The municipal council will be called upon to ratify the dismissal of the president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), Isabelle Beaulieu, on Tuesday. The opposition intends to support the proposal, but believes that the management of the organization placed under supervision should be entrusted to an independent entity and not to the Director General of the City.
The City should not be both judge and party in this matter and the OCPM must be sheltered from political influences, believes Ensemble Montréal, which intends to table an amendment to the Plante administration’s proposal concerning the governance of the OCPM which should be debated on Tuesday.
This proposal provides in particular for the termination of the mandate of the current president of the OCPM, Isabelle Beaulieu, for “serious misconduct”, as well as the freezing of the organization’s expenses with the exception of salaries, rent and essential expenses. already approved by the treasurer.
The Plante administration’s proposal also suggests mandating the city’s general management to launch a search process for candidates for the presidency of the organization. In addition, it gives the Director General of the City, Serge Lamontagne, the mandate to identify and allocate the resources required to supervise the implementation of management measures during the investigation which must be carried out by the General Auditor during of the next few weeks.
The opposition is rather of the opinion that the management of the organization must be entrusted to an independent firm and not to the City until a person is appointed to the presidency of the OCPM. “Giving this mandate to the Director General of the City of Montreal goes against the independence of the OCPM. It is certain that we cannot support this notion in the absence of a president duly appointed by the municipal council,” said the mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa.
According to him, it is not in the interest of the Plante administration to maintain doubt in the minds of the population regarding the independence of the OCPM.
Ensemble Montréal also hopes that the mandate given to the General Auditor will allow her to investigate the expenditures made by the OCPM, not only under the mandate of Isabelle Beaulieu, but also under that of Dominique Ollivier, who headed the OCPM from 2014 to 2021.
Friday, Isabelle Beaulieu and Dominique Ollivier testified before the Committee on Finance and Administration regarding their respective mandates. Mme Beaulieu notably affirmed that when she arrived in office in February 2022, she had noted cases of time theft during Ms.me Oliver. She rejected these allegations.
Remember that the OCPM has been in the spotlight for more than two weeks due to questionable expenses made by its managers since 2014. A Quebecor media investigation notably revealed that public funds had been used for restaurant meals, trips and expensive equipment.