Brampton council removes David Barrick as city’s Chief Administrative Officer
Published February 11, 2022 at 2:54 pm
The City of Brampton has split with Chief Administrative Officer David Barrick following a special council meeting and a dramatic week at City Hall.
The decision was made on Friday (Feb. 11), with council voting to appoint Paul Morrison, Director of Bylaw Services, as interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).
The city said it is looking for a permanent replacement “as soon as possible.”
“Our Council thanks and acknowledges David Barrick as he moves on to new opportunities, for his contributions to our organisation and community,” the city said.
In a release, the city said council unanimously appointed Morrison as the interim CAO as Brampton “takes its next steps towards supporting the community’s recovery from COVID-19 and laying the foundation for a stronger, more sustainable future.”
The move comes after two meetings of council were cancelled this week as a block of six councillors boycotted the meetings in protest, likening the city’s democracy to an “authoritarian dictatorship.”
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In an interview with insauga.com publisher Khaled Iwamura, Mayor Patrick Brown said there had been “some division” on council “over who should be the city manager.”
According to reports, Barrick was hired as CAO back in October 2019. He drew criticism after a city director said she was fired, accusing Barrick and others of misconduct.
Members of council later requested that Peel Regional Police and the Ontario Ombudsman investigate the allegations, with police reporting no evidence of criminal wrongdoing while the ombudsman declined to investigate.
Brown also said “there was frustration” by some members of council on “how the procedural bylaw makes it difficult sometimes to make a choice when there’s not more than two thirds (majority).”
“I can’t speak about anything that was discussed in camera, I would just say there was some disagreements over procedure,” Brown said.
On Wednesday, six city councillors boycotted a regularly scheduled meeting of council in protest of what they called the city’s “authoritarian dictatorship.”
Councillors Martin Medeiros, Jeff Bowman, Charmaine Williams, Pat Fortini, Doug Whillans and Gurpreet Dhillon were all missing from Wednesday’s scheduled regular meeting of council, which forced the meeting to be cancelled.
In a separate interview with insauga.com, Medeiros called the protest a drastic measure.
“We feel there were some votes that weren’t properly administered, and the will of council wasn’t respected,” he said.
“When councillors feel they’re helpless or they don’t have authority and there’s unelected officials who are running city hall then that’s a big issue.”
After the fallout of Wednesday’s cancellation, two special meetings were scheduled for Friday – one by Mayor Patrick Brown and another called by the bloc of six councillors.
Brown’s meeting could not proceed as the six councillors again did not show up, while the second Friday meeting went ahead as scheduled with the bloc of six in attendance.
The agenda also looked to permit council to designate who can be present at a closed-session meeting when the matters relate to the Chief Administrative Officer, who at the time on Friday morning was Barrick.
Another special meeting of council is scheduled for Feb. 22, but Brown said that meeting may be scrapped as a result of Friday’s closed door session.
Khaled Iwamura from insauga.com asks the Mayor of Brampton Patrick Brown if David Barrick was fired.
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