George Mathewson
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley has created a poisoned work environment at City Hall by harassing and bullying senior staff, according to a workplace investigation report released Friday.
“It can be difficult to accept that someone who is as well-liked and popular as Mayor Bradley can engage in such egregious bullying and harassment of those around him,” lawyer Lauren Bernardi wrote in her report.
“However ... there is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that Mayor Bradley did just that.”
Bernardi was hired by the city to conduct an independent investigation of complaints levelled against the mayor by four senior municipal managers under the city’s own workplace harassment policy and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
They are current city manager Margaret Misek-Evans, former planning director Jane Cooper, former city clerk Nancy Wright-Laking and former parks and recreation director Beth Gignac.
Bernardi said she looked into more than 70 different allegations, backed by volumes of documents, emails and interviews with witnesses not named for reasons of privacy.
Misek-Evans, whose job is to work closely with the mayor and council, does not communicate with Bradley and has hired her own legal representation. Cooper, Wright-Laking and Gignac all told the investigator Bradley’s ongoing bullying and harassment is what forced them to leave City Hall.
“This is not a matter of the complainants being unable to stand the ordinary pressures of their jobs,” wrote Bernardi, of Bernardi Human Resources Law.
“This was not a question of a strong leadership style, and this was more than the Mayor not understanding the boundaries of his role.
“I find that Mayor Bradley deliberately bullied and harassed the complainants, repeatedly and throughout their employment.”
Shortly after the report was made public on Friday the mayor released a ‘Letter to the People of Sarnia.” In it, Bradley both offered an apology and slammed city council and senior officials.
“I accept that, like anyone else, I have made my share of mistakes in the workplace including being aggressive and bold in seeking accountability from some Senior Staff,” Bradley said.
“I regret in certain situations I let my passion for the City in carrying out the people’s business overcome my judgment and normal good manners. I apologize for those incidents.”
The mayor said an Integrity Commissioner’s report council released in June that concluded he’d bullied staff, followed by Bernardi’s report, amounted to “Double Jeopardy or wanting a pound of flesh over and over again.”
Bradley said there was no attempt to resolve or mediate the workplace issues. Instead, council spent $70,000 on the first investigation and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” more on this one.
‘The enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars spent on the two investigations could have paved a lot of roads, protected a lot of waterfront beaches, improved a lot of parks and made Sarnians’ lives better,” he said.
Council docked Bradley’s pay three months following the Integrity Commissioner’s report. And it has tried to further diminish his authority by creating a deputy mayor's position and removing his executive assistant, he noted.
“Behind the scenes there have been a number of actions unknown to the public to diminish the Office of the Mayor on a regular basis.”
What city council intends to do with the workplace investigation report was not known at press time. The next regular meeting is Oct. 24.
A slightly redacted version of the report can be seen on the City of Sarnia website, at www.sarnia.ca/city-government/city-council/workplace-investigation-report