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Discipline comes down as one also suspended, one reprimanded for not reporting overflow
OTTAWA – Two senior city managers have been fired, one suspended and one reprimanded yesterday over the city’s failure to report a 2006 sewage spill of almost a billion litres into the Ottawa River.
David McCartney, manager of wastewater, and Barrie King, a program manager in the city’s public works department, were dismissed with cause over their handling of the spill. Luc Dugal, also of the public works department, was suspended without pay for 20 days. The Citizen has been unable to confirm the name of the director who has been reprimanded.
The city faces provincial Environment Act charges due to the 15-day spill, and its lawyers are trying to work out a plea bargain with the Crown. The city is due to make its first appearance in court on the charges today.
The spill happened two years ago when an overflow gate on the city’s combined downtown sewer system got stuck open in a rainstorm, but it didn’t become public knowledge until May.
At that time, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick started an investigation and a low-level employee was fired soon after. (That employee is fighting the decision.) Mr. Kirkpatrick’s investigation was completed in July and he handed his findings to the city’s auditor general, Alain Lalonde, who is conducting a separate investigation, for confirmation.
Mr. Kirkpatrick said the confirmation came this week.
“When he confirmed the findings, we proceeded with discipline,” Mr. Kirkpatrick said.
The 2006 spill was exposed by Orléans Councillor Bob Monette, who was told of it by chance during a tour of the city’s sewage treatment plant in May. At the time, the city said the spill had been reported to the provincial environment ministry when it happened in 2006, as required by law.
This was not the case. It was reported to the ministry in May 2007 after a city engineer noticed it mentioned in a report. A letter from the city to the ministry reporting the spill in May 2007 shows Mr. McCartney knew about the spill at least at that point.
However, the city’s top management and elected officials didn’t learn of the spill until Mr. Monette went public in May this year.
This summer, the public works department went through all existing records looking for other non-reported spills.
Two weeks ago, in a report to council, the public works department said there have been nine major spills into the river—on top of the one in 2006 that led to Environment Act charges.
Dixon Weir, the director of the city’s water and waste water department, said a search of records relating to the spills turned up no indication of whether they had been reported to the ministry.
The city has asked the ministry to review its own records to see if the spills had been reported. There has been no response so far.
Mayor Larry O’Brien said he was pleased that city manager Kent Kirkpatrick acted decisively.
“This is what I would expect. He’s taken the right stand,” said Mr. O’Brien. The mayor said he is more accustomed to quick action in the private sector, and he was pleased staff at the city were eventually held to account for the pollution of the Ottawa River.
Mr. O’Brien said it is difficult to fire staff who have long service and are near retirement, but sometimes it’s necessary.
“People were derelict in their duty. (Mr. Kirkpatrick) acted accordingly,” said Mr. O’Brien.
The mayor said it was “a bit of a watershed moment” for city council, which he said solidly supports the discipline.
“The city wants performance. The citizens want performance,” said the mayor.
Mr. O’Brien said there will be more changes in how the city operates in the next month or so, though the changes don’t involve firings. He declined to be more specific.
Baseline Councillor Rick Chiarelli said the action took time, but it was important that the city’s management have all of the history confirmed by the city auditor.
“It’s a good thing,” said Mr. Chiarelli. “There had to be some accountability here.”
Bay Councillor Alex Cullen said such discipline rarely happens at the city, but is necessary to “protect the public interest.” He said that if “a culture of ho-hum” evolved at the city, it had to be corrected to meet the Ontario pollution laws.
“It was necessary. The people involved should have know better,” said Mr. Cullen.