Council and senior city staff woke up this morning to an explosive email sitting in their inboxes. A former staffer is making some very serious claims about the city's water and wastewater department.
Abdul Khan, who worked as the city’s Director of Water and
Wastewater Treatment from May 2005 until June 2009, alleges that is former department is
withholding crucial information, endangering public health and misusing city
money. Read the web story here.
Here are the first two paragraphs of Khan's email:
Subject: Water and Wastewater Division – Public Right to Know
"Your Worship Mayor Eisenberger and Respected Members of the Council
I have had the privilege of serving the residents of the City of
Hamilton as Director of Water and Wastewater Treatment from May 2005
until my termination from service in June 2009 under the pretext of
restructuring. However, I am confident that my removal was a
consequence of my conscientiousness that compelled me to resist
unscrupulous endeavors and raise controversial issues to the City’s
management that I believed to be detrimental to and against the
interests of the residents of Hamilton.
I had preferred to raise the issues discussed below to your attention
in person as a delegation to the council, but despite my requests to
the clerk over the past three months, I still await a date. Since I
have already wasted considerable time in first pursuing alternate
courses of accountability and secondly in waiting for a date to
present the issues to your attention, I resort to writing this letter
to you, copying it to various concerned departments, offices,
authorities and the media within the city of Hamilton, who I believe
would benefit from perusing this letter."
That alone is enough to raise some serious alarm bells in the backrooms of city hall. But add claims about money mismanagement, possible health risks and purposely withholding information, and we have the beginnings of a water-gate on our hands.
This is all coming on the same day that council will officially name their new Integrity Commissioner. At tonight's meeting' they'll also determine whether Councillor Terry Whitehead's conduct should be investigated by the incoming commish.
Interesting day at city hall, to say the least.
****
UPDATE: Here is the Mayor's release from this afternoon:
Dear Council Colleagues:
The allegations concerning the
City's Water and Wastewater Division are serious and will be taken
seriously.
Most importantly, let me start by
assuring Council that public safety and public trust in our water supply is
paramount and Lynden’s water supply was never in jeopardy or compromised. Dr.
Richardson will reinforce this at Council tonight and staff will provide further
details this evening in public session.
To be absolutely clear the City meets all of the Ministry of
Environment drinking water regulations and
standards.
We will have the opportunity to deal
with this and other concerns raised in the e-mail at tonight's Council
meeting.
I will be putting forward a motion
to move this item from correspondence to be discussed prior to Item 6.7, Committee of the Whole Report 09-034, on
the agenda.
The allegations of the mismanagement
of City funds are serious and Council tonight will have the opportunity to
provide direction on matters to be referred for investigation. Peter Barkwell
will lay out recommendations to Council during the in-camera portion of tonight's
meeting.
As senior staff have been named in
the allegations, myself and Peter Barkwell will act as the official spokespeople
on behalf of the City.
See you
tonight,
Fred
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