City hall woes remain after Peter Kelly’s departure, says councillor who was CAO’s loudest critic

Charlottetown councillor Bob Doiron had his selection of 18 proverbial hills to die upon when he determined in the summertime of 2019 to take metropolis corridor and town’s CAO Peter Kelly to job.

These 18 selections got here within the type of a numbered listing in a letter from town’s former deputy CAO Scott Messervey, outlining monetary and administrative issues he advised council members he had introduced up with Kelly, his boss.

(A recap: Messervey stated he believed he was fired by Kelly simply earlier than he wrote that letter, in retaliation for having raised issues. Kelly stated Messervey was fired partially as a result of some workers and councillors felt the accountant, who had beforehand spent eight years working within the workplace of P.E.I.’s auditor basic, was “in search of errors, reasonably than trying to work with them.”) 

Doiron determined to tackle Messervey’s quantity 15 subject: one million {dollars} value of paving that went ahead with out tender. Largely on account of feedback Doiron made within the media, Kelly filed a harassment grievance towards the councillor, which ended up costing Doiron $10,000 in wage, plus a further $8,000 in authorized charges.

Two tenders had been licensed for the paving work totalling $1.8 million in Might 2018. The town ended up including 11 extra streets, and the work got here in nearly one million {dollars} above tender.

The additional spending wasn’t licensed by means of one other vote in council, however councillors Mike Duffy and Terry Bernard stated that wasn’t required as a result of council had already handed a capital funds that included $3 million for paving.

To today, Doiron insists an investigation is required to find out whether or not the spending adopted town’s personal guidelines, or the province’s Municipal Authorities Act. 

The deputy’s different points

However Doiron may have chosen to pursue some other merchandise from Messervey’s listing of issues, despatched to council in January 2019.

For instance, Messervey’s quantity 12 subject was per diems. These are quantities your employer will reimburse you to cowl the price of meals it’s important to purchase whereas travelling on enterprise — and Messervey alleged metropolis workers and council members had been claiming them even after they had been attending conferences and occasions the place meals had been supplied. 

Messervey additionally alleged full per diems had been being claimed even when journey was just for a part of the day, “leading to a rise in metropolis prices.” 

Again in 2019, the mayor may declare $150 a day and councillors may declare $125.

In his letter to councillors, Messervey stated he had first introduced the problem ahead in March of 2018, shortly after he was employed, however nothing had modified.

4 months after receiving Messervey’s listing of issues — and after the council majority voted to take no additional motion relating to these issues — many members of council did the identical factor once more, on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in Quebec Metropolis. 

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation printed detailed bills from that Might 2019 journey, obtained by means of entry to info, Mayor Philip Brown responded with an e mail assertion saying modifications would lastly be made.

Two years earlier, although, the mayor had stated a lot the identical factor — when it was first revealed that the general value to metropolis taxpayers from that journey was $43,993.22.

The alcohol query

On the identical journey, the mayor gave a dinner at a Quebec Metropolis steakhouse that was attended by as many as eight councillors and two workers members plus a few of their spouses. The $1,810 meal was expensed to town, together with $459 in booze.

Doiron missed that journey due to sickness, however he may have chosen that subject from Messervey’s listing when he went on the offensive in 2019.

Messervey had stated some members of council had completed the identical factor in December 2018, on the Dundee Arms in Charlottetown, expensing booze together with meals for his or her spouses whereas describing the meal as a “finance assembly.”

By the best way, councillors being allowed to expense alcohol with enterprise meals was quantity 4 on Messervey’s listing.

Buy orders and taxes

There are different issues within the letter that have not been substantiated however may but floor to trigger complications for councillors who selected to disregard Messervey’s warnings.

Amongst these:

• A transfer by council to extend the spending restrict on buy orders from $1,500 to $4,000, towards the recommendation of metropolis finance workers, who described the transfer as “a big weakening” of inner spending controls, which had already been flagged as problematic.
• Contracts that had been allegedly awarded exterior town’s tendering course of, together with one for a software program system for police ticketing.
• The truth that town had been overcharging residents for sewer and water providers for years.
• A break on property taxes {that a} particular private residence within the downtown core was receiving from a rebate program meant for enterprise growth. Messervey stated he suggested Kelly that the residence was not eligible for the rebate, however the departing deputy advised councillors no motion was taken.

When Messervey’s successor was lastly employed within the fall of 2021, then fired six months later, she additionally left councillors with an inventory of issues she stated wanted to be addressed. That listing has not but been made public.

To today, Doiron says all these points have to be investigated.

“It is terrible that you’ve [this] proof, [and] nobody has ever investigated any of the issues by the previous two DCAOs, workers requesting they be interviewed, or something like that,” he stated.

The entire thing about metropolis corridor — you are presupposed to be quiet. You are not allowed to say a phrase about something. It is underneath a golden seal of secrecy. And it is improper.– Bob Doiron

“The entire thing about metropolis corridor — you are presupposed to be quiet. You are not allowed to say a phrase about something. It is underneath a golden seal of secrecy. And it is improper.”

Doiron took his issues to the province, and it is nonetheless not clear what the province did in response.

In the course of the closed-door assembly in mid-Might the place a majority of councillors voted to terminate Kelly’s employment with out trigger, Doiron stated he advised town name within the province’s auditor basic and was advised “they do not get concerned” in municipal points.

The auditor basic’s place

The truth is, auditor basic Darren Noonan advised CBC Information he believes his workplace does have the authority to research municipal funds underneath the Audit Act as a result of municipalities obtain provincial funding.

However Noonan stated his workplace is just too busy proper now with a particular audit on the province’s COVID-19 spending, including that its major mandate “is to carry [the provincial] authorities accountable.”

On the similar closed-door assembly, Doiron stated councillors voted to dismiss Kelly with out understanding how a lot it will value metropolis taxpayers in severance. He stated he requested however was supplied with no reply.

He maintains if an investigation had been launched — and located Kelly had acted inappropriately — the chief administrative officer might need been fired with trigger, and town would not have been on the hook for his severance bundle.

“I’ve residents in my ward saying, ‘Please do not give our tax cash away,'” Doiron stated. “And lo and behold, that is what we did.”