CFN – Former Cornwall Ontario Human Resources manager Robert Menagh spoke with me today after we released the interview with City Councilor Andre Rivette. LINK WITH VIDEO.
I asked him point blank. Was he ever contacted by any City Councilors during the hush hush secret meetings that took place while he was out of town on vacation or at the Benson Centre when he was in his office, right up until his dismissal.
He said categorically:
Not a single Councilor ever asked me any questions regarding any issues related to my termination. My number is in the book so it’s not like I’m hard to find.
As councilor Rivette shared in the interview; council normally gets its official information directly from the CAO who also makes recommendations to council.
Questions now arise; with Mr. Menagh having worked as long as he did for the city why wasn’t he allowed to answer questions from council?
Did Mr. Fitzpatrick accurately and fully disclose all facets of information related to Mr. Menagh before his dismissal?
Is he simply the scapegoat for the Shay, Pilon, and other cases? Akin to a NHL GM firing a coach for his bad player decisions?
If council were to find out somehow that the “full picture” wasn’t relayed to them should Mr. Menagh get his job back rather than the financially strapped city paying for two HR managers for 1, 2, or more years?
And finally if it turns out that Mr. Fitzpatrick erred somehow; purposely or not in relaying full information to council why is he still being “protected” by Mayor Kilger and at least 5 other councilors?
Councilor Rivette and I’m sure all of the councilors have the answers to these questions. Of course that suggests yet another question.
Why the lack of transparency? What do they have to hide? And what would Donna Derouchie think?
How many tax dollars are going down the drains on legal bills and settlements; and how many more will before someone steps up?
If Mr. Fitzpatrick somehow erred in his communication to council and the mayor what other issues could he possibly have erred on; especially during budget deliberations?
And how do they get those pimentos in those little olives?
Kudos to Councilor Rivette. Now to see if anyone else on Council has a conscience to the voters that elected them to serve the public.
You can post your comments below.
André Rivette for MAYOR! Kudos to Mr. Rivette for having both a backbone and a conscience!
I could not agree more Pete!