Investigation at the legislature
Speaker raised questions about officials in January
Speaker Darryl Plecas had concerns about the clerk of the legislature and the sergeant-at-arms in January, which is one of the reasons he hired a special adviser.
Alan Mullen, special adviser to the Speaker, said he was appointed to the role in January to assist with an investigation into clerk Craig James and sergeantat-arms Gary Lenz.
Both men have been suspended with pay pending a criminal investigation regarding their administrative duties. Two special prosecutors have been appointed.
No criminal charges have been laid.
Plecas has refused to comment on the investigation into the two senior officers of the legislature, whom he oversees.
Mullen’s disclosures Wednesday provide a clearer timeline of when allegations began to surface; however, he would not provide details on the focus or scope of the investigation or which unit of the RCMP is handling the case.
Mullen spent a decade as a correctional manager at Kent Institution, a maximum security federal penitentiary in Agassiz, which is where he met Plecas, who served as an adjudicator there.
Mullen said he considers Plecas a friend and that there was no open job competition for his role.
He said he does not have a law degree, but has experience conducting investigations, including internal probes for the Correctional Service of Canada.
Mullen said he forwarded the investigation to police in late August, and that a constitutional expert was consulted. The B.C. RCMP are investigating the case because they have jurisdiction over the legislature, said RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Janelle Shoihet.
The RCMP have released few details on the investigation, other than to say it concerns the pair’s “administrative duties.”
Attorney General David Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth refused to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
“I think that the public definitely deserves as much information as we can give them, but the reality is there’s an ongoing investigation,” Eby said.
During question period on Tuesday, Farnworth, who is also government house leader, read a motion to put Lenz and James on administrative leave.
MLAs had been briefed on the investigation by their caucus chairs, and the motion passed unanimously.
“When we were briefed, the three house leaders felt it was enough information to move forward with the motion,” said Sonia Furstenau, Green MLA for Cowichan Valley.
Furstenau said she has limited information on the investigation, and said it was “shocking” and “concerning” to see Lenz and James marched out of the legislature on Tuesday under police escort.
“It creates disruption in here and now there’s an investigation and there’s nothing for us to be doing, we’ll leave the RCMP to their work,” she said.
Reached at his home Wednesday afternoon, James said he was unable comment to further on the advice of his lawyer.
“As much as I would very much like to, I’d have to decline [comment] at this moment.”
James also said he couldn’t comment on Mullen and that he has not been given any additional information.
On Tuesday, he said neither he nor Lenz had any idea what the investigation is about.
As the motion was being read, Lenz and James were called into the Speaker’s office and told their suspensions were effective immediately.
The men turned in their work cellphones and will not have access to government servers, emails or documents.
Two special prosecutors, David Butcher and Brock Martland, were assigned to the case on Oct. 1.
Dermod Travis of Integrity B.C. said the public has a right to know what’s being investigated.
“When you have that vacuum of silence, it gets filled by rumour and innuendo,” he said.
He said he was shocked at the way two respected officers of the legislature were humiliated by being “perp walked” out of the building.
“I certainly think that what happened [Tuesday] is incredibly unfortunate in the manner in which it was carried out,” he said.
“Quite frankly, the harm that was done to the two individuals in question far outweighs the process that was used as a result of it.”
Gerald Baire, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, said the simultaneous suspensions of two senior legislative officers is unprecedented.
“These are positions of quite a bit of public trust,” he said.
“So anything that casts some doubt about these people is problematic.”
However, he questions whether the “dramatic” exit was necessary.
“I don’t know who that satisfies to do it that way,” he said. “You need to have some transparency around this but at the same time, people are owed some dignity.”
Lenz, the former head of Sidney/North Saanich RCMP, is in charge of security at the B.C. legislature. Last year, Lenz was paid a salary of $218,167 and claimed $23,606 in expenses.
Lenz implemented increased security measures at the B.C. legislature in the aftermath of a foiled terrorist attack on Canada Day in 2013.
James is the chief administrative officer for the legislature. He has been clerk since 2011 and has a lifetime appointment to the position.
He is responsible for its $70-million annual budget and procedural matters. Last year, he was paid a salary of $347,090 and claimed $51,649 in expenses.
James led an effort to make public MLA expenses, even after his own use of taxpayer dollars was criticized. In 2012, Integrity B.C. released documents showing James claimed $43,295 in travel expenses between August 2010 and December 2010, when he was acting chief electoral officer.