Fired Iqaluit planner launches $700,000 lawsuit at city hall

Ex-Coun. Al Hayward. Bertol’s lawsuit alleges Hussey used “backroom manoeuvring” to encourage Hayward and other councillors to undermine Bertol’s position. (FILE PHOTO)

John Hussey, Iqaluit’s CAO. Bertol’s lawsuit alleges Hussey engaged in “bullying and demeaning behaviour” towards her throughout 2009 and 2010. (FILE PHOTO)

Michèle Bertol, the former director of lands and planning at the City of Iqaluit, has unleashed a wrongful dismissal suit at the city government that claims more than $700,000 in damages arising from her abrupt dismissal on Jan. 26, 2011. (FILE PHOTO)

Michèle Bertol, the City of Iqaluit’s ex-senior director of lands and planning, is targeting her former employer with a wrongful dismissal lawsuit that’s stuffed with embarrassing allegations about the inner workings of Iqaluit’s city government.

Bertol, 56, was summarily fired from her job Jan. 26, 2011, after nearly seven years of employment, following a council meeting held Jan. 25, 2011.

Her lawsuit, filed Oct. 28, alleges her dismissal flowed from a campaign of bullying, harassment and demeaning behaviour orchestrated by the city’s chief administrative officer, John Hussey.

In the lawsuit, Bertol’s lawyer alleges Hussey told her she was dismissed “without cause.”

In compensation for various alleged losses, she claims more than $700,000 in damages.

“For the last several years of her employment, despite her exemplary service, Ms. Bertol was subjected to harassment and a hostile work environment, culiminating in an abrupt, callous and humiliating dismissal from her position,” her lawsuit alleges.

Her lawsuit alleges that not only Hussey, but John Mabberi-Mudyoni, the city’s director of corporate services, indulged in such behaviour.

“Mr. Hussey engaged in bullying and demeaning behaviour towards Ms. Bertol and permitted his subordinate, Mr. Mabberi-Mudyoni, to bully and demean Ms. Bertol,” her lawsuit alleges.

And Hussey used “backroom manoeuvring” to encourage at least two city councillors, ex-Coun. Al Hayward and Coun. Mat Knickelbein, to undermine Bertol’s position.

“Mr. Hussey actively undermined Ms. Bertol’s relationship with Council. As a result, uniquely anong the City’s directors, Ms. Bertol became subject to open attacks by certain City Councillors,” her lawsuit alleges.

This included “unfounded” accusations, made in public by city councillors, to which Bertol was not given a chance to defend herself.

At a council meeting July 15, 2009, Hayward insinuated, through questions, that Bertol engaged in improprieties, her lawsuit alleges.

“This questioning followed accusations by Mr. Mabberi-Mudyoni in a council meeting on the same issue the previous day that implied Ms. Bertol had engaged in improper dealings with the developer,” her lawsuit alleges.

Bertol’s lawsuit states she was not permitted to respond to those accusations.

At an in-camera meeting held July 21, 2009 on the same issue, Mabberi-Mudyoni “forced Ms. Bertol, her staff, and the developer from the Council antechambers and locked the group outside City Hall, further undermining Ms. Bertol’s relationship with Council,” her lawsuit alleges.

“Mr. Mabberi-Mudyoni’s actions could only have occurred with the approval of Mr. Hussey,” the lawsuit states.

After preparing a report on the issue, Bertol received no feedback from council or from Hussey.

In another incident, Coun. Mat Knickelbein made “unfounded allegations” that Bertol misled council with respect to certain zoning restrictions in the Upper Base area.

“This attack, like that attacks on Ms. Bertol in the summer of 2009, were ultimately the product of Mr. Hussey’s backroom manoeuvring,” the lawsuit alleges.

In 2008, the city’s senior management team was weakened by the loss of its director of engineering, its project officer and its director of public works.

During that time, Bertol “successfully” managed the engineeering department and helped run the public works department in addition to her own duties, her lawsuit states.

In March 2008, she was promoted to the position of senior director so she could serve as acting CAO when necessary.

But all that changed after September 2008, when Mabberi-Mudyoni was hired as director of corporate services, Bertol’s lawsuit alleges.

“Following this appointment, and with his position as CAO now secure, Mr. Hussey began to engage in a range of bullying and undermining behaviour aimed at Ms. Bertol over the course of 2009 and 2010,” her lawsuit alleges.

In 2009, a director of engineering suffered from “alcohol addiction issues,” her lawsuit states.

“In the spring of 2009, Mr. Hussey had actually requested that Ms. Bertol monitor his [the engineering director’s] conduct to ensure he was not coming to work intoxicated,” her lawsuit alleges.

And her lawsuit alleges the alcoholic director of engineering “not only received several warnings but was offered professional assistance for his addiction.”

But in her case, the city made no attempt to follow the “basic steps of progressive discipline” leading up to her dismissal, which the city used for other senior managers who were dismissed.

“Ms. Bertol never received any indication that the City was concerned with her performance and was given no advance notice that she was in danger of termination,” her lawsuit alleges.

And her lawsuit states in several places that Hussey’s performance reviews consistently indicated that her performance at work was exemplary.

“It is clear from the manner of dismissal that the decision to terminate Ms. Bertol’s performance was made in haste, without preparation and was designed to be as abrupt, humiliating and harsh as possible,” her lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit also said the city did not prepare an “ROE,” or record of employment for her and that she has yet to received one.

To compensate her for the various the breaches that she alleges, Bertol claims more than $700,000 in damages from the city.

That includes:

• damages of $456,540 worth of unpaid wages, based on the 30-months notice she says she should have received;

• damages of $91,308, based on the value of her benefit package during that 30-month period;

• damages of $9,696.18, based on the value of a removal assistance payment that she did not receive;

• damages of $60,000, reflecting the loss she incurred when she was “forced to hastily sell her house” due to the city’s wrongful terrmination of her employment.

• “moral” damages of $100,000.

The allegations set out in Bertol’s lawsuit have yet to be proven in court.