"Can you all recognize that I had no malicious intent?” pleaded Midland Coun. Carole McGinn in an impassioned discussion during Wednesday night’s council meeting.
Despite her plea, council passed a unanimous motion to suspend McGinn’s pay for 30 days following a closed session and the presentation of the town’s integrity commissioner’s report findings.
McGinn provided a lengthy written statement to read within her allotted time for council’s comments. Her emotionally-charged dialogue continued on through 10 full minutes uninterrupted while she recalled the events from her perspective that occurred on and after Jan. 8 that included an email critical of the town's handling of her then-partner's medical issues.
Deputy Mayor Mike Ross articulated his thoughts regarding the situation.
“I could live with the reaction at the time of the incident,” said Ross. “I get it; somebody’s in peril and you think you’re trying to do the right thing.
“But to send an email, from the town email (as Councillor Carole McGinn), dated 18 days later: I can’t accept it.”
Citing a post Ross had read on social media, he reiterated, “’there should be no tolerance for workplace harassment’, so I will be supporting this also.”
The hardship of McGinn’s loss of pay, her sole source of income, prompted her to share the difficulties of being a single parent with creditors breathing down her neck.
“Can you please recognize I am now a single mom? I’m a single-income household. I now live without (the employee).” McGinn’s voice wavered as she continued.
“Can you also please recognize I am the only council member, ever, financially penalized. And I am now facing it again. What a lot of people don’t know is: I got laid off. My budget is already dangerously tight.”
Mayor Stewart Strathearn's final words on the motion held a stricter outlook on the councillor’s actions and circumstances.
“I would like to suggest that the last time there was a ruling on this, it was taken into consideration: ability to pay. The organization accommodated that. Here we are again, basically a like issue, and we’re being asked to consider ability to pay.
“At the risk of looking like Simon Legree (fictional slave owner and cruel antagonist of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) or somebody like that, I would suggest to you that we can do that if council wishes. But I would suggest that I wouldn’t stretch it out.”
Strathearn continued, “There’s a reason for a monetary penalty; there’s a reason that the Integrity Commissioner has put that forward. The circumstances of the individual has changed — no doubt about that — but I would personally feel like ‘once burned, twice shy’.”
The report presented by Principles Integrity, the town's integrity commissioner, details the context of the initial incident, thoroughly and clinically.
McGinn’s point of contention is that her decision to call 911 for her then-spouse’s apparent stroke symptoms and then follow it up weeks later with a widely circulated email was necessary due the course of action taken by staff.
But the later email led to the complaint being filed Feb. 3 by Laura Yourkin, the town's director human resources /health & safety.
The allegations were that McGinn attempted to improperly use her influence, interfered with staff and administration operations, failed to treat staff with respect in an intimidating manner, and falsely impugned the professional reputation and practice of staff.
The situation started on Jan. 8 when McGinn's partner (now separated), a town employee, complained of neck pain to his boss, Midland's operations manager. The manager directed the employee to stay in a lunchroom to see if his health improved, which the employee chose to go against by leaving and operating a work vehicle.
He was asked to return, and two hours later was noticed by the manager to be suffering further medical distress through shaking and a change in breathing. The employee asked to leave, but several times declined needing to go to the hospital and also needing to be driven home.
McGinn called at that point, and the employee answered the call by placing her on the speakerphone setting.
“I thought because I was named, I could read (the incident report),” explained McGinn in her lengthy pre-written words to council.
“That’s not the case. As a Councillor, I cannot. I am referenced in one sentence, and not by my name but by a title. I was told it says: the spouse requested 9-1-1 be called; this is true.
“I called (the employee) as his partner. I hadn’t heard from him for a while, and knew he was experiencing pain. (He) always answers on speakerphone because he is deaf in one ear.
“He didn’t put me on speaker phone,” McGinn spoke with emphasis on the word ‘put’. “It is his default answer setting.”
Over the speakerphone, McGinn began giving instructions to the manager and lead hand who was also present. It was at this time that 9-1-1 was called, and paramedics transported the employee to the hospital.
As per the report, it was 18 days later on Jan. 26 when Coun. McGinn sent an email regarding "Ambulatory evac" to the operations manager, his executive director, the lead hand, two other operations employees, an HR coordinator, Yourkin and the mayor.
Noticeably absent from the distribution list was CAO David Denault, which goes against the town’s code of conduct.
It was the both the 18-day distance between correspondence as well as the perceived intimidation of McGinn’s power which many councillors took under consideration in making their decision to pass the motion.
This marks the second time McGinn has been impacted by the Integrity Commissioner in less than a year, having been punished through suspension of pay for 15 days due to failure in declaring a pecuniary interest involving that same town-employed partner.
Within McGinn's broad email this time were statements: that due to a bias against the employee at the operations centre, no one took the lead to offer emergency first aid; that slow response time to scenarios could lead to threat of life and medical intervention; to direct how emergencies should be handled before and after; that a qualified and competent responder was needed to assess, secure the employee and the scene, and call 9-1-1; and what the best practices should be adhered to moving forward.
On paper, the integrity commissioner’s findings relied upon the sections of the code of conduct regarding Improper Use of Influence, Respectful Workplace, and Conduct Respecting Staff (Rules 7, 12, & 13) to base their recommendations.
At Wednesday night’s council meeting, Janice Attwood-Petkovski, a co-principal with Principles Integrity (along with Jeffrey Abrams), provided a reason for the origin of the investigation.
“The complaint arose because of the email that was sent to a long list of recipients 18 days after the event,” Attwood-Petkovski explained, “so the complaint was not about the call — the councillor taking charge of the situation; that certainly came out in the course of the investigation.
“The explanation that the councillor has provided, and that we have heard extensively: it’s dramatic but it’s incorrect,” added Attwood-Petkovski.
“There wasn’t a crisis occurring, and the issue was well in hand. Yes there is a recording, we’ve listened to that recording, we have a copy of that recording. It certainly corroborates our understanding that events were being managed without the interference of the councillor.
“With respect to our recommendation: it has more to do with the fact that, from our perspective, there are a few cardinal rules for elected officials and municipal councils to respect, and certainly one of them is to… to ‘stay in your lane’,” Attwood-Petkovski said, borrowing the phrase Coun. Bill Gordon had used earlier in the meeting, “and not to get into the operational issues.”
Prior to Atwood-Petkovski’s statement, McGinn related having suffered through the events leading up to the meeting’s outcome, and asked one more question: “Can you all recognize that I had no malicious intent?”
It was a plea which swayed some members of council to inquire as to a structured payment plan which would allow McGinn to serve the punishment while staying financially afloat. Principles Integrity responded that it was only up to the integrity commissioner to present the report, whereas council had the power to dictate how punishment would be served.
Attwood-Petrovski noted that the integrity commissioner can recommend up to 90 days suspension of pay while treating each allegation as a separate complaint, and as such leniency was being granted to McGinn by treating her report as a single complaint and reducing the recommendation from 90 days to 30, though adding “it’s a significant transgression and ought to be recognized as such”.
At the one-hour mark of Wednesday night’s meeting, McGinn once more held the floor and recounted her actions during the 18-day period to an already weary council who had heard the words multiple times by then, prompting a visible reaction from Strathearn in which McGinn took offence.
“Please stop shaking your head, Mr. Mayor; I feel you’re not validating my feelings and my emotions!”
The comment drew a point of order from Ross.
After the meeting, Strathearn explained why he shook his head during Coun. McGinn’s emotional explanations.
“I think it boils down to the fact that employees are entitled to a respectful and safe workplace,” explained Strathearn.
“First and foremost, (McGinn) doesn’t seem to understand her role as a councillor and the impact that the title Councillor has; I said that in my expression as to why I was going to support the integrity commissioner. After 2 1/2 years, that seems a bit strange given that we had formal training in this; code of conduct as well, which she violated.
“And the fact that she would intervene in the way that she did — and it was patently obvious from the integrity commissioner that staff had done everything appropriate that they were supposed to do, and frankly then some. The councillor was talking about her ability to pay, that she was emotionally distressed, and that sort of thing. And I understand that,” Strathearn sympathized.
“But to turn around and 18 days later and say that staff did not fulfill their responsibilities, and basically go after the person in charge, was to me just not acceptable.”
Strathearn further explained how McGinn’s disregard for following standard communication protocol through the CAO was unacceptable.
“Frankly, that’s how she’s done a number of these emails to everybody,” he said, citing union representatives as an example, “instead of dealing with it in the manner prescribed.
“So I don’t have a lot of empathy anymore for that behaviour from this particular councillor.”
Within the dramatic first hour, the mayor also commented on McGinn’s experience as a first-time councillor by saying, “2 1/2 years in, I keep hearing (her say) ‘I don’t know what the process is’.”
After the meeting, McGinn responded to that remark.
“I had never, ever, been in the position where I called my partner and had to request 9-1-1 to be called. It was a mistake that I wrote ‘D.D.’; it wasn’t that I knew better or didn’t know better. And in emails that I have on my computer, I explained that it was me using my phone, not my laptop. On my laptop, if I write ‘D.D.’? David Denault comes up.
“Did (the mayor’s remarks) sting? Yeah, it stung. He was talking to my competency. This had nothing to do with my competency or my abilities, with my knowing any better. It was an error based on the machine and the technology I was using. And immediately upon being notified, I explained it, I apologized, and I changed it.
“That, to me, was a defamation of character,” McGinn concluded, “and it didn’t need to be said that way.”
