Meriel Wild speaks out

In a letter to the editor in today's Quesnel Cariboo Observer - former City of Quesnel employee Meriel Wild questioned the fiscal management skills of Quesnel Council's Executive Committee who is made up of Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom and Quesnel City Councillors' Laurey Roodenburg & Ed Coleman.  Note it is not often that you see former municipal employees take a swipe at their former employer

From today's Quesnel Cariboo Observer:

I think it is important for the taxpayers' of Quesnel to know just how fiscally irresponsible most of the elected officials really are

As you will know from the Quesnel Cariboo Observer article on June 29th, I was fired following a complaint against the City Manager (former Quesnel City Manager John Stecyk)

My stress leave was only the 2nd time in 9+ years that I was absent on medical leave.  It is also important to know that I was not the only one experiencing problems, but I was the only one who was prepared to make a formal complaint

Quesnel's Mayor and Council were aware last June that Quesnel City Staff were not happy and, last December, because of their failure to act, we lost a much loved long term (23 years) staff, due to the difficult work conditions we were experiencing

Although skills can be replaced, the organization (City of Quesnel) cannot afford to lose its' knowledge base in this way

As there was no process to deal with my complaint - the Executive Committee of Quesnel Council (Mayor Mary Sjostrom and Councillors Laurey Roodenburg and Ed Coleman) created one, and all parties agreed to this

All meetings were supposed to be "with prejudice".  In spite of the agreement, the Executive Committee refused to follow their own process through to the final step -- hiring an outside consultant  to advise on a resolution.  They claimed it would be a waste of taxpayers' money

Nevertheless, my complaint was upheld, but then I was promptly fired without notice.  The City of Quesnel has admitted it is "without just cause"

Thus, it is difficult to comprehend the Executive Committee's stated concerns regarding taxpayers' money when, in practically the same breath, it fired me without just cause thereby exposed itself to my claim for damages for wrongful dismissal.  As well as severance, there are also hidden costs to the organization (City of Quesnel)

I was not able to leave the department (Human Resources) in good order because I was fired without notice.  My termination has left the City (of Quesnel) with the loss of my institutional knowledge and this is already creating further liabilities for the City

I am very appreciative of the support I have received from both colleagues/taxpayers'.  I am pretty certain that there will be further losses to the City as more staff leave when they are able to do so, due in part to their disillusionment with Quesnel Council over this issue

The organization will suffer from the loss of this knowledge and experience, all because Quesnel Council has failed to put the taxpayers' and the organization  they are supposed to represent above their own personal agendas

I hope, through this letter, that taxpayers' will become more engaged, take more of an interest in how their hard earned tax dollars are being wasted and hold their locally elected officials accountable

Meriel Wild 
Quesnel