AMHERSTBURG Town council will meet behind closed doors Monday to discuss the leaking of a confidential workplace harassment investigation report to The Windsor Star.
Acting CAO Kristina Pozar Di Paolo said she asked that the issue be put on the in-camera agenda for Monday’s meeting so that she could update council. She wouldn’t comment any further on the issue, except to say the confidential document should never have been made public.
A copy of the written report prepared by investigator Nancy Jammu-Taylor of McTague Law Firm in July 2011, and addressed to Mayor Wayne Hurst, was leaked to The Star recently. The harassment investigation, which cost more than $16,000 according to public accounts, was never approved by council.
In the report, Jammu-Taylor said allegations that Pouget is demanding and critical of top town staff and that she wrote testy emails, led her to conclude Pouget had been harassing staff.
But she also noted, “Some councillors indicated that they found that members of administration … were rude and/or condescending towards members of council when answering questions asked by these councillors.”
Some councillors stated that staff “are required to do as you (Hurst) tell them,” Jammu-Taylor said, and that this is what has led to the problems.
“These same councillors also indicated that they found it ironic that I was appointed to investigate an allegation of workplace harassment against Councillor Pouget when they feel it is you (Hurst) that is engaging in workplace harassment by the manner in which you communicate in council meetings,” she wrote. “These councillors expressed a high level of upset at the current relationship they have with you.”
However, she concluded, “I did not investigate any of these allegations any further, as they are not within the scope of my retainer.”
The document was leaked to The Windsor Star shortly after Coun. Diane Pouget asked questions about the town’s emergency information centre and a story appeared in the newspaper.
After questioning the preparedness of the centre and its volunteers, Pouget was told she was “in conflict” as a councillor and could not participate on the EIC’s committee – even though she had been a volunteer member for 19 years, eight of those while she was a councillor.
An unsigned letter sent to The Windsor Star accompanying the leaked harassment report began, “The public deserves to know the truth about Amherstburg Town Councillor Diane Pouget.”
