On Aug. 11, Advertiser staff emailed a request to the county and its seven lower tier municipalities seeking the total amount of annual severance payments made to terminated employees from Jan. 1, 2012 to Aug. 11, 2017.
The following is a detailed account of how each municipality handled the request.
Centre Wellington
Three days following the Aug. 11 request for yearly severance figures, deputy clerk Lisa Miller emailed that the township would not be willing to provide the information “due to privacy restrictions under MFIPPA (the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act).”
In September, the Advertiser asked if Centre Wellington could simply provide one total figure for 2012 to 2017.
“Unfortunately, we feel this information is excluding under MFIPPA, whether the names are removed or not,” Miller replied.
On Oct. 13 the Advertiser filed an official freedom of information (FOI) request with the municipality.
On Nov. 8, Miller responded to the request with the five-year total: $171,226.
Erin
On Sept. 28, about a month and a half after its original email request, the Advertiser sent another email to Erin officials asking for a five-year total for severances.
Four days later, clerk Dina Lundy replied that the town’s “view is that we cannot provide the material without compromising privacy.”
On Oct. 13 the Advertiser filed an official FOI request with the municipality.
In her response to the FOI request, Lundy again cited privacy concerns and then added “the record as requested does not exist, and under the legislation the municipality is not required to create a record.”
The Advertiser appealed the refusal from Erin to the IPC of Ontario on Nov. 23.
The Newspaper contacted several Erin officials for comment – Lundy by phone on Dec. 18, CAO Nathan Hyde by phone on Dec. 22 and newly-hired communications officer Jessica Molisak by email on Dec. 18 and 21 – but none of them returned calls or emails.
As of Jan. 2, the Newspaper was still waiting for an update on the IPC appeal in Erin.
Guelph-Eramosa
Acting clerk Amanda Knight, out of the office at the time of the Aug. 11 request, later suggested Guelph-Eramosa officials were willing to fulfill the request.
“I’d be happy to pull our information together if you would find it useful to your article,” Knight wrote in an Aug. 29 email.
However, the Advertiser never heard back from Guelph-Eramosa officials on the matter, so on Oct. 13 the Newspaper filed an official FOI request with the municipality.
On Nov. 17 clerk Meaghen Reid wrote a letter denying the request for settlement details, citing privacy concerns and also stating fulfilling the request could “prejudice the economic interests” or “competitive position” of the municipality.
The Advertiser appealed the refusal to the IPC of Ontario on Nov. 23.
On Dec. 29, the Newspaper received correspondence from the IPC stating a mediator was assigned to its appeal.
Mapleton
The Advertiser never heard back from Mapleton officials about its original request, and thus sent a second email request on Sept. 28, indicating the paper would accept one figure for the five-year period indicated.
“As with Centre Wellington we are of the same position that unfortunately due to privacy restrictions under MFIPPA, we are unable to provide this information,” CAO Brad McRoberts wrote in his reply on Sept. 28.
On Oct. 13 the Advertiser made a formal FOI request for the information, which McRoberts also denied.
“The township’s position is that it is not required to disclose, nor should it disclose, the information requested,” he wrote.
McRoberts claimed disclosing the information would jeopardize the identity of former employees and “the legal and future economic interests of the township.”
The Advertiser appealed the refusal to the IPC of Ontario on Nov. 23.
New acting CAO Murray Clarke, who took over on Nov. 7 from McRoberts, told the Advertiser that, “prompted by the IPC appeal,” his municipality would provide the information as originally requested.
The figure ($174,486) was received via email on Dec. 18.
Minto and Puslinch
Both Minto and Puslinch officials provided the five-year figure in a prompt manner.
Both had suggested that since their municipalities had so few terminations/settlements, disclosing annual figures would compromise the privacy of the affected former employees.
The Advertiser agreed to accept one figure for the period in question.
Wellington North
On Aug. 17 clerk Karren Wallace replied to the Advertiser’s Aug. 11 request for the information.
She stated the MFIPPA “would exclude this information … as severances are not negotiated settlements” and she added she was concerned the information would “(make) it easy to match the year to the person.”
At a later council meeting CAO Mike Givens suggested to an Advertiser reporter the municipality may be willing to provide a five-year settlement total.
After not hearing back from Wellington North, the Newspaper filed an official FOI request on Oct. 13.
The township provided the 2012-17 information ($106,611) in a Nov. 8 written response to the FOI request.
Wellington County
Six days following the original email request, county clerk Donna Bryce replied with an annual break down of severance costs for the county as follows:
– 2012: $166,610;
– 2013: $225,711;
– 2014: $231,527;
– 2015: $285,866;
– 2016: $156,105; and
– 2017: $124,812.
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