The third party is rather well acquainted with the first and second parties…

The latest revelation in the on going saga of city hall hiring procedures leaves one wondering what part of transparent the city isn’t quite understanding.

Wednesday’s Daily News features a front page headline story outlining some details on the process involved in studying the controversial city hall hiring issue.

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It was a political storm that spurred a large number of citizens to attend the last city council meeting, united in their anger over the Mayor’s hiring procedure in place during the hiring of the City Manager’s wife, Tannalee Hesse.

Today’s development reveals that the City’s Chief Financial Officer, Dan Rodin was the delegated third party investigator for the city, tasked with looking into the questions raised by the concerned citizens group, no doubt a thankless job that can only lead to a need for lots of Tums and Maalox around the offices of City Hall.

In Wednesday's paper the Mayor provided one of those helpful quotes, which surely won’t be of assistance to Mr. Rodin upon his delivery of the report, according to George T. Baker’s story in the Wednesday edition of the Daily News, the Mayor is reported to have told the Daily News that he believed the report would exonerate the city administration.

How’s that for a no pressure declaration!

Now to be fair to Mr. Rodin, he was handed the job by his bosses (Mayor, Council and City Administrator) and judging by the effusive praise heaped upon him by the Mayor, he’s apparently more than up to the task we suspect.

However, no matter what his report comes up with, somebody is going to suggest that he might be, just a little too close to the principle players in the latest city hall drama, regardless of how balanced and dedicated to seeking the truth he may be.

Rather than try to put this issue to bed once and for all, the city by naming a high ranking civic official as their third party investigator, has only added more grist for the concerned citizens to examine. More importantly, perhaps it makes their decision to seek out provincial assistance, as outlined last week as wise a strategy as we’ve seen yet regarding this issue. (side note for the Daily News, check your back dates, the press release outlining that decision to ask three government bodies to investigate was actually from last week (Sept 24), not yesterday as reported in today's story, that news cycle sure moves fast eh)

Surely there must have been an office of assistance within the Ministry of Community Development in Victoria, which has domain over relations between provincial and municipal governments and the community charter which oversees municipal governance in the province.

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We're sure if he had been asked, that Minister Lekstrom could have offered up an idle bureaucrat from The Local Government office, who would have be willing to investigate the situation in a thorough and impartial way.

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It might have been helpful to the cause to have asked for their help before those concerned citizens did, leaving the city chasing the transperency train by more than few steps.

Or perhaps the city could have sought out the services of a respected retired judge, former politician or professor of municipal studies that could have taken the file off their hands and provided a true independent review of the situation, one that doesn’t put the city’s high ranking employees into the middle of the mess.

In an issue that has been simmering for over two months now, for the city the wisest course of strategy would have been to be as transparent as possible in the investigative phase and not drawing the civic administration further into the tempest.

More importantly, by taking the issue out of the domain of city hall, they would have been showing the public that they were seeking a third party who would not be put in a rather uncomfortable position, leaving yet more questions than answers on the original question.

When it comes to the handling of this issue, it seems that mis-steps seem to have been the order of the day, from start to finish.

CITY STAFFER LEADING PROBE INTO DISPUTED CONTRACT

Chief Financial Officer heading investigation into 'controversial' municipal contract
By George T. Baker
The Daily News
Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Pages one and two

It was revealed Tuesday that city hall's Chief Financial Officer, Dan Rodin, is the 'third-party' investigator in charge of a municipal enquiry into how the city handled Tanalee Hesse's contract.
Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond made the announcement in a phone interview yesterday.

Pond said he awaited the report that he believed would exonerate city administration.

"I had hoped we would have a report by today, it appears not to be done yet but, hopefully, we'll have it in the next few days," said Pond.

Pond said that the city is using third-party advice only on the issues that Rodin is not qualified to handle, mostly regarding legal matters, but for the most part the investigation is Rodin's.

Pond went on to add that it was important that this kind of reporting be free of political interference and that it had to take place at its own pace.

"You are looking at professionals and I think that Rodin carries credentials that are impeccable and he is not going to jeopardize those. And likewise when we go for legal advice, the lawyers that you are going to contact are going to provide very professional advice," said Pond. He said the facts will come out and people should not jump to conclusions before then.

"It is premature. Until all the facts in the matter are available ... I have every confidence that the facts will confirm what I have maintained all along, which is (City Manager) Gord Howie operates on a very high level of integrity and that the city is being well run. But we'll wait for those facts to come in," said Pond.

Hesse is Howie's wife and the alleged wrongdoing stems from the way her contracts were awarded during an 18-month period, in which she was awarded more than $100,000 in city funds.

There was no resolution passed by city council and the contracts were signed directly by Pond.
The original enquiry was demanded by a group of residents last month after they complained about the way Hesse's contracts were signed and awarded.

That group, led by Ana Ashley and Wilf Rimmer, has stated repeatedly that they would like to see someone out of the city's employ look into the contract controversy.

That does not appear to be the case at this point.

Yesterday, the group revealed that they have asked three provincial government bodies to look into the matter. The ministry of Community Development, the B.C. Ombudsman office and the Information and Privacy Commissioner Office have all been asked to investigate.