Suspension for top bureaucrat

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This article was published 17/01/2015 (3947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman made his first move to clean up city hall by suspending a senior civil servant Friday.

Acting chief administrative officer Deepak Joshi was suspended with pay for three days and escorted out of city hall by corporate support services director Linda Burch.

“I’ve lost confidence (in Joshi), having him serve in that role and had to make a very difficult decision today and exercised my authority accordingly,” Mayor Brian Bowman told reporters during a hastily called news conference outside his office.

In recent weeks, sources have spoken of a growing rift between the CAO’s office and the mayor’s office.

Bowman told reporters he was disappointed with the lack of information that had been provided to council about the problems with the convention centre project and the failure of the contractor to build a hotel on a site city hall had helped to purchase.

Sources said the mayor’s office was caught off guard by the revelation RCMP officers interviewed city staff last year in connection with its investigation into the police-headquarters project.

Senior administrators did not disclose this to elected officials.

Coun. Ross Eadie said he believes Joshi’s suspension is related to an inadequate “flow of information” to councillors. He wouldn’t elaborate.

Bowman told councillors about Joshi’s suspension earlier Friday afternoon during a briefing on financial concerns relating to the convention centre project.

Councillors said they were ordered not to talk about Joshi’s departure.

Joshi was promoted from chief operating officer to acting CAO in October 2013, following the resignation of Phil Sheegl, the close friend and confidante of former mayor Sam Katz.

Joshi was promoted in lock-step with Sheegl, trailing behind him and ultimately taking over as head of the public service, at least on an interim basis.

The city is in the middle of a search for a permanent CAO.

Joshi’s appointment as interim CAO was opposed by some members of council, who felt he had been too closely linked to Sheegl and the problems that plagued the fire hall replacement program and the skyrocketing cost of the police-headquarters project.

Independent audits into those projects and 31 other real estate deals identified several instances of administrative mismanagement, poor decision-making and preferential treatment given to private developers.

Council asked Manitoba Justice to review the findings of the audits, and the province subsequently called in the RCMP on the police-HQ project.

The RCMP announced in December, after officers raided the offices of Caspian Construction, the lead contractor on the project, it is conducting a full-blown criminal investigation, with allegations of inflated bids and cash payments to at least one member of council.

Joshi’s appointment was secured during a divisive council meeting when councillors said Joshi verbally assured members of executive policy committee he would not seek the job on a permanent basis.

Bowman said Joshi is suspended with pay for three days, and his status will be reviewed by EPC members next week.

Joshi has been replaced by Michael Jack, the former city solicitor who was appointed acting chief operating officer when Joshi was promoted.

Jack has been away from city hall but was expected to return Monday.

According to the powers delegated to EPC, Joshi can be suspended for a further 30 days before council has to make a permanent decision on his status.

“All I can tell you on HR (human resources) matters, it’s not appropriate for me to get into details,” Bowman said when pressed about the reasons for Joshi’s suspension.

“Winnipeggers voted me in to bring change, to act with integrity. I believe I have done that,” Bowman said. “All I can tell you is that as of today, I’ve lost confidence (in Joshi) and exercised my power accordingly.”

The formal announcement of Joshi’s suspension was made in an email from Bowman to all members of council.

That was followed up by a news release from Bowman’s office. “Today, pursuant to my authority as mayor, under the City of Winnipeg Charter Act, I have suspended (Joshi) from his duties as the City of Winnipeg’s acting chief administrative officer, effective immediately,” Bowman said in a statement.

bartley.kives @freepress.mb.ca, aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca