A former employee of the Municipality of the County of Richmond is correct that the current council needs to conduct a review of her termination so that it doesn’t happen to others.
On Dec. 20, the municipality confirmed that it reached a resolution in Josette Marchand’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
“The parties agree that the termination of her employment was without cause. Both the municipality and Ms. Marchand are pleased with the outcome,” the municipality’s statement reads.
Although Marchand could not comment on specifics, she did confirm there was a financial agreement reached with the municipality as well.
Marchand and the municipality entered into a settlement conference on Nov. 1.
On January 4, 2019 in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, Marchand, of Petit de Grat, filed a notice of action against the municipality seeking compensation for the loss of income, compensation for the loss of employment benefits, and damages for the nature of her dismissal and false allegations of wrongdoing.
Upon starting with the municipality in 2011, Marchand’s statement of claim said she was employed as the Director of Recreation, Leisure and Community Relations. Marchand said in her time, net recreation costs were reduced by $100,000 and she secured over $200,000 in funding for the department through registration fees and special grants.
The statement of claim contends, “Marchand was regularly congratulated for her initiatives and was consistently under budget for her department.” The statement also states that “Marchand was never over-budget for travel and routinely made decisions that were always aimed at reducing costs.”
According to the statement, Marchand became ensnared in the spending scandal involving other municipal employees around March of 2016 when she “immediately” repaid a duplicate payment, which she brought to the attention of Richmond’s personnel at the same time.
Then in September 2016, an ombudsman’s report about Richmond expenses was leaked to the media and the report erroneously attributed an expense for attending a strip club in Houston, Texas to Marchand. She said she spent three weeks resolving this error with the ombudsman, without any assistance from Richmond, according to her statement.
After former Chief Administrative Officer Warren Olsen resigned in October 2016, he was replaced by interim CAO Maris Freimanis who advised Marchand in writing around May 1, 2017 that she was terminated for cause.
The statement said Marchand was escorted from the building and told she could not return to her desk.
Marchand’s statement recalls that after being provided with general reasons for her termination, no specific examples were given.
Marchand said all issues with expense reporting were the result of the municipality’s “failure to enforce policy and provide appropriate staff training,” and any wrongdoing was caused by other personnel.
Marchand said she was the target of allegations from other employees and some councillors, aimed at removing her from her position.
In the notice of defence, lawyer Lisa M. Gallivan said that the municipality denied Marchand was wrongfully dismissed or that it did anything that would render it liable for damages.
The municipality asserted that it followed proper procedure in terminating Marchand’s employment, and did not rush her from her office.
Marchand said the municipality was wrong to fire her, and she asserts that the “political climate” at the time created a “perfect storm” to allow it to take place.
Although she’s happy this ordeal is over, the former recreation director said it’s unfortunate, the current council now has to “put out fires” set by previous councils and wardens, including paying legal fees as a result of delays in the case.
Noting that changes to the Code of Conduct for councillors, as well as employees joining the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union will help avoid a repeat of this episode, Marchand recommends the current council conduct a “post-mortem” on how this transpired.
After years of unfairly taking hits to her reputation on social media, having information leaked from the Ombudsman’s Office, provincial media running stories with incorrect information, then more than four years of legal wrangling that will cost taxpayers, Marchand is correct that this cannot happen again.
What Marchand had to endure was inexcusable, and the reasons why were indefensible. There were financial irregularities, spending practices needed improvement, and the public had a right to be concerned, but that does not justify the malicious campaign against Marchand, for reasons that are not connected to transparency, accountability, nor fiscal prudence.
The municipality has given more teeth to its Code of Conduct, and now some employees are unionized, but those steps might not have discouraged elected officials from going on social media, nor would they have necessarily protected Marchand since she was considered management at the time.
These steps are only a start. To ensure history doesn’t repeat itself, a thorough review to determine what happened is the best path forward.