Citing a breakdown in trust between the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) and the public, Valérie Plante plans to recommend to the municipal council meeting on Monday that President Isabelle Beaulieu be fired and the organization placed under supervision. However, the mayor believes that Dominique Ollivier, who led the OCPM for seven years, can keep her position as a councilor in Vieux-Rosemont.
“I found it extremely shocking,” Mayor Plante said during a press conference Friday afternoon following Ms. Beaulieu and Ms. Ollivier’s testimony before the Finance and Administration Commission. “Obviously, it turns out that we are faced with a systemic mismanagement of the OCPM that extends over several years. »
Earlier in the day before this commission, Isabelle Beaulieu confirmed that when she took office at the helm of the organization in February 2022, she noticed that time theft had taken place. She also reported laxity in the organization’s leadership and the lack of a code of ethics. She attributed these shortcomings to her predecessor at the helm of the organization, Dominique Ollivier. He also responded in the afternoon by rejecting several of the allegations made by Ms. Beaulieu.
Valérie Plante believes that immediate action must be taken to restore public trust in the OCPM. She therefore announced that on Monday she would recommend to council members the dismissal of Isabelle Beaulieu and the freezing of OCPM funds – with the exception of staff salaries – “while a mechanism is put in place to closely monitor costs.”
The mayor specified that a person would be appointed as interim leader of the organization in the short term. The city’s auditor has already been tasked with auditing the organization’s expenses. “We will carry out a thorough cleaning,” said Valérie Plante.
The mayor believes that Dominique Ollivier, who resigned from her position as president of the executive committee on Monday, still has her place as an elected official. “I believe that Ms. Ollivier has the skills to continue as a city councilor in the Rosemont district in the current situation. What concerns us at the moment is the question of management. »
Theft of time
Addressing elected officials on the Finance Commission Friday morning, Isabelle Beaulieu suggested that when she took office she relied on the practices of her predecessors when it came to dining and travel. However, it claimed to have reduced the frequency and extent of travel and undertaken a review of working methods.
Ms. Beaulieu raised several issues that were occurring within the organization, including time theft. “Few employees were in the office or at work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but many entered those hours into the compensation system,” she said. In particular, she noted that the previous administration closed its offices during the Christmas and New Year holidays, but employees had the right to fill out their timesheets as if they were at work. “I stopped this practice. »
Additionally, there are no plans for telework, she added. And there was no human resources policy or code of ethics.
However, Isabelle Beaulieu admitted that the $900 iPad and headphones she bought were too expensive. “I have made mistakes, I recognize them, I accept them. »
“Never under my presidency,” says Ollivier
The answer didn’t take long to arrive. In the afternoon, Dominique Ollivier, who had requested to testify before the Commission, presented his version of the matter. “I’ve read all sorts of things in the newspapers, but I want to make this clear. “77 trips with Alexandre in one year, $900 headphones, $500 hockey tickets: this never happened under my presidency and it was the fault of the government that succeeded me,” Ms. Ollivier said. I have always had too much respect for public money to approve such spending. »
According to her, the trips of representatives of the OCPM within the framework of its mandate, which took place from 2014 to 2021, followed the recommendations of the administrations at the City Hall in order to make the organization better known to the public. However, she pointed out that she was never aware of any time theft during her time in office, while dismissing Isabelle Beaulieu’s claims.