“No Smiles at City Hall” – Dick’s Directive Under Fire
By Larry on Aug 13, 2012 with Comments 46
Monday night’s council meeting was all about the City Manager, David Dick, and he wasn’t there to hear any of it.
The Agenda for the General Committee meeting had two items on it:
- Motion (by Brian King): That the City Manager’s directive requiring Directors to report all contact with Councillors to the City Manager be repealed.
- Motion (by Peggy McLean): That the City Solicitor prepare a report for Council with repect to the limits of accessing of municipal documents by City Council.
The first councillor to speak on the motion was Joan Cripps. She spoke in favour of the motion, stating that the issue had been discussed behind closed doors with no results. No direction was given to the City Manager as a result of the meeting.
Deputy Mayor, Lisa Harris, fought hard to bury the motion. She questioned whether or not the item should be discussed in public, as she felt there would be some personal or personnel issues raised that should happen in a Committee of the Whole. She made the motion to move the discussion to Committee of the Whole, but City Clerk Cathy Goguen advised that the issue was with the directive, and not a personnel matter, and therefore could not be moved to Committee of the Whole.(Committee of the Whole is a behind closed doors meeting where items are discussed of a personal nature. Nothing can be voted on behind closed doors. Any votes arising from the meeting must happen in chambers.)
Councillor Williams said she attempted to discuss the Manager’s directive at the orientation sessions held after the election in the spring, but says nothing got resolved.
Harris then went on to say that the motion was a disgrace, and nothing but an effort to take power away from the manager, and to discredit him. “It’s personal,” she said. She argued that the manager had the right to know what was going on in the city, and that it only made sense that Directors would tell the manager when something was going on and when a Councillor approached them with a problem.
Bill Fleiger said the staff at City Hall was terrified, eluding that the directive had something to do with it. He said he thought the Directors’ judgment to tell the Manager important issues should be trusted, and not be a directive.
Harris said she could not image Councillors and Directors discussing anything that could not be told to the Manager. She said, “the motion is ridiculous! The City should be moving forward, and motions like this move us in the wrong direction.”
Cormier agreed. He thought motions like these look bad on council, and that the Directors and Manager deserve the council’s trust. All councillor’s seemed to agree that Directors for the city had good judgment, but most thought Directors were now operating under the threat of the directive, and the atmosphere had changed for the worse since the directive was issued.
Harris’s next move was to try to get the motion tabled. A tabled motion does not get voted on at the meeting, but gets discussed more thoroughly in private before a public vote. John Foran, Chairman of the General Committee, also thought the motion should be tabled, largely because the City Manager was not present at the meeting. Dick was on vacation last week and was expected to be at the meeting, but was not present.
The motion to table the motion was defeated 5-3. Voting to table was Harris, Lordon, and Mayor Cormier. Voting against tabling the motion was Cripps, Williams, King, McLean and Fleiger.
With the defeat of the motion to table, as well as the attempt to move the issue to Committee of the Whole being defeated, the original motion was moving toward a final vote after all the councillors were given a chance to speak on the motion.
Cripps said she didn’t want this council to go the same way the previous one went. She expressed confidence in the Directors, but said the culture of snitching and going behind people’s backs had to stop.
Lordon made a case for the Manager saying the directive was an effective way to follow up on problems that were brought to Directors by members of Council.
McLean said she thought it was a waste of time for Directors to report every encounter with a Councillor to the Manager.
Brian King, who presented the motion, defended it by saying that the manager’s directive should have been brought to council when it came into effect, rather than being forced upon the managers. “Something is wrong at City Hall. Staff is unhappy, and I want to bring back a few smiles around here.” He said he was not going to sit by and let staff be mistreated. He urged anyone who doubted that staff was being mistreated and was unhappy to talk to some of the people in HR if they wanted their eyes opened.
King also said that this motion did not mean that the city was moving backward. “The city is still moving forward.”
Just before the matter came to a vote, Deputy Mayor Harris wanted to know if Dick’s directive was in writing. “No,” said Foran.
“Well how can we vote to repeal something that is not in writing?”
McLean said that Dick stated the directive during a Committee of the Whole meeting. Another councillor said they had seen it in an email. After the meeting, MO))) asked City Clerk Cathy Goguen how old the directive was. She said she was unsure as it had been in place before she took the Clerk’s job. Another Director acknowledged it was given to them verbally from Dick.
Before the vote, Foran said he was embarrassed that this motion could not have been handled outside of chambers. The vote passed 5-3: King, Cripps, Williams, Fleiger, McLean (for); Harris, Lordon, Cormier (against).
Council Seeking Details on Dick Contract
The second motion of the night dealing with what documents councillors can and can’t see started as a delicate dance. Peggy McLean presented the motion asking the City Solicitor to prepare a report outlining Councillors’ limits. The City Clerk explained that the public could see minutes, bylaws and budgets, but there was no policy stipulating what councillors could see.
According to Chairman Foran, Manager David Dick had committed to bringing in a professional with experience in privacy matters to educate the council.
This is when Councillor Cripps cleared up the situation. She said Tanker Malley of the previous council had tried several times to uncover the details of the City Manager’s contract with no success. No one on council had ever seen the details of his contract. No idea how much he is paid, the duration, or other benefits.
Chairman Foran seemed incredulous that council could hire someone and never know how they were going to be compensated.
The motion passed unanimously.
mike i am very happy the people didnot vote you into council as i can clearly see you have no clue how a city should be run… a council should be setting policies not running the city or would you of micromanaged like past councils let the manager and his directors do the job… and yes some times the directors will not like what the manager has to say because clearly in your job your boss is the prov of nb and you do not like all of their policies do you…..
I am glad that they didn’t vote for me as well, because they did me a favour. Thank God, they elected 5 individuals that have the courage to challenge the “old boys club” and I applaud them. I do know that bullying is wrong, and a dictatorship is wrong. I refuse to argue with somebody that does not have the courage to use their real name. As I previously stated, you are a coward. Listen closely, I DO NOT WORK for the province of NB. I can see you have a problem with reality, so I will leave it at that.
I forgot to mention that Councillor John Foran also voted to keep this secret. If Councillor Foran is looking to make a provincial comeback, I hope that he thinks long and hard about keeping things secret because that is what got his party defeated last election. Just saying. If Mr.Dick is a bully than voting to keep it secret is not the way to get re-elected.
The city of miramichi has tradionally had good employees who could go about their work without looking over their shoulder for the type of abuse which is currently being carried out within the city. This city manager has selected a chosen few directors to be on the inside and these people can do no wrong. If i am not mistaken, the recent resignation of a city director, could possibly be the result of bullying. Why was this man hired in the first place? His past record does not speak well for him.
Start with the manager’s contract and then check out the fire chief’s as well. Remember the guy with the big expensive half ton truck which he can use for personal use. The poor tax payers of this city….what a shame.
HEY CKYOODCA you sound like an old city employee or a past politician… you know more about city hall then alot of us so why dont you run for council next time we need smart people like you hell the province needs you……
Shelly…you just shown your true colours..You are indeed resp. for the city web page..Funny your email is now there..where is Mr Dicks email address? WE PAY HIM … yet WE CANNOT contact him???
you can contact david dick at david.dick@miramichi.org. this info in available on the city website.
http://www.miramichi.org/en/insidecityhall/citymanager.asp
No it is not! Invisible to the public…and he must share a phone with his assistant?? Same Phone number?
Why so secretive?
It is in this section Dave Winfield
http://www.miramichi.org/en/insidecityhall/contactus.asp?_mid_=220
Not everyone likes their boss. That’s just the way it is. If every unpopular boss was fired we would be in a constant search. I’ve always preached — council will make progress when we watch the Rogers telivised meetings and do not recognize most councillors around the table, which ends a river runs through it mentality.
I’ve had personal interaction with the manager when taxes were about to be raised by 13 cents in 2011. He rose to the challenge and kept them under three.
Everyone has to get by the good o’le boys club. We’ve had two city managers who left with excessive payouts but because they were locals little was said.
In two council meetings I’ve seen just more ole town politics.
If Miramichi is to get more jobs it has to get by the axe grinding and north vs south mentality
…..and Nero fiddled as Rome burned…
Why would an Elected person go on here and say negative things about a city employee?
Thanks…you just cost the tax payers a million bucks…further..mr king .. with his motion has brought a personnell issue to the public…another million…kudos to Lisa for seeing another lawsuit..
But overall…who did mr dick tee off in chatham? Only time Brian takes a stand is when he takes care of his own….right brian??
I really can’t believe that people are being bullied on here for not using your real name. If you feel like using your real name on a message board is smart then you should really do some research before you continue to post on here
Shelly???… Where are you???
Provincial and Federal Governments have rules in place that demand that all communications between elected representatives and department bureaucrats must be logged and reported so why does the City of Miramichi council think that they should be able to have private conversations with individuals that run the departments??? It should worry everyone more to know that the council members want private access to City officials with nobody knowing about it! The City Manager should know what is going on at all times in order to properly be able to manage the City. Common folks! Wake up – this opens the door to allow the old boys club to puppet master city officials through the council members that they backed… And it leaves the taxpayers open to being ripped off by back room deals!!!!! All communication should be tracked and available to the public not hidden from everyone!