Two councillors with deepest attachment to former city manager could not bring themselves to fire her for cause

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ouncillors Bill Bestwick and Gord Fuller voted against firing Tracy Samra for cause at Friday’s termination meeting,has learned.

The two men, among Ms. Samra’s staunchest defenders throughout her tumultuous two-and-a-half-year tenure, remained loyal to the controversial city manager to the end.

Mr. Bestwick was the driving force behind hiring the trained lawyer on an interim basis in late 2015. In March 2016, he helped her secure the permanent position at below market salary that discouraged other candidates, but then initiated a retroactive pay increase eight months later.

Ms. Samra, 50, championed many of Mr. Bestwick’s causes, including launching a brutal political and legal onslaught against his rivals mayor Bill McKay and Diane Brennan, spearheading a core services review that cost $325,000 but failed to realize significant savings, and acting as head cheerleader for his ill-fated multiplex proposal.

Mr. Fuller, meanwhile, is widely viewed as being blinded by an emotional attachment to Ms. Samra, who he perceived as the victim of unfair criticism. In misguided attempts to counter adversaries online, he leaked confidential council records that are now the subject of inquiries by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Both men are also known to have harboured strong feelings against long-time senior staff members. Under Ms. Samra’s management, more than 35 management staff left for other jobs, retired or were forced out. Legal proceedings are now pending in two cases.

6-2 vote, Kipp absent but supported firing

However, on Friday morning six of the nine council members voted to terminate Ms. Samra’s employment without severance in a decision backed by an opinion from the city’s lawyers.

Councillor Jim Kipp left the meeting before the vote was called but told News Nanaimo on Sunday that he supported the outcome and had declared his views prior to leaving for another appointment.

Mr. Bestwick’s vote against Ms. Samra’s termination for cause is surprising because he voted in favour of dismissing chief financial officer (CFO) Victor Mema on the same basis two weeks earlier.

Ms. Samra was heavily implicated in the expenses scandal involving Mr. Mema using a city credit card for $14,600 in personal expenses that he was unable to immediately repay.

After the CFO bounced a personal cheque to reimburse the city for some of his expenses, Ms. Samra arranged a highly unusual scheme to award him a $7,200 living expenses allowance that paid out $5,400 immediately.

She also promoted him as her deputy and gave him a 10% interim increase. Later she gave him a bonus worth almost $24,000.

When finance staff complained about the finance chief’s continued personal spending, they were punished with disciplinary letters in their personnel files.

Ms. Samra also billed personal expenses to a city credit card, including an unusual charge for a cat vet.

The former city manager is known to have made changes to internal complaints procedures that stopped the mayor or councillors receiving complaints about her actions.

City auditors KPMG said in a recent report to council’s finance and audit committee that there were three changes to the city’s respectful workplace policy between January 2017 and January 2018.

It’s understood that councillors were also provided with damning details about the incident at city hall on Jan. 31. The incident led RCMP to arrest the Ms. Samra and a special prosecutor later approved a peace bond application against her.

She is due in court on June 5 to face the peace bond application that seeks to prohibit her from having contact with nine individuals, including this reporter. Her appearance has been postponed four times.

Despite the weight of evidence and a legal opinion that council had grounds to fire Ms. Samra for cause, neither Mr. Bestwick nor Mr. Fuller could reach that finding.

Mr. Fuller, who left Mr. Mema’s termination meeting in a rage and failed to vote, is thought to have viewed termination for cause as too harsh a penalty.

Neither Mr. Bestwick nor Mr. Fuller responded to emails seeking comment.