Importance of oversight can’t be understated

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This article was published 21/10/2022 (1327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I believe that I can represent our city really well with the province, the feds and all the other groups that we need to deal with all the time. I believe I can bring people together and try to work together on projects. And I believe … we have a team at city management right now that can actually manage our city and let us run as politicians. I think that will be a great opportunity for all of us.”

— Mayoral candidate Jeff Fawcett, Oct. 17

It sounds good, doesn’t it? Let the city manage itself, and leave the politics to the elected officials. At least, that’s generally what Fawcett stated this week in both of the mayoral candidates debates he attended.

His argument isn’t a bad one — having good and experienced people running the city “really, really well,” so that the elected officials around the council table don’t feel the need to micromanage the administrative side of things. A council’s job is the “political piece,” he says, working with other levels of government to oversee what needs to be done.

In general terms, these are fair points — we hire well-paid individuals to oversee the operations of our city. From city planning, parks and recreation, environmental concerns, road repairs, police and fire, engineering, and everything in between, there is a need for qualified individuals to help keep our city liveable and secure.

Fellow candidate Elliott Oleson, too, stated on Wednesday that he would need to rely on the expertise of city management when it comes to budgetary matters and everyday governance, making it all the more important that we have good people on the city’s payroll.

But when it comes to city managers, the City of Brandon has not had the best track record. Here are a few examples.

Former city manager Brian MacRae, who tendered his resignation before his five-year contract ended with the city and before news broke that he had breached policy on numerous occasions over the 4.5 years of his employment by using his corporate credit card for person expenses totalling $15,000.

A story in the Sun at the time noted that all funds were repaid prior to MacRae’s resignation and departure from Brandon in late October 2010, and that no criminal charges were sought by the city. But it was also noted that documents received by the Sun through a freedom of information request to the City of Brandon showed there was little to no oversight on the part of city administration as MacRae’s spending unfolded.

“It was, first of all, [brought to my attention] from a council member that found out before I did,” former mayor Dave Burgess told the Sun in 2010. “Staff was just getting it all ready to show me … and that was early to middle September.”

MacRae was hired by the city in the spring of 2006 to take over for former city manager Glen Laubenstein, who left to take a job in Kingston, Ont. But Laubenstein himself had been a polarizing figure at a time of major change in our city. An editorial in this paper in June 2005 stated that while some would be sad to see the city’s top bureaucrat for eight years go, “others will rejoice.”

“The constant of Laubenstein’s reign has been change, change, change,” the Sun editorial read. “And the effect of that theme will be that few people in Brandon will shed a tear when the city manager goes east.

“Staff throughout the city blew the whistle about a year ago on how bad morale was under Laubenstein. Their chief concerns were that the manager was obsessed with constantly reorganizing staff, moving people around, sacking staff for questionable reasons, and forcing employees to do more with less.”

Laubenstein also raised eyebrows for taking three senior city staffers and members of a local church to a religious seminar in Chicago, leaving city councillors angry that public money had been used to send civic employees to a religious conference.

And then there’s former city manager Rod Sage, who apparently “met the eligibility requirements to retire from the city” seven months after the death of a woman who overdosed with purple heroin at his home in 2019.

Though Manitoba’s attorney general called in the RCMP to investigate the woman’s death, and the handling of the Brandon Police Service’s investigation, the RCMP report was never made public, in spite of the Sun’s efforts to gain access.

Sage, who had been put on paid leave while the investigation was ongoing, was still the highest-paid employee in 2019, as outlined by the city’s 2020 compensation disclosure report.

It’s more than unfortunate that these issues have plagued our city over the last 12 years — there is an inherent danger in letting a city’s bureaucracy run roughshod over the interests of city council. It is up to the mayor and council to ensure that there is informed oversight regarding the actions of the city manager, and those who report to that position.

This is not meant as disrespect to our city’s current city manager, Ron Bowles, who started his new career in Brandon in April 2021.

But it’s important that both of our two mayoral candidates understand that their job is more than just that of chief politician — our mayor is also a manager, and needs to take this part of the job as seriously as any other aspect of the role.