By Thia James

No City Hall hit list: Mayor

Sep 24, 2013 | 4:52 PM

Just hours after the departure of community services director Greg Zeeben was confirmed, Prince Albert’s mayor is shooting down rumours that there’s a list of people targeted for dismissal.

“There is not a hit list and there never was a hit list,” Mayor Greg Dionne said Tuesday afternoon.

The rumours first came about shortly after Robert Cotterill was removed from his position as city manager earlier in September. “And they had actually named some people on the hit list, which totally shocked me. What I think that is, I think that’s very cruel of people to say that, because you’re stressing other people out, they’re worried about their job and they don’t have to be,” Dionne said.

The mayor and his staff do not know who started the rumours. “That’s why I’ve started, as I’ve said, ‘I have a hit list today,’ and what I’m doing is I’m sending a memo out to all the staff, with my personal cell phone [number] and at any time they’re approached by anyone saying that ‘there is a hit list,’ they ‘better watch their back because they’re on it,’ I’m encouraging them to say ‘well, that’s interesting, because I have the mayor’s personal phone number and I’m supposed to call him, because he’d like to talk to you, because he would like to know where you’re getting that information.’”

Dionne found out about the rumoured hit list when a couple of city employees approached him and told him that they were on the hit list. He reassured them that there was no hit list, but they didn’t want to tell him who told them about it.

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The mayor then asked them to go back to the person who told them about the rumoured hit list that the mayor is furious and that he’s on the hunt to find out who told them.

“Because there will be a hit list if I find out, you know, who’s starting these vicious rumours. Because it’s just so unfair to the good staff that we have, to be stressed out to be worried, to think that they have to be looking over their shoulder. That’s totally inappropriate to me and I don’t do business that way.”

Councillors contacted for the story also confirmed that no such hit list exists.

Zeeben’s departure marks the third exit of a department head in the last 10 months. While the high-profile departures may be unsettling for staffers, the mayor said they don’t have to worry.
“I think that we have very good staff at City Hall. Are we going to have some blips going down the road? Absolutely. We have over 600 employees. So, I’m never going to deny that it’ll happen again.”

Dionne also moved to quash speculation that Cotterill’s removal and Zeeben’s exit were the result of targeting and that the city was looking to move on.

“We decided at a meeting, a month ago, to go in a new direction, and that’s why we let the city manager go,” he said of Cotterill.

His shoes have yet to be filled permanently. Until Oct. 15, Chris Cvik, the city’s director of corporate services, will be the acting city manager. Cvik’s appointment to this role was made official during Monday evening’s council meeting.

Dionne said that with Zeeben, it “just sort of happened.”

“He wasn’t happy in his position, and we wanted to move forward, so that’s the end of it. Now, I’m back working on city business and congratulating and cheering on the staff.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames