Ramara employee ‘has acknowledged some wrongdoing,’ acting CAO says

At least one Ramara Township employee has been disciplined in connection with the contaminated waste that was dumped on municipal property in December.

“A staff member, through discussion, has acknowledged some wrongdoing,” acting CAO and clerk Janice McKinnon, who has launched an internal investigation into the incident, said Tuesday.

When asked if she could take disciplinary action even though the investigation, which began in January, is ongoing, she said, “In this instance, I can and I will be.”

Ramara council reviewed a report prepared by McKinnon during its regular meeting Monday night and passed a motion permitting her to “carry out the disciplinary action required.”

Dec. 19, after the drainage catch basins under the trucks in the bays at Ramara works yards 1 and 3 were emptied early in the day, a senior staff member authorized the black sludge that had been sucked up by a contracted vacuum-truck company to be disposed of at the township-owned, decommissioned quarry on Concession D-E, according to the report.

There’s a bit of ambiguity around what happened next.

The township office was purportedly notified about the incident when it occurred, the report states, but the township’s office records show there were no calls about it during business hours or after hours.

A woman contacted the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change that evening, reporting she saw a truck dumping oil on the property. The ministry then emailed the township.

Dec. 20, after another senior staff member went to the site and advised the waste be cleaned up, it was put in a tarp-lined hole.

McKinnon said she has interviewed the majority of staff members who were involved with, could have been involved with, were aware of or had any knowledge about the situation.

“The same questions were asked of all the people that I interviewed,” McKinnon said.

There were instances when an interviewee said one thing and another interviewee said another, McKinnon said.

“They contradict each other.”

Dec. 22, three days after the waste was dumped and two days after township staff cleaned it up, a manager asked some of the public works staff about what had happened, according to the report.

“During that questioning, a staff member acted surprised to hear that there had been a dumping and the pit and indicated it was the first he had heard about it,” the report states. “It was later determined that the same employee was at the site (Dec. 20) and discussed his concerns with other residents …”

Ramara has a code of conduct all employees, including those who are part of a union, as exists in the public works department, must adhere to.

One of the first stipulations of the code is “staff are responsible for making honest statements,” McKinnon said.

Within the code of conduct is a progressive disciplinary policy.

At one end, employees who commit a minor first-time breach are reprimanded verbally. At the other, employees who commit a major breach, and potentially have breached it before, can be terminated.

For some code breaches, including of trust, there is “zero tolerance,” McKinnon said.

When asked if not making an honest statement — in other words, lying — constitutes breach of trust, McKinnon said it’s something that has yet to be determined.

Because some of the people she has interviewed have given conflicting accounts of what happened between Dec. 19 and 22, she said she will be widening her investigation and speaking with more people, including the vacuum-truck company.

The motion passed by council Monday includes sending a letter to ask why what was dumped was “not cleaned up immediately after seeing what was in (it).”

According to the report, the invoice from the company specifically for cleaning the basins was for $1,553, but the entire job ran about $3,685.

Township employees who didn’t use their training, didn’t follow procedure or didn’t provide notice that procedure wasn’t followed, could also be disciplined.

“Those types of things all have to be reviewed,” McKinnon said.

MacKinnon said she’s hoping to have more information by March 2, when council committee next meets.

“That may not be the end of it,” McKinnon said. 
Dec. 23, on the recommendation of the Ministry of the Environment, the waste and the soil it had been dumped on were both tested for contaminants.

According to the report, the cost of the testing was an estimated $5,900.

The waste, which very probably had antifreeze and oil and other fluids from the vehicles it had come off of in it, itself presented well over the allowed limit.

The waste has since been disposed of at a site equipped to handle it.

According to the report, the cost of disposing of it was $11,611.

While tests showed the groundwater at the quarry was unaffected, the Ministry of the Environment notified the township in January that it violated the Environmental Protection Act in a letter that advised the township to remove some more soil from the site and retrain staff on waste-disposal procedures.

At Monday night’s meeting, council also approved staff to carry out the staff retraining the Ministry of the Environment outlined and report to the Ministry of the Environment on it.

The Ministry of the Environment has not said it’s pursuing further investigation, McKinnon said, noting she’s received no formal correspondence saying it’s done with the township, either.

“The township has been voluntarily complying with our requirements regarding the site,.” Ministry of Environment spokesperson Kate Jordan confirmed in an email Tuesday.

“As the township has been meeting our requirements, the incident has not been referred for further investigation. However we are continuing to monitor the situation …”