The CDN-NDG borough council called an emergency session Thursday where all five city councillors voted to overturn mayor Sue Montgomery suspension of borough director Stéphane Plante. Plante’s job was saved but the session revealed a deep dysfunction in the council itself.
During the session, the councillors openly displayed hostility towards Montgomery. The most direct attacks came from opposition councillor Marvin Rotrand who said the borough’s staff were experiencing a morale problem because of Montgomery. Rotrand said that in his 18 years working for the borough he’d never seen an issue that couldn’t be resolved diplomatically. He accused Montgomery of abusing her power and of having a vendetta against Plante.
“You make the borough dysfunctional,” Rotrand told the mayor.
Montgomery provided justification for her fourth suspension of Plante in the form of an email she’d written to the borough director. In the email she asks Plante why a number of projects, including the extension of the Terrebonne bike path, special animation for children on Walkley Avenue, and the installation of bollards (safety barriers) on the Walkley bike path hadn’t been completed when the council had approved these projects in their June 22 meeting.
But the reasons behind Plante’s suspension were barely touched upon during the 2.5 hour-long session which had begun with an impassioned speech by Montgomery.
“Will you play political games, or will you stand up for Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace?” the mayor had asked the councillors.
The first point of order regarded whether or not to answer questions submitted by citizens during the special emergency session convened specifically to debate Plante’s suspension. Montgomery then had to spend the bulk of the session answering close to 20 nearly identical questions regarding the Terrebonne bike path before it was pointed out to her that she didn’t need to answer questions she’d already answered.
Rotrand accused Montgomery of not listening to the concerns of business owners on Queen Mary. Montgomery charged Rotrand with spreading false information. She said that in fact she had spoken with the business owners and reassured them and Rotrand was aware of this.
Montgomery pointed out that councillors Christian Arseneault and Peter McQueen had both lobbied for the bike path and supported its creation. McQueen replied that he has lobbied for other bike paths but that it was only in this mandate that Terrebonne was looked at. He cited the dates of two emails he sent where he claimed he urged caution in implementing the Terrebonne project.
After the questions from residents ended, councillor Lionel Perez put forward a motion to overturn Plante’s suspension.
“All I’m seeing is an email saying why he’s being suspended. It’s her interpretation. There are no supporting documents, no justification, no independent analysis,” said Perez.
Councillor Magda Popeanu supported Perez’s motion. She said Montgomery had never worked in the public service and that the disciplinary action she was using was for a major infraction not a minor one.
“You aren’t the Queen of CND-NDG,” said Popeanu. “Accusing him (Plante) of lying is extreme.”
Montgomery replied that she gave Plante warnings and a chance to explain himself, so she had no choice but to suspend him.
“The city is broken. This borough is broken. The city isn’t working,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery also said she tried to provide the proof the councillors were asking for, “but no one replied to me.”
Rotrand said that since Montgomery had already tabled a motion, she couldn’t add to it.
“When you table, you have to support with proof,” added Popeanu.
Peter McQueen noted that there are a lot of borough workers on sick leave due to stress. He said the borough has been understaffed for a few months and that communications between the cabinet and the civil service were “completely dysfunctional.” He accused Montgomery of “arbitrary displays of discipline.”
Councillor Christian Arseneault accused Montgomery of either not having all the facts, of not understanding what transpired in emails between herself, Plante and the city of Montreal regarding the extension of the Terrebonne bike path, or of deliberately being misleading.
On August 18, Plante wrote to Montgomery,
“This is the email explaining that the CCMU (the city of Montreal’s emergency committee for COVID measures) doesn’t authorize the extension of the bike path, unfortunately, we don’t have other correspondence.”
However, the email from the city of Montreal actually states “…for every intervention relative to these arrangements, you can refer to your procedures for evaluation, coordination…in the borough.”
Montgomery said Plante lied to her when she had asked him if he’d gotten approval for the Terrebonne bike path extension from the city of Montreal and Plante had simply said no, they didn’t approve it.
Arseneault argued that this wasn’t a lie because what the city told Plante was that it was up to the borough to decide about the bike path. Arseneault said he would be filing a complaint with the ethics commission about the issue.
The discordant council session ended with Rotrand talking about how Stéphane Plante went beyond the call of duty during the pandemic and had acted selflessly, but how for the mayor, “the city is broken, everyone is no good.”
While the councillors argued, the children of Walkley Avenue never got an explanation for why their special activities were cancelled this summer. The Terrebonne bike path still doesn’t extend West of Cavendish and the Walkley bike path is still not properly secured.
