Citing a breakdown in the bond of trust between the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) and the public, Valérie Plante intends to recommend to the municipal council which meets on Monday to dismiss President Isabelle Beaulieu and put the organization under supervision. The mayor, however, believes that Dominique Ollivier, who led the OCPM for seven years, can retain her position as councilor in Vieux-Rosemont.
“I found it extremely shocking,” said Mayor Plante during a press briefing Friday afternoon following Ms.my Beaulieu and Ollivier before the Commission on Finance and Administration. “Obviously, what emerges is that we are facing systemic mismanagement of the OCPM which has spread over several years. »
Earlier in the day, before this commission, Isabelle Beaulieu affirmed that when she arrived at the head of the organization, in February 2022, she noticed that time theft had taken place. She also reported laxity in the management of the organization and an absence of a code of ethics. She attributed these shortcomings to her predecessor at the head of the organization, Dominique Ollivier. The latter also responded in the afternoon by rejecting several of the allegations put forward by M.me Beaulieu.
Valérie Plante believes that action must be taken immediately to restore public confidence in the OCPM. She therefore announced that she would recommend on Monday to the members of the municipal council the dismissal of Isabelle Beaulieu, as well as the freezing of OCPM funds — with the exception of employee salaries — “while a mechanism is put in place for close monitoring of expenses.
The mayor specified that a person would quickly be appointed to interim management of the organization. The city’s general auditor has already received the mandate to scrutinize the organization’s expenses. “We are going to do 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 consider that in the current situation, Mr.me Ollivier has all the skills to continue to be the city councilor in the Rosemont district. What concerns us at the moment is the question of management. »
Theft of time
Before the elected representatives of the Finance Commission on Friday morning, Isabelle Beaulieu indicated that when she took office, she had relied on the practices of her predecessors with regard to restaurants and travel. However, she claimed to have reduced the frequency and extent of travel and to have undertaken a review of working methods.
Mme Beaulieu raised several problems that were going on 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 these hours into the pay system,” she said. She noted in particular that during the Christmas and New Year holidays, the previous administration closed offices, but that employees had the right to fill out their timesheets as if they were at work. “I stopped this practice. »
Additionally, she added, no plans existed for teleworking. And no human resources policy or code of ethics had been put in place.
Isabelle Beaulieu, however, admitted that the $900 iPad and headphones she bought were too expensive. “I made mistakes, I recognize it, I accept them. »
“Never under my presidency,” says Ollivier
The response did not take long. In the afternoon, Dominique Ollivier, who had asked to testify before the commission, presented his version of the facts. “I’ve read all sorts of things in the papers, but I want to make this clear. 77 outings with Alexandre in one year, $900 headphones, $500 hockey tickets: that never happened under my presidency, and it was the fault of the administration that succeeded me, affirmed Mme Oliver. I have always had too much respect for public funds to authorize this kind of spending. »
According to her, the trips made by representatives of the OCPM under her mandate, which took place from 2014 to 2021, followed the recommendations of the administrations at City Hall in order to better make the organization known to the public. stranger. However, she indicated that she was never aware of any time theft during her mandate, rejecting at the same time the assertions of Isabelle Beaulieu.