Four months have passed since a retirement party for a senior staff member who served close to 25 years for the municipality, but councillors here continue to verbally spar over the details of the planning and cost for the event.
The gloves came off on Aug. 15 as mayor Lou Maieron presented another report on the April retirement party for town manager Lisa Hass.
Maieron, who has repeatedly initiated the conversation about the $5,000 party, told council he wanted to “take the high road,” then noted “it’s too bad things turned out this way.”
He said it is his hope the municipality can develop a policy for such occasions going forward to ensure council is “more open and accountable.”
Councillor John Brennan said the mayor has not handled the situation appropriately.
“This whole thing troubles me a great deal,” said Brennan. He later added, “Now I’m beginning to understand why staff might take this as a personal attack.”
Brennan said Maieron’s claim that he did not know whether or not taxpayers would be footing the bill for the party is bogus.
He pointed to email correspondence between the mayor and finance director Sharon Marshall dated March 6 – almost two full months before the party – that clearly explains taxpayers would indeed be covering the cost of the event.
“You had ample opportunity to address it,” Brennan told the mayor.
Further, Brennan said the copy of email correspondence provided by Maieron “looks remarkably suspect.” Brennan suggested the mayor may have added in some questions about costs after the original email was sent.
Maieron replied, “There was no text added.” On the topic of the March email correspondence, the mayor said, “I forgot that I wrote that [email].”
The mayor said he is also now aware that in the past celebrations for staff members with long service to the municipality cost several thousand dollars – but council should have had a discussion about the party.
“I think if it was more transparent … we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” Maieron said.
Brennan said the mayor can’t apply one standard to the rest of council and to staff and not apply it to himself.
“You berated staff. You berated council,” Brennan told Maieron.
Councillor Barb Tocher said Hass’ party was in line with similar celebrations in the past. She said the mayor had two months to bring forward any concerns, including at the time regular bills were passed by council.
“We all endorsed those costs by passing those accounts for payment,” said Tocher.
On the topic of transparency, she said it was Maieron who approved moving the town’s annual Christmas party – and with it the economic benefit – out of the municipality.
Maieron said staff suggested moving the Christmas party and he agreed as long as the cost was the same. He also noted he was the first mayor to introduce long service awards for staff.
Then Maieron hinted that when he tried to ask questions about Hass’ party, staff told him to keep quiet on the details.
That comment generated a look of bewilderment from at least one staff member at the meeting.
The mayor then turned his attention to his fellow councillors, accusing three of them of privately choosing to increase the value of Hass’ retirement gift from $250 to close to $700.
“That’s not what happened,” Tocher replied loudly. She again mentioned Maieron had two months to address the issue, but never did.
“I didn’t know that I had asked,” Maieron said of the March email correspondence. “Then I found out that I asked.”
Councillor Deb Callaghan said she never once had a question from a resident about the cost for Hass’ party – but she did have a few about why the mayor kept bringing it up.
“I don’t think staff did anything wrong,” said Callaghan, noting they followed guidelines established in the past. She added, “I regret how this has been handled,” and then apologized to any staff that may have been “embarrassed.”
Maieron replied, “People thanked me for having the courage to bring it up.”
Then, though it was unclear if he was speaking to staff our councillors, the mayor added, “If you can’t respect the person sitting in the mayor’s chair, at least respect the position.”
