Mayor Valérie Plante will ask the municipal council on Monday to put the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) under supervision and to dismiss its current president, Isabelle Beaulieu.
The organization’s funding will also be frozen until further notice, due to the current crisis of confidence in its leaders.
“The management problem at the OCPM must be resolved immediately,” said Mr.me Plante, Friday afternoon at city hall, following the appearance of Isabelle Beaulieu before the elected officials of the Commission on Finance and Administration.
“The bond of trust is broken,” underlined the mayor. “We are going to do a thorough cleaning. »
The City’s general auditor will examine the administration of the OCPM in order to shed light on allegations of misuse of public funds, recalled Ms.me Plant.
If this investigation by the auditor concludes that Isabelle Beaulieu committed “serious misconduct,” she may not be entitled to her severance pay, equivalent to one year of her salary of $160,000, explained Robert Beaudry, municipal councilor. responsible for the OCPM.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Isabelle Beaulieu, president of the OCPM
The predecessor of Mme Beaulieu, Dominique Ollivier, also defended herself before the Commission on Friday, after being accused of mismanagement during her time at the head of the organization, between 2014 and 2021. Mme Ollivier resigned Monday from her position as president of Montreal’s executive committee following the controversy.
According to the leader of the opposition at city hall, Aref Salem, Mayor Plante should exclude her former number two from the caucus of her party, Projet Montréal. “If the Plante administration wants to maintain the credibility it has left, this is the right thing to do,” he said at a press briefing. Theft of time, arbitrary management, laxity: the revelations surrounding Dominique Ollivier, who did nothing to correct his mismanagement despite warnings from the Auditor General in 2017, are scandalous. »