The old saying that the only one who wins in a legal dispute is the lawyer could be proving true for the Town of Huntsville.
At last week’s general committee meeting councillors received a summary from Town CAO Denise Corry of the budget verses actual legal expenses for the Town for the last four years.
The total amount budgeted for legal fees for the last four years was $235,000. The amount spent was $542,303 – 130 per cent more than planned. And according to Corry, the budget of $60,000 for this year looks like it will be over too – by about $48,000.
Budget versus Actual – Legal expenses summary
Corry provided council with a breakdown, by department, of where the money went. Large amounts jump out of Human Resources at $180,620, Hunter-Rutland for $128,039 (legal dispute over the disposal of a CNC router), $18,211 to defend former Town employee John Finley on a perjury charge, Waste Management at $45,477 (to settle a dispute with the District of Muskoka over who is ultimately responsible for landfills – the District is) and $38,557 for the OMB hearing on the Golf Course Road planning application.
Corry says the large amount spent in legal fees in the Human Resource department can be attributed primarily to two things – senior-level staffing changes and issues in the Public Works department.
“We have had major challenges in Public Works. We have gone through a lot of turn over in Executive Directors in the last few years, people coming, people going.”
According to a document Corry supplied to Council, the Public Works department has been the focus of a harassment investigation, a third party investigation and a Ministry of Labour application accusing the department of a poisoned work environment. Corry says some of these allegations were outside the realm of what the Town felt comfortable defending and they chose to get legal advice that came with big legal fees. Corry is hopeful that things are back on track in Public Works.
We have made some positive progress. We undertook a relationship-building program through the Ministry of Labour. It involves getting Town reps and Union reps in the same room with a Ministry mediator and working through a checklist. We are making some positive change. I am optimistic that we won’t be incurring these types of bills in 2016.Town CAO Denise Corry
Corry is also hopeful that the dispute with Hunter-Rutland is nearing an end. “We are close. It hasn’t been fully resolved but we are making steps to work with them, instead of against them.”
Disappointment in how things have been handled in the past was evident in Mayor Scott Aitchison’s statement to Council.
Quite literally, we have just been fighting with people. It has been my ambition not to fight with people. It would be so much better to just get along. There is $350,000 there (in unbudgeted legal fees) that we could have spent on roads.Mayor Scott Aitchison
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