Who All Is Leaving City Hall?
We know that Todd Corrigal is one of the casualties in the recent departure of City Manager Beth James. Last week Corrigall was listed on the city staff contact list as the Communications Manager, this week his name no longer appears in the list of managers at city hall.
Are there any other members of the city staff who have departed? We don’t know and we put forward this contention – if the City can issue a media release announcing a person’s hiring, clearly a personnel matter, why can they not issue a similar release announcing the employee’s departure? Other than this is the case in a high profile departure such as that of the City Manager, we are told that the end of employment is a staff or personnel or HR matter and therefeore can’t be spoken about. The taxpayer, or employer, might find that strange indeed.
We have good information into the departure of both James and Corrigall, but to be certain that should come from City Hall to be fair to both sides.
In the FOI filed by 250 News last Sunday, we are now in receipt of that request. We have asked for information related to both James and Corrigall and are now in the waiting game.
The matter of severance may annoy some people but the fact remains that if you are dismissed from your employ, or leave because you feel that the employer has mistreated you in some fashion, you are entitled to receive some compensation.
We may be able to argue that we should not allow senior employees of the city to enjoy this benefit, but if we did have such a practice in place, it could very well reduce the number of people seeking employment with the city. During the previous Mayor’s tenure there was severance handed out, in some cases large amounts in the mind of the average taxpayer.
So where are we now, well we will wait until such time as the material from the Freedom of Information request is forwarded to us and from there on to the taxpayers.
You may ask why the interest. I have often said, save a few major cities in Canada, there is no opposition in a city council, and the opposition it has often been said falls at the feet of the media in the community. It is their responsibility to ask the questions just as the opposition would in federal and provincial politics and from there pass it on to the general taxpayers for their consideration.
That loosely put should be the role of the media and while it appears in some cases that we may go overboard, if the media did not take on this responsibility , then who would?
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
Severance is required by law (the Employment Standards Act) if the employee is fired other than for cause. The City does not have the option of not paying it. However, the amount of severance required by law is much less than what these senior employees are getting. The requirement for employees of three years or more is one week’s pay per year worked up to a maximum of eight weeks.
If the employer gives written notice of termination in advance of the termination date, the remaining period of employment counts as severance pay. That is, instead of paying a month’s severance, the employer can notify the employee one month in advance.
It isn’t going overboard at all. Hall promised transparency and openness just like Shari promised a 10% cut across the board. People need to be held to their words.
Maybe cupe needs extra space for their office at city hall! ;)
The amount of severance required under Employment Standards legislation is completely different and a pittance compared to the amount of severance awarded by judges when these go to court. The common law awards vary depending on a wide range of variables including age of the employee, employment prospects in that field, the reason for the departure etc. It would have to be pretty extreme criminal behavior or gross negligence for an employee not to be awarded severance. If an employer wants to stay out of court, they pay close to what may be awarded in the court, otherwise you spin the roulette wheel and hope they go away peacefully with ES guidelines only. These are high profile jobs and would warrant a much higher package that the average person in an average job.
As a taxpayer, do you want this in court? I certainly don’t and I don’t think that it is reasonable to expect the specifics of something that will have a huge impact on someone’s future livelihood to be out in the public. Severance is inevitable and it is NOT one week per year of service for highly paid administrators.
The pool of talent for senior municipal positions is limited, and the frequency of new Mayors and Councils “cleaning house” has led to virtually all senior municipal managers inegotiating terms and conditions of severance when they are hired. It becomes a contractual obligation, and not a situation where Councils get whipsawed when they hand out pink slip
Well said PGDreamer. Court is expensive. Trust me, no one wants to get, let go. Replacing your job at this level is not always easy and if you put your heart in it, the loss of income and identity is huge.
It may seem dumb but I sure would like to know who I’m paying to sit and work for the city of PG. It may be a small amount each year but if someone is getting canned I’d like to know how much they get once they leave. No future endeavours from me! Good riddance.
Well said, Ben! Far too many secrets at City Hall.
You and Elaine are doing our area a great service.
The PG Free Press has also helped me with problems I have had with the City in the past.
I can’t say the same thing about the PG Citizen, who, I believe, is owned by Glacier Media.
I thought Lynn hall was going to run a transparent city hall. Guess not
Thanks Ben. Keep up the good job.
I enjoy reading your “one man’s opinions.
Well I for one welcome the “departures” from City Hall, clearly we were not going to hang on to Beth, she was a “hired gun”. The communications dude clearly didn’t serve any real purpose as his position was redundant. So if we keep clearing out and breaking up the “little empires” within City Hall we can get to a transparent city government.
I don’t believe that this is an issue of transparency. I think The Mayor isn’t allowed to state the terms of the severance, or the reason for leaving at this time. In the original story, posted on O250, he encouraged Mr Meisner to file a Freedom of Information Request. That makes me think that he’d like to let us all know, but can’t.
“I don’t believe that this is an issue of transparency. I think The Mayor isn’t allowed to state the terms of the severance, or the reason for leaving at this time”
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Exactly. I’d hazard a guess that it’s a legal issue plain and simple. People may not like it, but that’s almost certainly the reality.
Good article and good discussion, Ben. Lyn Hall is doing a good job – he knows what needs to be done and he knows what he can or cannot talk about. And he’s DOING what needs to be done!
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2015 @ 6:33 PM by akanemo
Good article and good discussion, Ben. Lyn Hall is doing a good job – he knows what needs to be done and he knows what he can or cannot talk about. And he’s DOING what needs to be done!
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Good grief. How could you not gag while typing that?
NMG: “Exactly. I’d hazard a guess that it’s a legal issue plain and simple. People may not like it, but that’s almost certainly the reality.”
Hm. I wonder if the same people saying this were supporting Skakun when he leaked that info to the CBC? Just wondering.
There is no great secret that is being concealed. The outgoing city manager negotiated not only her salary when she came in but also the amount she would get if she was to leave. The story that ran when she was hired detailed that amount. Her employment contract stated in specific terms what she would get and it was probably signed by her and the former mayor. It is much more than what is called for under the labour standards act but it was agreed to by both parties so cut and dry. no more no less.
Any other managers let go would get a severance package but it would depend on a number of variables including how long they had been with the city.
Mayor Hall was mandated by the elector to clean up city hall and is doing it well.
If I was applying for a top job as a manger, you darn right I would include a hefty severance. There is no guarantee in these types of job. Take a look at the help wanted ads for CEO’s.
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