Correction
This story's headline originally said "four terms" instead of "four years." The Gazette apologizes for the error.
Sturgeon County spent almost $4 million in severance fees in four years after what a former county general manager says was an unjustified purge of its staff.
Wayne Bullock, who was Sturgeon County’s general manager of infrastructure from 1997 to 2009, contacted The Gazette earlier this month about a request he made to the county last July under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
In a phone and email interview, Bullock said he was concerned about the county’s firing of what his contacts said were 26 employees in the last four-and-a-half years, about 17 of whom were sacked in the last 14 months. Many of these people were longtime employees and his former coworkers, whom he said had been dismissed without just cause.
“It’s a big disservice to the county,” he said, one that his conversations with county employees suggests had sapped staff morale.
“I would just like the public to know how much taxpayer money has been wasted on getting rid of people they didn’t have any good reason to get rid of,” he said.
Bullock issued a FOIP request that asked the county to disclose the total amount of compensation paid to employees who quit or were fired from the county from 2017 to 2021. He acknowledged that the upcoming municipal election may have motivated him to make this request.
The county refused his request Aug. 24, citing Sect. 17(1) and 25(1) of the FOIP Act, arguing that this request would harm personal privacy as it involved confidential severance agreements, and harm the county’s economic interests in future employee dismissals.
Bullock called these reasons “spurious,” saying a grand total would not reveal information about the severance paid to any one employee and would help, not harm, the county’s economic interests. He had appealed the matter to Alberta's Information and Privacy Commissioner, but said it could be months before he gets a response.
Bullock also criticized councillors for giving themselves a pay raise while at the same time asking staff to work more hours for the same pay, saying it contributed to a toxic work environment. (Council approved a 36-per-cent pay raise for themselves in 2019 at the recommendation of a citizen’s task force.)
Mayor responds
When The Gazette asked county officials about Bullock’s FOIP request, Mayor Alanna Hnatiw issued a written reply that said the county paid $3.8 million in severance between 2017 and 2020 — information the county had refused to give Bullock.
Hnatiw said the county dismissed several people recently as it implemented the results of its March operational efficiency review.
“The changes we made organizationally positioned the county for more efficient administrative expenses as the county’s [expenses] increased substantially from 2020 to 2021,” Hnatiw said, growing to $126 million from $81.2 million.
While the county’s administrative costs rose to $28.4 million from $26.7 million in the last year, Hnatiw said administration’s proportionate share of county costs dropped to 22.6 per cent from 32.9 per cent, which should save the county $10 million to $13 million a year.
Bullock disputed this argument, saying the only reason administration’s proportionate share of the expenses went down was because the county ramped up spending in other areas using tax dollars from the Sturgeon Refinery.
Hnatiw said council directed county administrative staff to work 2.5 hours more a week, which knocked average salaries down to the 67th percentile from the 75th among similar communities. Council’s recent pay raise was the recommendation of a citizen’s task force and the county’s first pay review in 13 years.
Hnatiw said the county’s overall staff engagement survey scores rose between 2019 and 2021 and are now in the top 25 per cent of municipalities in Canada. The county is also using remote working strategies to save money on office space and eliminate the need for the once-proposed, $60-million county campus.
“I can very clearly say that the county is ‘going in a new direction,’” Hnatiw said, paraphrasing a phrase Bullock said was used to justify recent staff dismissals, “and we make no apologies for modernizing the organization and ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the municipality.”
Bullock questioned why the county suddenly decided it was OK to release the information he requested.
“Are the politicians now making the decisions as to when information is public or private?”
