It was evident during a heated exchange last week that Puslinch council remains divided over last month’s firing of two township fire officials.
The meeting on Jan. 21 ended with councillor Dick Visser exiting the chamber immediately following adjournment, snubbing an attempt by Mayor Brad Whitcombe to try to speak to him in private.
Minutes earlier, Visser had expressed his displeasure with the way the township has handled the Dec. 8 firing of Fire Chief Dan Quinnell and his son, Fire Prevention Officer Richard Quinnell.
“People are very upset about the issue … and that council has taken absolutely no action against [the Quinnells],” Visser said.
He told council he has received about 30 phone calls, emails, and personal visits from residents who want an investigation into allegations of financial wrongdoing by the fire officials. He then turned his attention to the mayor.
“I’m also trying to protect my own credibility here because it was stated by you [to a resident] that the facts in the paper were not totally correct,” Visser said.
Whitcombe replied, “I said they may not be, and it was not in the interest of the fire department. And I refused to speak about something that was a matter before our insurance company.”
On Jan. 6 the township received notice of a wrongful dismissal suit from the Quinnells, who are seeking almost $900,000 in damages from the municipality.
Visser suggested that when the Quinnells were dismissed Whitcombe wanted to tell people the two men were “too busy involved with other environments,” but Visser refused because it was not the truth.
“The second suggestion was that only the mayor and the clerk talk to the press, and I thought that was a form of censorship … and I refused to go along with that,” Visser said.
“I tried to get the facts out … I didn’t volunteer any information, I tried to answer the questions as honest as I could without being inflammatory, without being libelous.”
Both the Wellington Advertiser and the Guelph Mercury published articles about the termination of the Quinnells, including comments from Visser about ongoing financial discrepancies in the fire department.
“I asked for a needs study two years ago and was continually turned down,” Visser said. “By my calculations, if we did the needs study, we would have saved $250,000. We would have found that one of those jobs was redundant and the other one, he was over-billing.”
Visser added that fellow councillor Don McKay accused both him and councillor Susan Fielding of “inciting” the fire department with “hearsay.”
McKay replied that Visser needs to get his facts straight. McKay said he simply did not think it was a good idea to meet individually with members of the fire department.
“We looked at the process, things were not happening, we did take action and we got the results we were looking for,” McKay said. He also objected to Visser’s previous comments in local Newspapers.
“Most of the information that we worked [with was] in camera and should be kept in camera … With a human resources issue, I think it’s very touchy to start making comments in the press,” McKay said.
Visser responded by saying the closed meeting discussions were about a personnel matter, but now it is something different.
“People are demanding answers and you can’t dodge these questions,” Visser said. “This is a municipal council. We’re elected to represent the people and answer to the people, and I have nothing to hide.”
Fielding agreed with Visser.
“I don’t feel the process worked,” she said, disputing an earlier statement from McKay. “We had to do some investigation and I never have a problem meeting with people.
“I think we all felt the same thing had to be reached, but we all went about it different ways. And I don’t think anybody incited anyone.”
Whitcombe did not say anything further on the matter and councillor Matthew Bulmer also remained quiet.
The mayor was visibly upset at the end of the meeting.
