Concerned citizens group not completely surprised by latest developments from City Hall

"Definitions of arms-length carries a different meaning to different people,"— Councillor Tony Briglio offering an opinion on the question of whether a city hall employee investigating contract procedures is truly a third party…

They weren’t particularly surprised by the news revealed this week, that it is the City’s Financial Officer Dan Rodin that has been tasked with the investigation into the controversial signing of Tanalee Hesse to contract work on behalf of the City of Prince Rupert.

Rodin who is due to submit a report on his findings shortly, will have to weigh the variety of information that he successfully receives from the participants in the hiring process, from Ms. Hesse, the Mayor and perhaps other civic officials that may have pertinent details as to the circumstances of the time that led to the Mayor going outside of normal procedures to hire Ms. Tesse.

It is certainly not a situation that the concerned citizens group that pushed for a review of the entire episode will be comfortable with, coming down firmly on one side of Mr. Briglio’s observations about arms length; suggesting that a civic employee probably would not be considered arms length or third party for that matter.

Anna Ashley one of the key members of the citizens group, outlined their thoughts on the latest developments to the Daily News in Thursday’s paper

Contract critics hit out at role of CFO in city probe
By George T. Baker
The Daily News
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Pages one and three

The informal group of residents that has been scrutinizing the municipality's employment contract with the wife of the city manager has expressed alarm at hearing the 'third party' investigation into the contract is being handled by a city hall employee.

In a phone interview Tuesday, the group's spokesperson, Anna Ashley, said she could not believe that CFO Dan Rodin is in charge of the investigation into the contract with Tanalee Hesse.
Ashley questioned whether Rodin had the background and qualifications to perform this type of review.

"Part of me is surprised and part of me is not," said Ashley.

"Honestly, I find this incredulous. That would be the best way for me to describe it. The way everything that has been happening there is the part of me not surprised."

Ashley wondered how the city could be going in this direction given the public perception about the way the contract was handled.

According to two Freedom of Information requests initiated by the Daily News, Rodin had signed off on at least one of the invoices - one dated Sept. 14, 2007 - that Hesse had submitted for 'Personal Services' but none of the invoices submitted by Hesse ever stated what those services were.

Rodin wrote an email to Hesse on Sept. 26, 2007 to ask for an itemization of the services provided.

"Would you kindly provide the requested detail I asked for in our previous discussion so that I can sign off on your invoice ... it should indicate the projects that you have been working on and the hours on each," wrote Rodin.

Rodin noted in his email to Hesse: "The Contractor will submit an invoice to the city detailing the hours worked and other information required by the city."

According to the documents obtained through the Freedom of Information request, Hesse did provide the hours worked but never did itemize the work she performed.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond personally signed the next 15 invoices submitted by Hesse, which cost the city $109,000 during an 18-month period, something Pond has defended as an unusual move at an unusual time.

Coun. Tony Briglio, who seconded a Coun. Ken Cote motion to have a third-person investigation, said he could not comment on what has happened with the investigation because he has been out of town dealing with a family health problem, but he did say he would fully expect that there would be a "fully arms-length review of the (contract handling)."

Briglio said, having worked as an internal auditor, he would not disagree that someone coming in from outside city hall would normally be the definition of an arms-lengths investigation.

Briglio added: "Definitions of arms-length carries a different meaning to different people," and said he was looking forward to a complete and thorough report on the way the contract was handled.

Ashley was not sure about that.

"They claim that they want to have this all kind of taken care of and investigated and find out what is going on so that they can fix it, and yet they choose someone from their own staff that works under the people that are supposed to be being investigated under this investigation. It is just not good semantics no matter which way you put it," said Ashley.

***Update***

Oopsie, somebody got a phone call we think... The Daily News issued a page three clarification in Friday's paper, regarding Mr. Briglio's commentary in Thursday's paper on the definition of "arms length":

To clarify when Councillor Tony Briglio said in an article that appeared in yesterday's Daily News that "Definitions of arms-length carries a different meaning to different people," his comment pertained to a question over whether he agreed with Mayor Herb Pond's assessment that CFO Dan Rodin could be defined as an arms-length role, or 'third party/person investigator.
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The Daily News apologizes for any misunderstanding over the matter