Tuesday, July 8, 2014

DeGagne Trial resumes today (updated)

Update on Tues July 8th at 2:39pm - Read below the City of WL's updated defence to Don DeGagne's updated Civil Claim, at the request of a reader




Original Blog Post:

After Don DeGagne, the former hired and dismissed City of Williams Lake CAO (Chief Administrative Officer), launched legal proceedings against the City of Williams Lake last April (read here) and having his civil trial commence this past November in Vancouver and then halt due to the unavailability to one of the City's witnesses (read here) - the Court case of DeGagne v Williams Lake (City) will resume today in Vancouver Supreme Court

The City will have 3 members of City Council and 2 Staff members attending in an official capacity at this court proceeding which is expected to last up to 5 days.  I don't expect an immediate decision on this matter for several weeks if not months after the trial is finished

It will be interesting to see if the result of the trial has any bearing on the Mayor's race this November...

In a late breaking development - Don DeGagne has now amended his original lawsuit to include a claim that the City of Williams Lake has defamed Mr. DeGagne's character by way of an anonymous letter sent to the home of Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook and the City made copies of the letter without confirming whether or not the contents of the letter were truthful

See below for the amended civil claim:







~SF

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has the email mentioned in the amended lawsuit ever surfaced?

Just curious if you have came across it Steve.

Steve Forseth said...

Anonymous at 6:37pm:

Thank you for your comment. I have not seen this email. Interesting that DeGagne refers to it as an "Anonymous Letter" rather than email...

Steve

Anonymous said...

Today on Cariboo Caboodle,the City of W.L. Communications coordinator stated "The matters concerning the C.A.O. are a personnel issue and the City won't be commenting." This flies in the face of what the City is arguing in court. The City's position in the courts is that Degagne was never an employee of the City. Have I fallen down the rabbit hole? Thanks for taking the lead on this story, Steve, once again keeping the citizens informed.

Anonymous said...

As a city employee, sounds like if the allegations in the anonymous letter are accurate, Mr. Degagne would have fit right in!

Anonymous said...

Hey Steve,

I believe the letter is the piece in the revised allegation, quite a letter by the way IMHO, but the allegation also refers that the letter and email were attached, given to council/management and both were made available by someone.

Would like to read the email and see how it reflects the letter.

I guess we will see where it all falls out and what impact it has, if any, come election time.

And yes, thank you Steve for all your work, because certainly no one else is up for keeping the tax payer informed.

Anonymous said...

Did the city update their defense?

Steve Forseth said...

Anonymous at 2:11pm:

Thank you for your comment...

Yes - I did check the Court documents and indeed the City did update its' defense and I'll upload that document later today...

Again - thanks for your inquiry

Steve