Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Follow-up to City of WL Director of Finance gone

Earlier today, I noted the fact that Candie Laporte is no longer the City of WL's Director of Finance.  I'm told that the current Manager of Finance will take over as Director of Finance and the Manager of Finance job will be re-advertised.  See that blog post here

However, a number of questions now arise because of WL Council's decision to let go of Ms. Laporte including:

1) Did Ms. Laporte get or was entitled to severance and if so, how much?  and when was this decision made?  and why?  This given Ms. Laporte's hiring as Director of Finance only took place in April of 2010 and she left her post 7 months later - completely unheard of in the Province unless something untoward had happened internally.  Again, WL Council needs to clear the air here
2) Why has Mayor Cook and her Council permitted 3 senior City Staff members (Sue Lachance, Jill Zimonick and now Candie Laporte) to be let go in the last 15 months and how much severance has those decisions cost City taxpayers, given the region is in an economic downturn?.  Especially considering Mayor Cook campaigned on doing financial things differently at City Hall in the Fall of 2008?  I'm told through my sources that the 3 severance proceedings have cost City taxpayers in excess of $100,000.  This on top of property taxes being raised 6% in two years.  Yet she made a big fuss over small amounts of money for the 2011 Grants-in-Aide.  Obviously no consistency here

Mayor Cook needs to answer these questions very quickly and I hope the local media that reads this blog will do due diligence and ask Mayor and Council to answer these questions as well

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