Some St. Albert residents are calling on the provincial minister of Municipal Affairs to investigate the City of St. Albert over the hiring of Gilles Prefontaine. “It was extremely embarrassing for St.
Some St. Albert residents are calling on the provincial minister of Municipal Affairs to investigate the City of St. Albert over the hiring of Gilles Prefontaine.
“It was extremely embarrassing for St. Albert,” said Kristin Toms, one of the three residents who attached their names to a report sent to the minister, premier and St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud on Monday asking for an investigation.
Prefontaine is a now-former councillor who resigned from his elected position last April to take on a city staff position, the chief community development officer.
The position was formerly known as the general manager of planning and engineering.
“The optics of it were terrible,” Toms said.
Along with Steve Stone and Bill Tuchak, Toms authored a report that included information compiled from a freedom of information request about Prefontaine's hiring, Internet research and council minutes. She also said they'd spoken to Coun. Sheena Hughes, Coun. Cam MacKay and Coun. Bob Russell.
Tuchak filed the freedom of information request and paid for it himself.
“I was disappointed in what I received and I shared the response with my friends,” he said, adding he was disappointed with the amount of redacted material that came through.
The report contains many documents, including lists of the vacated positions in the planning and engineering department, information on the recruitment search, emails and council agenda and minute information.
Toms said one of the concerns is the appearance that Prefontaine used his position as councillor to gain the chief community development officer job. She was also surprised to learn Prefontaine does not have a bachelor's degree.
Stone, one of the other report authors, spoke at council's standing committee of the whole meeting. Copies of the report were distributed to council at that time.
Stone said he wanted to “highlight some disgraceful actions” around the situation.
Based on research done on the names that appeared as part of the freedom of information request, they were highly qualified to lead the engineering and planning department, Stone said. Prefontaine has an MBA from Heriot-Watt University a university in Scotland that offers distance learning MBAs, which do not require a bachelor's degree for entry.
During a recess called so city manager Patrick Draper could speak to council privately, Prefontaine confirmed to a crowd of staff waiting to return to the meeting that it was true he doesn't have a bachelor's degree but he does have a master's in business administration.
Stone suggested to council that the role of the city manager should be reviewed and should no longer have sole discretion in hiring for senior management, which he said should be done by a committee appointed by council. He also said Prefontaine should be relieved of his post and could re-apply in a new competition.
Stone added council should ask for a provincial inquiry to be held.
The meeting was being chaired by MacKay who allowed Stone to have more than the usual five minutes for his presentation.
When the city was approached on Tuesday for responses from Draper and Prefontaine to the previous night's presentation from Stone, the Gazette was told the mayor would be the only one speaking to the issue.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said in an interview on Tuesday morning that the meeting chair has the discretion to allow longer presentations, though his personal practice is often to try and limit them to five minutes.
“Procedurally it was fine,” he said.
He said he doesn't know any of the details around Prefontaine's education, and hasn't spent anytime looking into the issue.
Council only has control over the hiring of one employee – the chief administrative officer, often called the city manager, Crouse pointed out.
“The city manager's responsible to figure out who the best people are for positions,” Crouse said, suggesting it would be problematic to involve council in other hiring.
He said the documents provided to council as part of a public presentation should be made available publicly.
He also defended the city and that department's attrition record, saying there are going to have different peaks and valleys when it comes to employees leaving.
The mayor said in a follow-up email that the source of the documents should be identified so they can be verified.
He raised concerns about the personal information that was shared. While the names were not read out during the meeting, the report contained information – drawn from attachments included in emails – about people who may have been candidates for the position and their qualifications.
Chief legislative officer Chris Belke said in an interview on Tuesday that the personal names should have been redacted when responding to the freedom of information request.
“It was inadvertently missed,” he said.
His comments during the Monday meeting regarding information the city did not provide through FOIP referred to the resume information of specific candidates provided to council by Stone. Belkes said he hadn't seen the package provided to council until Tuesday morning.
Coun. Bob Russell contacted the Gazette on Tuesday and said he would be writing his own letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, also advocating for an investigation into Prefontaine's hiring.
“I agree with many of the things they say (in the report),” he said. “What a detailed document.”
This is the second time in recent months that residents asked for an investigation by the minister into the affairs of the City of St. Albert.
Resident Murray Lambert said around Christmas a letter asking for such an investigation was sent with about 50 signatures on it, prompted by issues like the Prefontaine hiring, the handling of expenses and other concerns. They were told an investigation wouldn't be occurring yet, Lambert said, but he has been told the file has been left open.
Magharita Reghelini-Griffiths, a public affairs officer for Municipal Affairs, said the public can petition the minister for an inquiry but the number of signatures need to be electors from the municipality equal to 20 per cent of the population.
They can also be requested for by council, according to the Municipal Government Act.
The Municipal Government Act also notes inspections can be initiated by the minister or on request of council.
This 48-page document was supplied to St. Albert City Council's Committee of the Whole meeting on March 14. It outlines the investigative work Steve Stone and two other citizens conducted into the hiring of former councillor Gilles Prefontaine to the head of the city's Engineering and Planning department. Neither city manager Patrick Draper nor Prefontaine responded to the Gazette's request for interviews because all inquiries were directed to Mayor Nolan Crouse. The documents have been further redacted by the Gazette to eliminate personal information of candidates who were said to have applied for Prefontaine's position. Subjective inferences made by those who submitted the report were also redacted to by the Gazette due to accusations that can't yet be proven and could be potentially defamatory.
Download the redacted document here.
