A lawyer representing a group of anonymous Winnipeggers who hired a private investigator to look into building inspectors said it’s time to move the investigation up the management ladder.
John Prystanski, a former city councillor, told Global News the investigaton’s next step is to find out how much the employees’ immediate supervisors knew about them allegedly slacking off.
Increased accountability, he said, will help Winnipeggers have faith in city staff.
“There has to be accountability. Ever since I’ve been around, we always had concerns – are our civic employees performing accordingly? More and better quality of supervision will ultimately lead to more confidence with the citizens of Winnipeg and the administration,” he said.
“The one caution I would bring forward at this time is we cannot see increased accountability being blamed for a lack of productivity.”
In early April, video of city inspectors allegedly running errands on paid time and taking extended lunch breaks was released by an anonymous group of 14 people.
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The videos raised concerns about how inspectors were spending their time on the taxpayers’ dime. One video allegedly showed a city employee going to Costco for two hours before heading to Starbucks for another hour.
Prystanski said the videos that the anonymous group produced showed 16 inspectors who worked on average three hours a day.
The city’s lack of proper reporting, he said, is a big part of the problem.
“I was extremely disappointed to hear that they don’t do any tracking,” he said, “and of course that then leads me to ask the question: how do we then know the reports that the Property and development committee makes and provides city council – and ultimately the citizens of Winnipeg – are accurate?
“How do we know the number of permit applications that are processed, that are reviewed, are actually those numbers?”
Prystanski said the anonymous group is made up of concerned individual Winnipeggers – small contractors, homeowners, and people who have been frustrated by the inspection process.
“At the end of the day, these are just regular citizens like you and I who are trying to earn a living and to contribute to Winnipeg’s economic and quality of life.”
WATCH: Winnipeg Mayor responds to ‘concerning’ complaint about city workers abuse of work time
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