wouldn’t be capable to touch upon the matter.

Doiron additionally famous that, he’s nonetheless left with one huge query — was Kelly paid a hefty severance package deal?

“And, (Kelly) walks away with a pleasant package deal. We don’t even know ourselves (what quantity it’s). What are you purported to say to the taxpayers? They received’t inform us.’’

Kelly instructed SaltWire Community on Could 31 that the report speaks for itself.

“Thus, council made the selections they made,’’ Kelly mentioned, referring to council voting in favour of discovering Doiron responsible of violating the code of conduct. “Once more, there have been loads of disparaging remarks in there by Coun. Doiron. The report speaks for itself.’’