Three Moose Jaw councillors hit with sanctions

Trio alleged to have failed in their duty to deal with personnel matter at city facility

Three Moose Jaw city councillors have been disciplined after an investigation into a “serious personnel matter” involving the body responsible for the city’s hockey arena and other facilities.

“(The) Executive Committee has concluded that the three members of Council who had constituted the DFFH Board failed in their duty to deal with a serious personnel matter at the DFFH. This constituted a failure in governance,” said a report released to the media Monday.

DFFH stands for Downtown Facility and Field House. In a meeting last month, councillors went into a private session to deal with the matter. Mayor Fraser Tolmie later announced that the board, which is responsible for Mosaic Place and the Yaracentre, would be dissolved and authority transferred to the city manager.

The councillors facing sanction are Brian Swanson, Scott Mcmann and Crystal Froese. They were not present for the earlier meeting in August.

The report said the degree of responsibility differed among the three, with the harshest penalties going to Swanson, who was DFFH board chair at the time.

He will no longer receive direct access to confidential reports, though those relating to city council committees would still be available for review at the city clerk’s office.

The sanctions will remain in effect until the end of his term.

All three councillors will be barred from the position of deputy mayor, or as chair or vice chair of any standing committee. But Froese and Mcmann will see their sanctions expire later next year, not at the end of their terms.

The exact nature of the personnel matter was not apparent from the report. But it said there are indications of “multiple failures by and concerns with the management and governance of the DFFH, including a dysfunctional workplace and failures by both management and the Board, indicating a lack of competence.”

The issue apparently came to the attention of the mayor’s office in July of this year. But concerns about the DFFH went back to at least 2016, when a consultant pointed to alleged morale and governance issues.

The general manager at that time, Doug Campbell, later resigned. The DFFH operated without a general manager until Graham Edge took over in January 2018. The report said he then received personnel complaints from multiple employees.

When he pursued the matter with the board, there was“either conflicting direction or lack of support from the Board resulting in no clear path being outlined,” according to the report.

There are also allegations the board failed to take proper minutes as it addressed the matter. Swanson, in his position as board chair, is accused of taking confidential files and then giving them to his private lawyer.

There was later a third-party investigation into the dispute. The investigator concluded “the DFFH Board did not exercise the necessary due diligence to ensure the investigation was properly conducted and reported to them in a timely manner, but they did not consciously suppress the investigation as alleged.”

He also found there was a prima facie case that the complaints were “valid.”

According to the report, the city has retained legal services from two external law firms and shared the status of the matter with provincial officials.

All three councillors will be barred from the position of deputy mayor, or as chair or vice chair of any standing committee.