Coun. Janice Lukes trying to muster support to suspend Winnipeg's top bureaucrat
Bartley Kives | CBC News | Posted: December 29, 2017 11:00 AM | Last Updated: December 29, 2017
Wants a Jan. 5 special meeting about CAO Doug McNeil; needs 8 of her colleagues to agree
Coun. Janice Lukes is trying to convince her colleagues to suspend Winnipeg chief administrative officer Doug McNeil in the wake of outstanding questions about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension.
The South Winnipeg-St. Norbert councillor wants city council to hold a Jan. 5 special meeting about the performance of the city's top bureaucrat, who been criticized for the way the city has handled the planning of a future freeway through semi-rural land south of Wilkes Avenue.
"I believe it is prudent to suspend the CAO for 30 days to seek additional answers," Lukes said in an email sent to her colleagues on Dec. 22, in which she claims McNeil has not been forthcoming in his responses to questions posed by council during a closed-door seminar on Dec. 18.
- City CAO told about Sterling Lyon expropriations a year ago, confidential briefing note says
- Mayor says he remains confident in CAO Doug McNeil
- CAO emerges from 'great' seminar with council facing renewed criticism over Sterling Lyon Parkway
McNeil is on the hot seat because he said he was surprised to learn this October that Winnipeg's public works department studied a route that differed from three options presented to area residents in January 2016.
CBC News then obtained a November 2016 briefing note, authored by former public works director Lester Deane, that included drawings of the route in question as well as a plea to make it public before the city issued more building permits in the area.
McNeil said he did not read those attachments, earning criticism from several councillors as well as Deane, who claimed the CAO's office authorized his department to study the route in question.
Lukes said she wants McNeil to explain that discrepancy, as well as why he does not read attachments on confidential briefing notes. She says fewer than a dozen are issued over the course of a year.
She also said she wants to know why the Sterling Lyon Parkway project was placed on hold twice between 2015 and 2017.
"I think there's a lot of questions we need answered," Lukes said Thursday. "There's not really any accountability in any of this."
Exodus of engineers
The councillor also said she is concerned that three city transportation engineers, in addition to Deane, have left the city this year. Transportation manager Luis Escobar resigned in September, while Sterling Lyon Parkway extension project director Scott Suderman and his successor Stephen Chapman resigned in November.
"I think there's a lot more to this," Lukes said.
A total of nine signatures would be required to trigger a special meeting of Winnipeg's 16-member council. On paper, that means Lukes needs to convince eight of her colleagues that suspending McNeil is the correct course of action.
In practice, that would be difficult. Even if every other member of council's unofficial opposition and council speaker Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) sign on to the plan, Lukes would still need two members of "EPC + 2," the de facto governing party at city hall, which votes with Mayor Brian Bowman.
A spokesperson for Mayor Brian Bowman signalled the mayor would not support a special council meeting.
Coun. Marty Morantz intends to call for an audit that should answer outstanding questions about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension, Bowman press secretary Jeremy Davis said in a statement.
"The mayor believes the audit process would be the appropriate next step and supports a review by the city auditor," Davis said.
He also noted the CAO will undergo an evaluation by a panel of city councillors in 2018.
A spokesperson for McNeil said the CAO declined to comment, other than acknowledging a performance evaluation is pending.
"Council has a formal process in place to evaluate the city's four statutory officers, which includes the CAO," Winnipeg communications manager David Driedger said Thursday in a statement.
Winnipeg's other three statutory officers — officials who report directly to city council — are chief financial officer Mike Ruta, city auditor Bryan Mansky and city clerk Richard Kachur.
Lukes questioned how a panel of councillors can review McNeil's performance while questions about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension remain unanswered.
She also noted Morantz has yet to call his audit or even circulate a draft version of the motion he intends to table at executive policy committee in January.