Auditor refuses to appear at plenary session

MONTREAL – The plan was to have embattled city of Montreal auditor general Jacques Bergeron meet with city council in plenary session Tuesday and clear the air over allegations of misconduct.

But by the time yesterday had drawn to a close, Bergeron had decided to take a pass on the meeting, a political showdown over whether to hold the plenary anyway ended in a draw and a decision on what to do about the allegations was handed off to the provincial government.

Meanwhile, the air was left even murkier, the administration of Mayor Gérald Tremblay accused of trying to stage a lynching and the opposition of engaging in a whitewash campaign.

For the past week, Bergeron has been in the eye of a political hurricane – accused of having given contracts to family members and dividing up contracts to keep them from going to public tender.

Bergeron has retorted that the allegations against him are "unfounded" and he was the victim of an "espionage" campaign, the city having surreptitiously intercepted his emails in an effort to make their case.

Matters came to a head Tuesday afternoon, when council majority leader Marvin Rotrand tabled a motion calling on council to send the issue of Bergeron’s conduct to Quebec’s Municipal Affairs Department.

The motion states that the alleged "irregularities" committed by Bergeron "stain" the office he occupies and that the law allows the provincial government to "counsel" municipalities on their administration. It goes on to request that the Municipal Affairs Department "decide what steps to take in the case of the auditor general of Montreal . and to make recommendations to the city council."

That led Montreal’s opposition parties to accuse the administration of Mayor Gérald Tremblay of dodging his responsibilities and placing the city "under trusteeship," when it came to dealing with its auditor-general.

Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said he didn’t agree with the motion’s assumption the auditor-general had engaged in misconduct, and that the only "scandal" to be dealt with was "the espionage" the city engaged in to make its case.

Projet Montréal councillor François Limoges told the council: "This isn’t a motion – it’s a lynching."

The motion was tabled after Bergeron was summoned last week by council speaker Claude Dauphin to appear before a plenary session of council to address the allegations against him.

Bergeron refused, explaining in a letter to Dauphin that to do so would be to endorse the "illegal" probe launched into his activities by city comptroller Pierre Reid, an activity he described as not being "a real inquiry, but rather a vendetta."

Bergeron’s decision not to attend the council meeting was fully supported by the opposition, support that left Rotrand wondering in council: "Is there no limit to which the opposition will go try to whitewash the findings of the audit committee (into Bergeron’s conduct)?"

Rotrand tried to hold the plenary anyway, if only to adhere to council’s agenda, but withdrew the item after the opposition threatened to walk out of council if the issue came to a vote.

Outside the council chamber, Rotrand said the report "weighed heavily" against Bergeron and said "the auditor broke the code of ethics, broke the Cities and Towns Act, (and) did a number of gestures which, at the very least, are questionable."

However, Projet Montréal seemed to express the consensus on the opposition benches when he told council that "Jacques Bergeron has been an effective critic of misspending and irregularities under this administration. He’s gotten under the mayor’s skin and now the mayor is doing everything in his power to get rid of him."

HERE’S A QUICK LOOK AT THE ISSUES

WHAT THE CITY SAYS:

– Bergeron awarded two $2,500 translation contracts to a family member

– He allowed two consultants who assisted his office’s investigations of city contracts to split their billing to avoid going to public tenders.

– A consultant being paid by the city contributed to a presentation Bergeron made at a university.

– Bergeron made personal use of city equipment to prepare a presentation by a computer security firm the report says he runs to the Centre jeunesse de l’Outaouais and to exchange "many" emails with his students and personnel at the École des hautes études commerciales.

– Bergeron wrote an email to a journalist suggesting an article on a decision to transfer the whistle-blower hotline from Bergeron’s office to the office of the city comptroller.

WHAT BERGERON SAYS:

– His emails were secretly and illegally intercepted.

– The allegations against him are "vague and unsupported, and unfounded."

– He will answer any questions city council puts to him, so long as they are "precise and based on information that was legally and legitimately obtained."

– The allegations against him have "stained my reputation, that of the post I occupy and those of everyone who works for the auditor general’s office."

WHAT THE OPPOSITION SAYS

– Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s administration is trying to short-circuit the career of a bureaucrat who has uncovered millions of dollars in questionable spending.

– Bring in an independent auditor to examine the allegations against Bergeron.