For the second time in as many weeks, Springwater Township staff’s honesty and integrity has come under attack by a municipal councillor.
During the public portion of Wednesday’s special closed-session council meeting, Coun. Phil Fisher questioned the validity of the information provided by staff regarding the issue that had been discussed behind closed doors.
“From my perspective, I believe the last meeting, I believe that, I’ll call them falsehoods, we weren’t fed the correct information and uh…,” he started to say before being cut off by Mayor Jennifer Coughlin.
“Coun. Fisher, as I stated earlier, in accordance with our procedural bylaw…," she said.
“Absolutely, yea,” Fisher interrupted.
“Providing accusations like that is not appropriate at this table," the mayor said.
“What I’d like to say is questioning staff is not accusing staff,” Fisher said. “We are a board of directors, as you said earlier on tonight, and I think we do need to hold them to account, particularly when it comes to things like I mentioned previously.
“I’m sorry if some people took it that way, but it is our job to question certain things, mayor," he added.
Moments earlier, Coughlin stopped the meeting to read from council’s code of conduct, in response to earlier comments made by Fisher, which included questioning a staff member — “Are we misleading council or are we not doing our job? Or a combination of both?” — and speculating that staff fabricated the incident.
“I will remind members of council that no member shall maliciously or falsely impugn the professional or ethical reputation of any staff,” Coughlin read from the code of conduct. “So, before we carry on this evening, with allegations or accusations that there was a misinterpretation it is actually in contradiction of our code of conduct and anything moving forward, as chair, I will be pulling point of order on that.”
Mike Murphy, president of CUPE Local 2380, which represents the outside workers at Springwater Township, said the union’s goal is to provide the best quality public service possible, which is something they can achieve only by working together.
“When a member of council makes baseless accusations such as these it indirectly hurts the relationship we have with the employer,” Murphy told BarrieToday in an email. “The union’s position is that all members of council are expected to act in an appropriate way that is befitting of their office and to do their best to care for their constituents and employees.”
Murphy said it was unfortunate this occurred.
“Our local has worked very hard to build the trust of council and will continue to do so despite this,” he said.
Coughlin’s admonishment of Fisher’s behaviour was one of two he received Wednesday.
In his efforts to test the veracity of the claims put forth by staff regarding the cost of having a certain section of road plowed by an independent contractor, he reached out directly to that contractor. He told council he secured a much, much lower price.
Jeff Schmidt, the township’s chief administrative officer, noted his concerns with Fisher’s actions without naming him.
“I think it’s very inappropriate for a member of council, an individual member of council, to try to acquire or procure goods or services on behalf of the township,” he said. “Council as a whole has that authority under the procurement bylaw.
“To have a member of council do that I believe is inappropriate,” the CAO added.
