Retired Hamilton general manager speaks out against ‘district attorney’ Whitehead

When the badgering became so intense, Hamilton's city manager warned council he'd pull staff out of the meeting.

The heated debate - peppered with accusations of lying - revolved around a long-term deal to burn the city's sewer sludge.

But the flashpoint was Coun. Terry Whitehead, recalls Joe-Anne Priel, a retired general manager of community and emergency services for the city.

It was one of those meetings where he was talking to us like he was a district attorney."

That was April 2010. But for Priel, the tumultuous session still resonates.

All these years later, Whitehead continues to clash with staff at city hall and Priel worries the dynamic is affecting municipal business.

I think it's really accelerated and really worse now," says Priel, who retired in 2018 after nearly 20 years with the city.

For his part, the veteran Mountain councillor denies he has bullied or harassed anyone.

I've never, ever attacked people. I attack issues, but I will hold people accountable. That's my job," he told The Spectator.

This week, the city's integrity commissioner docked Whitehead 45 days of pay after a probe found he intimidated, bullied and harassed two staff members and a fellow councillor.

Council endorsed that penalty and asked human resources to report back with a safety plan" to shield staff and elected officials alike from their colleague.

This is the second time Whitehead has been penalized this term.

In November, he was docked 30 days of pay after the commissioner found he'd bullied staff during a public meeting more than a year earlier. He was also barred from communicating with any staff junior to position of general manager.

Whitehead argues he's the target of adversaries piling on" while his health is compromised by an incurable" undisclosed illness that has affected his cognitive skills and memory.

You're only seeing what's happening on the stage," he said. You're not seeing what's happening behind the curtains."

If not recently, for years, Priel had a backstage view of Whitehead's interaction with staff while leading a staff of thousands.

She oversaw an array of crucial services, from recreation to paramedics and Ontario Works, and had 10 to 12 directors reporting to her.

All my years there, I was treated with a huge amount of respect and decency from every councillor and regardless of their political strike."

There was an exception, though. Whitehead was different. So much so, she developed a special strategy to protect her staff from him, Priel recalls.

When you have somebody that's going to bully, talk over you, they don't feel that they've got the power to deal with that."

So, with a couple of exceptions, no staff would meet alone with Whitehead.

And it worked, Priel says. At least everybody knew that we were sort of taking care of ourselves."

Fostering strong ties with other city politicians was also key.

I was strong enough and I had a great relationship with councillors."

Whitehead was known to be an issue among the city's senior leadership at the time, but no action was taken, she says.

I think it was shrugged off, Oh, that's Terry.'"

But in April 2010, city manager Chris Murray drew a line in the sand.

During that heated meeting, Whitehead repeatedly implied staff were being evasive during the debate over a potential 30-year deal with Liberty Energy, The Spectator reported.

If staff were straightforward with the answers, then maybe we could deal with this," he remarked.

That drew a rebuke from Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who asked, Can we at some point stop accusing staff of providing false information?"

Murray issued a warning: I can say if this is going to continue, then I would ask my colleagues to leave and the questions need to be (directed) to me in terms of the conduct of staff."

Staff would offer their best responses, he said. But please do not accuse staff of lying."

With that, senior managers sitting beside Murray responded with a rare round of applause.

Thank you, Chris," Priel said, The Spectator reported.

More than a decade later, Priel worries about her former colleagues at city hall.

I know what it's like to be a public servant, so there's all those people that are voiceless. They have no power and so it's maybe time that I just said something."

Typically, the culture of public service instills stoicism in the face of criticism, she explains.

It's sort of the rules of engagement, even if it's not stated."

There were times when Priel says she wanted to blurt out something, but a team member would put their hand on my arm" to advise against it.

And you sit there stone-faced and you take it, and you try to be respectful and say something like, That's not what I said, councillor.'"

Consider how Whitehead went on the offensive over a road diet" pilot project for Aberdeen Avenue during the September 2020 public works meeting.

The integrity commissioner would later describe the episode as an aggressive barrage of rapid-fire questions" directed at Edward Soldo, the city's transportation director.

Whitehead treated Soldo like a hostile witness under cross-examination," concluded the commissioner's report.

In a workplace, such questioning of another employee would quickly be recognized as harassment," Principles Integrity, the firm that serves as commissioner, also observed.

Whitehead falsely accused Soldo of disobeying past council direction, implied he was misleading the committee and suggested he was lying, the report summarized.

Coun. John-Paul Danko, who was chair of the virtual meeting, tried to rein in Whitehead and eventually ejected him for questioning Soldo's competence" and refusing to apologize.

In November 2021, upon considering the commissioner's report, Coun. Maureen Wilson summed up the findings as the municipality's Me Too moment."

Coun. Judi Partridge, meanwhile, said fellow elected officials had enabled" Whitehead's behaviour for years.

We have to put a stop to it. That's on all of us."

The commissioner's report also noted interviews with staff pointed to a half a dozen separate incidents, involving as many different management staff, who experienced similar bullying" by Whitehead in public meetings.

In a prepared statement at the time, Whitehead countered he'd asked high-level bureaucrats tough questions on behalf of Hamilton residents."

Further, in a letter to city officials, his lawyer called the commissioner complaint process inherently flawed" and its findings unsupported by fact."

Whitehead also said he had an incurable problem" that had led to mental-health problems, including depression and anxiety, during an extended sick leave.

But just days earlier, the councillor - recently back from his long absence - had already landed himself in more hot water. It hadn't hit the public radar yet.

It did this week when the commissioner reported Whitehead had attended, unannounced" the clerk's office on Nov. 4, 2021, and proceeded to angrily criticize and challenge her role" in filing the complaint over the September 2020 meeting.

A recording he surreptitiously" made of the encounter - and submitted to the commissioner - makes it quite evident" he intended to strong-arm" clerk Andrea Holland into not placing the commissioner's report on the next council agenda.

During the exchange, Whitehead told her, I just want you to understand the consequences of your actions," then mused he was having fun" and suggested he was a millionaire."

He also left a voicemail with Lora Fontana, executive director of human resources, telling her he'd just learned that she was instrumental'" in the complaint about the meeting the previous fall.

Whitehead told her he had to do what he had to do" but hoped she understood" and there were no hard feelings."

He has launched a judicial review to contest the integrity commissioner's initial report but also predicted legal retaliation that would involve one of the largest multimillion-dollar lawsuits the city will ever see."

In addition to the interactions with Holland and Fontana, there was also another complaint, this time involving fellow councillor Judi Partridge, the recipient of a disrespectful, bullying and intimidating" chat message during a Feb. 9 virtual meeting, the commissioner reported.

Discussing the findings this week, councillors considered barring Whitehead from city hall in addition to the 45 days of docked pay, but ultimately opted for staff to report back with a safety plan" in coming months.

There is an inherent power imbalance between an elected official and the civil service," Coun. Brad Clark observed.

When a councillor walks into a staff person's office unannounced, it feels like the boss is coming in to criticize me or put me in my place or correct me."

Coun. Jason Farr, meanwhile, expressed concern over Whitehead's health.

I hope that my good friend Terry is doing OK," the downtown councillor said.

Coun. Brenda Johnson's offered no such words of support and instead focused on the impact of Whitehead's conduct.

It's been going on for the 12 years that I've been here," the outgoing Glanbrook representative said, but I want to apologize and offer my support to my colleagues who feel right now that they're not in a good place with this councillor."

Partridge, who's not seeking re-election either, had this to say: Enough is enough. We have put up with this for far too long."

None of this came as a surprise to Priel.

But Whitehead's over-the-top explosive anger" during a tumultuous meeting this past May prompted her to speak out.

I've never seen anything like that."

The chaotic display was also a moment of reckoning for some councillors, who made a point of expressing their disgust.

The harassment; the belligerence; speaking out of turn; the inability to request to speak and forever bickering about it - every single time; speaking over the chair; speaking over other councillors," Danko said.

The behaviour that was on display today, frankly, is toxic for all of us," he added. It's toxic to the reputation of our municipality."

And, like Johnson, the first-term Ward 8 councillor said it was nothing new, but rather a pattern of behaviour.

Whitehead, however, countered this council's an embarrassment" and alleged some city politicians, including Danko, were unduly influenced by a small group of social-media users.

They're pretending that they're innocent, pretending that they are sanitized, that they are respectful," he added from this home.

Meanwhile, they're sticking the knives in our backs."

For years, Whitehead, who was first elected in 2003, has stood out as an outspoken, if not polarizing figure known to lengthen deliberations and aggressively question staff at meetings.

But he has been handily re-elected in Ward 8, before boundaries were redrawn in late 2017, after which he opted to run in Ward 14, his current constituency.

Coun. Tom Jackson - in the aftermath of the discordant September 2020 public works meeting - put it this way: He had known few elected officials as ferocious and fierce" as Whitehead when it came to fighting for constituents.

The east Mountain veteran also lamented unfair and unnecessary criticisms and attacks" on his colleague.

In more recent years, Whitehead has stridently criticized Hamilton's long-debated LRT project, lambasted the Aberdeen road diet" and challenged the city's policy to fire employees who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19.

Since his return from sick leave, he maintains he has been unfairly muzzled" and hamstrung by procedure.

My point is there's a number of factors here. Do I piss people off? Yes, there's no question. But look at how many battles I win."

Whitehead says he has a prosecutor style," which he adopted from watching House of Commons debates.

He also speaks of his days with the steelworkers' union in Elliot Lake, Ont., fighting arbitration battles.

I don't play games."

But hockey is a favourite point of comparison for politics.

Once in a while, you're going to get checked, and once in a while, there might be an elbow that was accidental."

But has he been a bully, as Priel says?

It's not like I yelled at her or anything else, or tried to force my position on her."

But he took her to task for producing reports he alleges were politicized" with the influence of another councillor.

Then they complain because I'm calling them on it - and they say I'm a bully."

But, as far as Priel is concerned, that's utter bulls--t."

I understand my role, and I'm telling you, there's never once I would let any councillor interfere in a report for political reasons. Never."

But she warns Hamilton stands to lose if protracted displays of hostility and dysfunction continue at city hall.

The public will lose respect, so it does have an impact in terms of how you're viewed, how the city is viewed."

And on a practical level, meetings hijacked by toxicity just aren't productive, Priel adds.

If you're trying to have a decent conversation about important items at council, you're going to get sidelined by that."

Priel says she's disappointed council didn't opt to immediately bar Whitehead from city hall.

When it came time to a decision that was in their purview, they backed off," she said. That's where it felt like to me that they just totally let me down."

Whitehead, meanwhile, remains a study in contradictions.

He has stated his intention to seek another term in the Oct. 24 election, but this week announced a plan to return to sick leave.

It's personal for me right now. I'm fighting to survive and get back on the horse that threw me. That's what I do. If I fail at that, then at least I know that I tried."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com