The safety concerns at city hall Coun. Cathy Heron referred to in introducing a motion in council this week had to do with members of the public, not employees or councillors.
She clarified her comments in an interview following council’s July 4 decision to ask Municipal Affairs for a governance inspection. In introducing the motion, she referred to safety concerns from employees coming to work, staff members asking for locks on doors, and RCMP being called in to conduct interviews for the staff’s protection.
“There was a member of the public who had come in and hand-delivered a letter asking for someone – no, demanding for someone – to resign,” Heron said Wednesday, citing unnamed sources on staff.
She said the staff member handling this request felt intimidated, consulted with human resources, and subsequently filed a report with RCMP.
As for the desire to have locks installed, she said that was something she had overheard in passing conversation with a staff member.
Heron explained the connection between these events and the governance inspection is that both stem from the same incident – former manager Patrick Draper hiring former Coun. Gilles Prefontaine to a senior management position while he was a sitting councillor.
She said it is the public backlash to this decision that has caused the safety concerns.
“These members of the public are vocal, and wrapped up inside of the issue that spawned the inspection request,” she said. “And there’s certain members of council who are supportive in re-tweeting some of their comments, and using the word ‘corrupt.’ I just don’t find that appropriate.”
Coun. Bob Russell, who was prepared to make a similar motion July 4, argued the hiring was inappropriate and should be a subject of the inspection. Heron, on the other hand, said she felt an inspection would put the issue to rest and show neither Draper nor Prefontaine did anything inappropriate.
Interim city manager Chris Jardine said he wasn’t aware of any safety concerns within the governance or administrative side of the city, but confirmed there have been some concerns with members of the public.
“I can advise that public servants, sometimes we get some animated customers who come in and are maybe not happy with our decisions, some of our processes and such,” he said. “We are aware of some situations like that, and we’re actually doing some renovations in the building.”
Those renovations include moving away from the “open-concept” floor plans to create safer spaces for staff. The changes are nothing like bulletproof glass, but small changes like raising the height of counters and closing off an area so members of the public can’t simply walk behind a desk to get access to staff.
The goal here is to make it easier for a staff member to get to safety in the event somebody comes in who’s “a little over the top.”
St. Albert RCMP Cpl. Laurel Kading said she knew of no files involved police interviewing staff at city hall for their protection.
