Windsor Square Exclusive: Mayor To Langlois – You Have Satisfied Your Obligations

From the beginning and up to February 14th, Mayor Francis and a majority of council have led residents to believe the city’s former auditor general was terminated because he did not fulfil the conditions of his employment contract.

But emails acquired by the Windsor Square suggest otherwise. 

It is interesting that not once in the emails is an audit of Enwin of Utilities mentioned or discussed.  But what is mentioned or referred to are the continual delays, road blocks and interference Todd Langlois experienced and a growing frustration over actions he believed were contrary to the Municipal Act and threatened his independence.  

And importantly, when Langlois informed the Mayor, members of senior administration and the audit committee he would be taking action,  he was fired.

While the discussion has rightfully focussed upon members of the audit committee little attention has been paid to the role the Mayor played.

Since January 2011, it has been council’s intention to replace the Audit Committee with an Audit Advisory Committee made up of members who were not city councillors or affiliated with any city agency, board or commission.   But this has been continually deferred pending a governance review report.

On February 14 on AM800,  Francis repeated, “Mr. Langlois was hired, it was in his contract, that he would be hired to RFP and that function  would be conducted by a professional firm.  He chose not to do that.”

But on May 30 Langlois sent a copy of the RFP to the Mayor writing, “Please find attached a copy of the RFP” and followed up June 20th asking if he had approval  ”to issue the RFP“ and notify the purchasing department.  Mayor Francis advised that he was “away on city business” and asked Langlois to schedule a meeting for June 25 to “tie up any outstanding matters.”

Although unable to answer his questions, Francis did criticise Langlois for proceeding with a risk assessment of the Family Aquatics Centre claiming, “although I may agree with the merits, you have never raised with me or the administration nor did council receive any report from the audit committee recommending your suggestions for risk assessment.”

 Two weeks later Mr. Langlois received good news.

After informing the Mayor he had fulfilled his contract obligations, on July 8 Francis agreed writing, ” I believe you are in agreement and I will communicate to council that you have satisfied your obligations as all processes have been initiated and are subject to final approval and direction on the [July] 27th by the AAC [Audit Advisory Committee] and shortly thereafter council.”

Following an August meeting, the audit committee recommended approval to city council, but that meeting was met with a series of delays  originating from the Mayor’s office. 

City clerk Valerie Critchley informed Langlois October 21 that, “I have just spoken with the Mayor and my direction is that none of the reports (RFP, staffing) will go on Monday. The RFP will be provided to Council as a P and C [personal and confidential] document with the notation that it will be discussed at a future meeting of Council.”

 A 95-page report outlining the mandate of the Auditor General, charter highlights, International Audit Standards, legislative requirements and an extensive discussion of the different types of audits that could be conducted including financial, operational, value-for-money, forensic and fraud investigations was also deferred.

To date none of these reports  have been presented to or approved by council.

Over a week before his firing, an increasingly frustrated Langlois wrote to Max Zalev, Bill Carter, George Sandala, Helga Reidal, Valerie Critchley and George Wilkki asking for clarification as to whether or not he reported directly to council, protesting that a public audit committee meeting had been moved in-camera by Max Zalev.

“I want to clarify that the Auditor General reports to Council (per Council resolutions/bylaw) – George [Wilkki] please confirm. We have been reporting through the AC to clear up past items; however, I don’t believe this to be the case any longer – if so, please provide resolution/bylaw. My current understanding is that the Mayor asked this material go through the Audit Committee which has been acting in an advisory role, then we obtain approvals from the Executive Committee (essentially Council).”

And contrary to Bill Carter and  Max Zalev who have claimed they didn’t see the work plan until the evening before the January 26 meeting,  Langlois had  provided them a copy three days earlier.

“Please find attached a copy of the three-year audit plan which is part of the materials we are planning to make public at this Thursday’s meeting,” wrote Langlois.  “I have conveyed our position and we cannot be continually delayed in our deliverables in the publics eyes again” requesting that Zalev reconsider the in-camera meeting in favour of a public one.

Langlois confided in Bill Carter that he feared his next steps would be “drawing a line and could be damaging” but recommended that Max Zalev step down.   Langlois believed his office was being blocked from releasing reports because of Max Zalev’s conflict of interest – something he had raised in the past with the Mayor, Bill Carter and Helga Reidal - planning to “contact an outside body to deal with this unfortunate situation.” 

Following the January 26 meeting, the audit committee recommended Langlois be fired.

On Monday morning Langlois wrote the Mayor expressing his disappointment over the in-camera meeting writing, “contrary to my requests for a public meeting … only an in camera session was held” stating that “a report that was supposed to be provided to the public was switched to in camera w/o my approval (I had asked what changes were required in order to remain public-yet I received no response)” and stated that ”a memo to Council will be forthcoming based on some of the discussion that was held.”

Later the same day council voted to fire him. 

As Mayor Francis said on February 14, “the facts are out there and the facts are very clear.” 

I would agree.   The emails speak loud and clear as to what the facts really are.

Related posts:

1. Todd Langlois and Mayor Francis: Transcript of Statements
2. Wikileaks And The DRIC Smoking Guns (Part 1): A Windsor Square Exclusive
3. An Exclusive Windsor Square Interview With Canada’s New Transport Minister
4. EXCLUSIVE: Windsor Star/Windsor Square To Merge
5. Windsor Square Exclusive: Accounting For Lack Of Auditor General