ABSTRACT

A controversy has arisen related to our town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mike Derricott, having taken a second part-time job with his wife’s consulting business Isokarhu Strategies, which would be a breach of his Employment Agreement with the Town of Cochrane.

The critical question in this whole shoddy affair is: Did the CAO or did he not receive approval from Town Council to hold this second job with his wife’s consulting firm?

On August 5, 2023, I wrote an email, Come Clean!, to our Town Council saying:
“My question to each one of you is did the employee CAO Mike Derricott receive ‘approval from Council’?
If so, what is the date where such a meeting took place to give approval? Were all councillors present? One presumes there was a motion to that effect passed by Council. What was the content of that motion?”

Not unexpected, from past experience, the Town Council, chose to simply ignore my email, which I consider a violation of their Code of Conduct Bylaw.

As there appeared no other way to get accountability on this matter, I reached out by email, Request for Investigation, to the Minister of Municipal Affairs on August 7, requesting that he conduct an investigation into this shoddy affair in Cochrane. Noteworthy, according to Section 571(1) under Part 14 — General Ministerial Powers, of the Alberta Municipal Governance Act, “The Minister may require any matter connected with the management, administration or operation of any municipality or any assessment prepared under Part 9 to be inspected:
(a)    on the Minister’s initiative,
(b)    on the request of the council of the municipality, or (c) if the Minister receives a sufficient petition (by electors) requesting the inspection”.
In other words the Minister has discretionary powers as per 571(1)(a) to initiate an inspection. Similar language applies to the conduct of an “inquiry” under section 572(1) of the Act.

Disappointingly, I received a reply from the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver, on August 31, 2023, basically telling me that there was nothing that he could do about the matter. I was not only disappointed by the his reply, but also highly surprised by his answer that the legislation, the Municipal Government Act, does not provide him with any authority to intervene when clearly according to Section 571(1)(a) of the Municipal Government Act, the Minister has discretionary powers to do so.

Disappointing that our Town seemingly remains accountable to no one for their questionable actions.

FULL BLOG

A controversy has arisen related to our town’s CAO, Mike Derricott, taking a second part-time job with his wife’s consulting business called Isokarhu Strategies, which would be a breach of his Employment Agreement with the Town of Cochrane.

Various aspects of this controversy, which I consider a scandal, have been covered to some degree by our local paper, the Cochrane Eagle in a series of articles:
Town of Cochrane CAO addresses controversy regarding second job” (June 30, 2023).
EDITORIAL: CAO side gig” (July 5, 2023)
LETTER: Regarding the Town of Cochrane CAO’s second job” (July 29, 2023).

In response, I sent two letters to the Cochrane Eagle to try to get to the bottom of this, one on July 2, Did the CAO receive approval or did he not and the other Did Council Properly Deem this OK on July 27, the second being a response to Judy Stewart’s letter, “LETTER: Regarding the Town of Cochrane CAO’s second job” on the matter, which appeared in the July 27 print edition of the Cochrane Eagle. I don’t often find myself agreeing with Judy Stewart, especially when it comes to climate change, but she made some excellent points, including that, “We need to perhaps remind those at the RancheHouse that no one is above the law.”

Disappointingly, neither of my letters were published, which may have to do with my being on the Cochrane Eagle’s blacklist and, as well, despite remaining unanswered questions, that they wanted to bring the matter to a close as per their July 5th Editorial wherein they indicated that they were “pleased to hear that Town of Cochrane Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mike Derricott has stepped away from any involvement in his wife’s consulting business”. Saw little evidence of the Cochrane Eagle choosing to engage in delving investigative journalism on this matter. That may be understandable in that the Cochrane Eagle receives income from the Town with respect to its publication of the full-page Municipal Matters and other Town information such as surveys. As the saying goes, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. While the Cochrane Eagle in its July 5, 2023 Editorial, applauded the CAO for doing the “right” thing and pulling away from his wife’s business, it is doubtful that he would have done so had he not been discovered. Turns out, my suspicion that I was on a blacklist with the Cochrane Eagle proved incorrect, since the Eagle did publish my letter in the August 10, 2023 print edition of the Eagle.
However, the Editor took some editorial license to modify my submitted letter. I had entitled my letter, “Did Council Properly Deem CAO’s Behaviour (not Second Job) OK?”. A major change was his dropping my first sentence, “I don’t often find myself agreeing with Judy Stewart, especially when it comes to the matter of climate change. However, I wholeheartedly agree…..”

According to the Cochrane Eagle, “a social media post revealed his association with the company”. One presumes that refers to a post, “NO APPROVAL from Council regarding Cochrane CAO’s ability to take up other employment”, by Brandon Cruz at his Facebook page on June 9, 2023. Presumably, Derricott was mentioned as an employee at the Isokarhu Strategies website, which has now been scrubbed clean. Fortunately, someone expected that to happen. Here are a few interesting screen shots from the non-scrubbed Isokarhu Strategies web sites:

This one introducing Mike Derricott as a key member of the Isokarhu Strategies team.

A couple of testimonies from clients who work in town and village municipal offices. Could Mike’s current job be any closer to the offerings of Isokarhu Strategies business. He even gets business referrals from other CAOs. What chutzpah!

 

As per the CAO’s Employment Agreement posted at the Town’s FOIP page in response to a FOIP request, I note the following clauses:

Other Employment

  1. The Employee shall devote the Employee’s full time and attention to the discharge of the Employee’s duties as an employee of the Town. The Employee shall not continue or commence any employment for or with any other person during the term of this Employment Agreement. The Employee acknowledges this to be a reasonable restriction on the part of the Town.
  2. Notwithstanding the preceding section, provided the Employee receives prior approval from Council, which shall be in Council’s sole discretion, the Employee may accept part-time engagements to teach courses, assist in professional associations of which the Employee is a member, and assist in the presentation of panels, seminars, and speeches, and the Employee may keep all fees and honoraria received for such work.

According to clause 31, clause 30 can be waived “provided the Employee receives prior approval from Council”.

The critical question in this whole shoddy affair is Did the CAO or did he not receive approval from Town Council to hold this second job with his wife’s consulting firm?

As well, clause 31 of the Employment Agreement states that “the Employee may accept part-time engagements to teach courses, assist in professional associations of which the Employee is a member, and assist in the presentation of panels, seminars, and speeches, and the Employee may keep all fees and honoraria received for such work”. I don’t see how working for his wife’s consulting firm in any way fits any of those categories.

On August 5, I wrote an email Come Clean! to our Town Council saying:
My question to each one of you is did the employee CAO Mike Derricott receive “approval from Council”?
If so, what is the date where such a meeting took place to give approval? Were all councillors present? One presumes there was a motion to that effect passed by Council. What was the content of that motion?

Judging from past experience with my Town Council, I expect that they will simply ignore my email, which I consider a violation of their Code of Conduct Bylaw. Not surprising, at the time of this writing, one month later, still no response from the Mayor and Council.

In that there appeared no other way to get accountability on this matter, I reached out by email, Request for Investigation, to the Minister of Municipal Affairs on August 7, requesting that he conduct an investigation into this shoddy affair in Cochrane. Noteworthy, according to Section 571(1) under Part 14 — General Ministerial Powers, of the Alberta Municipal Governance Act, “The Minister may require any matter connected with the management, administration or operation of any municipality or any assessment prepared under Part 9 to be inspected
(a)    on the Minister’s initiative,
(b)    on the request of the council of the municipality, or(c)    if the Minister receives a sufficient petition (by electors) requesting the inspection”. In other words the Minister has discretionary powers as per 571(1)(a) to initiate an inspection.
Similar language applies to the conduct of an “inquiry” under section 572(1) of the Act.

On August 21, 2023, I wrote the following to the Minister, with a copy to Chief of Staff, Mr. Alexander Puddifant, and Airdrie-Cochrane
Two weeks have passed since I sent the email below and received the typical automated reply whenever one communicates with anyone in government these days. That automated response from the Office of the Minister Municipal Affairs, assured me that my “correspondence has been received and will be reviewed in the Minister’s office”.
The passage of two weeks, in my view, that should be sufficient time to expect a reply to my email and not just an automated reply. I understand that typical business etiquette is two working days.
I would very much appreciate respectful communication with my government officials.

I received the following reply, the next day, on August 22, 2023 from the Office of the Minister, Municipal Affairs:
Your request has been received in our office and is being processed. Please be advised that responses traditionally take 2-3 weeks to be compiled and sent out, and larger requests can take longer.
Your patience is much appreciated.

Disappointingly, I received the following email from the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver, basically telling me that there was nothing that he could do about the matter:
“Thank you for your email of August 7, 2023, requesting an investigation into the actions of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the Town of Cochrane. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
The Municipal Government Act (MGA) is the main legislative framework for municipalities in Alberta. The MGA provides significant autonomy and authority to each locally elected council, recognizing that councils have been elected by local residents to make decisions on their behalf. Under this legislation, the CAO reports directly to council, which collectively supervises the CAO’s activities and performance.
As the legislation does not provide me, as Minister, with authority to intervene in municipal personnel matters, I encourage you to continue to raise your concerns with your locally elected municipal council.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.”

I was not only disappointed by the reply, but also surprised by his answer that the legislation, the Municipal Government Act, does not provide him with any authority to intervene.

I responded to the Minister advising him that I did see him as having authority under the Municipal Government Act to intervene in municipal matters in an email as follows:
“Dear Minister McIver,
I was not only disappointed by the your reply, but also very surprised by your answer that the legislation, the Municipal Government Act, does not provide you any authority to intervene when clearly according to Section 571(1)(a) under Part 14 — General Ministerial Powers, of the Municipal Government Act, “The Minister may require any matter connected with the management, administration or operation of any municipality or any assessment prepared under Part 9 to be inspected:
(a) on the Minister’s initiative“. In other words, you as the Minister have discretionary powers as per 571(1)(a) to initiate an inspection.
Similar language applies to the conduct of an “inquiry” under section 572(1) of the Act.
As far as your recommendation to deal with my locally elected municipal council, I had already advised you that they have chosen to ignore my queries related to this matter.”

Disappointing that our Town seemingly remains accountable to no one for their questionable actions.