Pembroke council delays reconsidering contract with mayor's law firm
Motion to tender city solicitor job tabled, council seeks amendments to procurement bylaw instead
City councillors in Pembroke, Ont., voted Tuesday night to delay reconsidering its decades-old contract with the city's solicitor — a lawyer at Sheppard & Gervais, the law firm the mayor currently works at.
The relationship between Mayor Ron Gervais, the firm, and city solicitor Robert Sheppard has been under scrutiny after some residents raised questions about perceived and possible conflicts of interest in recent media coverage.
Gervais has been an elected official on council for more than a decade, and served as deputy mayor before becoming mayor last November. The city has been paying Sheppard & Gervais for legal services throughout that time.
The city's chief administrative officer (CAO) David Unrau has told CBC that legal services are exempt from Pembroke's procurement policy under its bylaws, meaning the city doesn't have to go through a bidding process to hire its lawyers.
Unrau added that Mayor Gervais is an employee at Sheppard & Gervais, not a partner.
At Tuesday's council meeting, Coun. Troy Purcell brought forward a motion to reconsider the city's contract with Sheppard, which dates back to 2002. The motion asked the CAO to put out a request for proposal (RFP) — an open request for bids — for the services Sheppard is currently providing.
Mayor Gervais was not part of the discussion; he left council chambers after declaring he had a "perceived pecuniary interest" in the matter.
Introducing his motion, Purcell said he has "significant concerns regarding the lack of transparency and accountability of this council."
Purcell went on to say that he's perplexed as to why this procurement motion "has caused such a stir with council, with some lobbying ... behind the scenes to strike down this motion."
He said councillors received an email from Unrau comparing Sheppard's rate with what other municipalities are paying for legal services.
"The charge rate is in the middle of the rates provided, leading me to assume there may be an opportunity for reduced costs," Purcell said.
CBC has contacted Unrau multiple times since March, asking for information on the city's budget for legal services and the total costs paid to Sheppard & Gervais, but has not yet received a response.
The city's treasurer referred CBC back to the CAO's office.
Councillors ask CAO to prep amendment to bylaw
Coun. Ian Kuehl said council members played "procedural chess" over the last couple of days in anticipation of the Tuesday motion.
Both Kuehl and Purcell suggested that the two councillors who were away — Patricia Lafreniere, who was attending via video, and Brian Abdallah, who was at a conference as part of a city delegation — had tried to change their plans to attend the council meeting via video last minute in order to "help defeat this particular motion."
"We had a pretty significant breakthrough late this afternoon," Kuehl continued, saying councillors came to a "settlement" despite disagreeing on the initial motion to review the contract.
Kuehl then moved a motion to table Purcell's motion for now, and instead ask the CAO to prepare an amendment to the city's procurement bylaw and bring it to council. That amendment would see professional contracts, including legal services, be reviewed after five years.
"In all honesty, I think what you're suggesting is right," said Coun. Ed Jacyno, who had defended the city's use of Sheppard for his long-term experience at the April 4 council meeting.
"Individuals should come forward and be able to bid on that process."
All five councillors present voted in favour of Kuehl's motion.
Lafreniere, who is on vacation, addressed her video attendance at the end of the meeting.
"It was mentioned earlier tonight that maybe I was here on one agenda tonight, and that was to oppose something that was coming forward. That may be so but there's other issues," she said, adding that she was also attending because of her work on other business discussed Tuesday.
"I was here to ensure that the best interest of the ratepayers was represented," she continued, adding that she was contacted by other legal firms this week, voicing their opinions on the city's contract for legal services.
CBC contacted Abdallah late Tuesday night, and he said he'd review the meeting before commenting.
Purcell gave notice that he'll introduce another motion at the next council meeting to update Pembroke's procurement bylaw, and to revise several others like the procedural, accountability and transparency, and code of conduct bylaws.
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