After two weeks of controversy and calls for the resignation of the president of the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM), the city of Montreal’s elected officials have finally made a decision. They decided to fire Isabelle Beaulieu and place the organization under supervision.
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“We have just made an important decision for the OCPM, we have terminated the mandate of the current president, Isabelle Beaulieu, for serious misconduct. For what? “For serious misconduct because there has been a significant breach of trust,” explained Robert Beaudry, member of the presidium, at the local council meeting yesterday.
The latter thus sealed Ms. Beaulieu’s fate once and for all. The latter stuck to her position despite revelations about her extravagant spending on restaurants, office furniture and electronic equipment.
The accepted application confirms the termination of his contract “for serious misconduct”. This avoids paying him an annual salary or $156,000 that would be expected in the event of termination of employment.
“It is a situation that we want to turn into an opportunity to fully review the institution. But for this we must take strong measures,” added Mr. Beaudry, also a councilor for the Saint-Jacques district.
The OCPM is also ordered to suspend all of its expenses, except for “salaries, rent and essential operating costs,” which must be approved in advance by the treasurer.
Photo agency QMI / Joël Lemay
Activities already planned for the end of the year must be carried out with the greatest possible effort and approved by the treasurer.
Finally, the Director General is responsible for overseeing the governance of the OCPM until the appointment of a new President. He was also tasked with initiating a search process for potential candidates.
The Auditor General has also been formally tasked with examining management issues at the OCPM from 2014 to 2023.
However, the opposition would have preferred the council to delegate management of spending to an outside resource while the City of Montreal’s auditor general completes her investigation and makes her recommendations.
Guy Grenier is still in office
The organization’s number 2, Guy Grenier, who was also a regular at good restaurants in Montreal and on long and expensive foreign assignments, remains in office for the time being.
The city council does not have the authority to fire him. However, the mayor reminded on Friday that a new presidium would be appointed quickly and could act.
“With everything that is happening, we would have expected that Ms Beaulieu would terminate Mr Grenier’s contract, which has not happened, which shows a certain lack of understanding of the current dissatisfaction,” she explained.
Ollivier is still in the caucus
Remember that Dominique Ollivier, president of the OCPM between 2014 and 2021 and responsible for a large number of restaurant and travel expenses and allowing her own right-hand man Luc Doray to do the same, has resigned from her position as president of the OCPM board last week.
Photo agency QMI / Joël Lemay
However, she remains a member of the Projet Montréal caucus and a city councilor.
In response to a citizen who asked why Ms. Ollivier had not resigned from all functions, Robert Beaudry, member of the Executive Committee and head of the OCPM, replied that she had already paid the price for “decisions she regretted” and that she was working as a consultant She remained a “committed woman” who cared about the “common benefit”.
“The entire faction of her political party stands with her and is pleased to be able to count on a woman with her skills as part of her team,” he said.
Opposition leader Aref Salem denounced the double standards in the treatment of Ms Beaulieu and Ms Ollivier. “The facts were almost the same,” he said.