CAO emerges from 'great' seminar with council facing renewed criticism over Sterling Lyon Parkway
Wyatt calls on McNeil to apologize to city officials; Mayor says CAO answered questions
Winnipeg's embattled chief administrative officer emerged from a council seminar retaining the support of Mayor Brian Bowman but facing more criticism from opposition councillors.
CAO Doug McNeil spent more than an hour on Monday answering questions about what he knew about a plan to extend Sterling Lyon Parkway to the west to link up with a future southern extension of the William Clement Parkway.
- City CAO told about Sterling Lyon expropriations a year ago, confidential briefing note says
- Mayor says he remains confident in CAO Doug McNeil
Last week, council has placed the project on hold due to opposition from area residents who were angered the proposed route — which would result in property expropriations — was not one of three potential alignments presented to the public in January 2016.
In October, chief administrative officer Doug McNeil said he was surprised by the new route, which he claimed was never reviewed by senior administrators.
But a confidential briefing note obtained by CBC News through a freedom-of-information request revealed McNeil was informed about the route in November 2016, when former Winnipeg public works director Lester Deane told him about the need to expropriate properties and advised the city go public with the information or risk breeding mistrust among property owners living south of Wilkes Avenue.
In the wake of this discrepancy, Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge Coun. Marty Morantz announced last week he plans to call for an internal audit into the project, while McNeil agreed to answer questions from city councillors.
The CAO emerged from that meeting claiming the briefing was productive.
"The information session today was great," said McNeil, who reiterated his contention former public works chair Deane, who he fired this May, should have spelled out the fact the Sterling Lyon Parkway route had changed.
"I think he was forthcoming with answers," said Mayor Bowman, who left the briefing early to attend another event. "We heard what we generally understood in the past."
Other members of council were less satisfied with the answers they received.
North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty said he remains concerned McNeil received a draft report from former public works director Deane in late 2016 but did not make it public for nearly a year.
Browaty said the CAO's office is holding up many files and surmised public works officials may have gone ahead with Sterling Lyon Parkway work in the absence of direction from the top.
Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, meanwhile, called for McNeil to apologize to public works officials — especially engineers — who were blamed for what McNeil called mistakes on the Sterling Lyon Parkway file. Deane's briefing note should have made the CAO aware, Wyatt said.
"He, for all intents and purposes, threw them under the bus politically, when all the information was in the file," Wyatt said.
South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes also said it's possible McNeil, an engineer, may have violated his professional code of ethics by criticizing other engineers.
Both blamed McNeil for diminishing morale within the public works department, which has lost three transportation engineers this year alone.
McNeil acknowledged there is a degree of a confidence problem within the public service.
"I would say in certain areas where we've had issues recently, the confidence might be shaken a bit," he said, adding he still has confidence in the public service, himself.
McNeil will face a performance review next year, the mayor said.
Wyatt, who sits on the review committee, has called for McNeil to be dismissed several times, while Lukes said she lost confidence in the CAO when a $20-million city lawsuit over its water-treatment plant fell apart.
In addition to criticizing McNeil, Wyatt and Lukes also expressed skepticism Bowman was not made aware of the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension route.
"The mayor's office and CAO's office are linked in step literally all the time. I'd be very surprised if somehow, some way, the mayor's office was not briefed on this matter," Wyatt said.
Bowman said he too has outstanding questions — about what role Lukes may have played in developing the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension route when she served as council's public works chair.
"I know that [the] former chair has relationships with certain developers. I'd like to know to what extent there may have been dialogue on this route," Bowman said.
"Wow," Lukes laughed when she heard the mayor's statement following the seminar. "The mayor who said he had so many questions, didn't ask one question."
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