I write to you today with concerns surrounding the appointment of former councillor Gilles Prefontaine to the role of chief community development officer for the City of St. Albert – which for all intents and purposes is the No. 2 position in City Administration.
I firmly believe that Mr. Prefontaine should have resigned or at minimum taken leave from city council after he decided to pursue a position of senior level management with the corporation. Ethical guidelines and conflict of interest avoidance measures are in place to not only prevent a conflict of interest, but these guiding principles are in place to avoid a situation where a conflict has a potential to exist. Looking at this from a public perspective, without a doubt in my mind, the potential for a conflict of interest exists. Frankly, it does not matter if a conflict actually arose, but clearly the potential existed and in the eyes of the public, there will always be a perceived conflict.
As timelines are not fully known when Mr. Prefontaine submitted his CV for the position, certainly during the recruiting process Mr. Prefontaine would have been voting on budget requests, FTE Requests, Business Cases, motions, etc. that would directly affect the very departments he would eventually oversee. I am not saying that Mr. Prefontaine allowed this to affect his decision making – that is actually irrelevant. I say it is irrelevant because it is not about whether a conflict existed – the potential was there and the perception will linger.
While it is my understanding that the current council was not involved in the selection process, I have a hard time understanding how someone in administration and even at the recruitment firm level didn’t take a step back and see the potential for a conflict to exist. I personally believe that the best course of action would have been for Mr. Prefontaine to resign of his own accord prior to submitting his CV or at very minimum the City’s Human Resources department should have requested resignation prior to acceptance of the application.
The following is from Council Policy C-CG-08 (Council Code of Conduct). I added some additional commentary.
Standard 1: The primary obligation of Council members is to represent the best interests of the community of St. Albert. This accountability supersedes all other interests.
Can [former] Councillor Prefontaine reflect on this process and say that the steps taken and the process as it stands represented the best interest of the community?
Standard 4: Council members must avoid conflicts of interest.
I would argue this policy statement would encompass avoidance of perceived conflicts and avoidance of situations where conflicts may arise.
Standard 4(b): Council members shall not use their positions to obtain employment with the corporation for themselves, family members, or close associates.
I believe this speaks for itself but will add that while Mr. Prefontaine may or may not have leveraged his council position to secure this role, the potential exists and the perception in the eyes of the public will be as such.
Standard 4(c): Council members will disclose their affiliations or interests with an organization that may affect their decision making on matters before council regarding that organization.
Mr. Prefontaine should have disclosed his interests with the city [organization] as it may affect his decision making. Again, council’s own policy clearly states that.
While the above are just a sampling of the code of conduct, any nominal ethics guideline would clearly indicate different steps should have been taken in the recruitment process. While there may not be a citable rule that clearly says what should or should not happen, rules cannot be written for every situation. Perhaps the lack of legislation surrounding this issue of council recruitment to administration shows the largely unprecedented nature of this move.
This is not a personal attack on Mr. Prefontaine. He certainly has a passion for community development which may serve him well in this role. I am simply trying to highlight how this looks to someone involved in the community that is at arm’s length of the situation.
I leave you with this question for reflection.
If Mr. Prefontaine was not a member of council, would he have been a primary candidate for this position?
While I, and even you as council members, cannot answer this question – I hope administration has a defensible answer to this as I suspect that it will be a lingering issue for the remainder of this term.
Dana Popadynetz, St. Albert
