BARRY’S BAY – On July 10, a human resources committee meeting took place at the Township of Madawaska Valley Council Chambers at 1 p.m. The following day, it was confirmed council terminated their employment with Chief Administrative Officer Bryan Brown and former Councillor Shaun O’Reilly resigned. The meeting was not advertised in the Gazette’s newspaper and the Gazette did not know about the meeting at the time.
However, to date, the Gazette has followed-up. The following outlines what happened on July 10.
BROWN TALKS EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT AND INVESTIGATIONS
On the afternoon of July 10, Brown informed council that two recent human resource committee meetings, which took place on June 11 and 14, were not legally constituted.
The CAO at the time was not present for the meetings. Nor did he or council appoint an acting clerk.
Therefore, according to Brown, the meetings were in fact, not legally constituted.
“…And I feel as a statutory officer, under the Municipal Act that I had no choice but to advise the closed meeting investigator of these occurrences. I’m very sorry to have to do this.”
Councillor Linda Neuman at this time, as chairwoman of the committee said she would speak to the investigator and the public as to what happened.
“If I have done something wrong, I will definitely own up to that,” she said.
Also up for debate at the recent meeting, Brown voiced concerns about his employment contract.
“On March 28, we agreed to the terms and conditions of my employment,” Brown said.
On May 6, Brown added that those terms and conditions were confirmed at a council meeting.
“Since that time, I have repeatedly asked Mayor Shulist, on several occasions for a copy of the agreement, but I can’t get an answer and I’m frustrated,” Brown said. “I understand from Mayor Shulist that the county’s director of human resources was directed to draft the agreement over two months ago.”
The former CAO went on to say how he had already received his benefits, bonus and overtime paid out, as his one-year probationary period as the CAO ended – but he had yet to receive any word in regards to his updated employment contract.
“I just want to know what’s going on,” he stressed. “More specifically, was Mr. Beakley ever directed to draft the agreement, I ask that of the Mayor?”
Shulist responded initially by saying, “yes, at one point…”
However, the mayor went on to say, after a few meetings, more discussion came about and Brown’s contract then needed to be put on hold.
This hardly satisfied the former CAO.
Story continues in the July 24, 2013 issue of The Valley Gazette