“It’s an HR matter and I can’t speak to [about] an identifiable individual.”
That was the response from Mayor Al McDonald when asked why a retired employee [Jerry Knox] had topped the Sunshine List two years running (for 2016 and 2017), at a salary higher than he received as North Bay’s Chief Administrative Officer.
Following the special meeting for the casino vote, McDonald took questions from the media for the first time since Keith Robicheau was still CAO.
“We still can’t talk about HR matters. The privacy commissioner asked for the document, the transition agreement, to be released,” said the Mayor.
For 15 minutes the Mayor fielded questions from the media scrum. Several of them focused on the Knox affair and citizen Kevin Ferris’ search for clarity regarding the events that led to the transition of the former CAO to a new role as a “Corporate Advisor.”
“I did not know anything about the title of ‘Corporate Advisor.’ Those were my comments and I stand by it,” said McDonald, adding, “If you look at the transitional agreement that was prepared, Council directed staff to prepare it, we were not involved in that process.”
Ferris, who attended the meeting and stood nearby while McDonald answered questions, was asked his thoughts.
“What a weak argument,” he replied. “If the mayor’s version of transparency is a year plus of back and forth, an FOI, an appeal, mediation and adjudication to get any disclosure I guess we have different views on what transparency is.”
Said McDonald during the media scrum about the release of documents to Ferris, “As far as I know, we have abided by what the privacy commissioner has asked for and the City also put anybody that made over one hundred thousand on the [Sunshine] list.”
