Local Government Minister Daniel Allain has turned down Mayor Shawn Mesheau’s request for an independent review of the process behind hiring a new Tantramar CAO. In a letter to council this week, Allain said he was sticking with his appointment of Dorchester CAO Jennifer Borne to head up the staff for the new municipality of Tantramar. The only other candidate for the job was Sackville CAO Jamie Burke.

Mesheau wrote to Allain about two weeks ago after Sackville town council asked him to do so at their regular July meeting. Mesheau called the process which resulted in Borne’s appointment “fundamentally flawed”, and asked for a meeting with Allain and a review of the whole process by an independent HR consultant.

The minister and the mayor met last week, and this week, Allain sent his reply to all councillors expressing his “confidence in the recruitment process leading to [his] decision to appoint Jennifer Borne to the role.”

Allain’s letter mentioned the province’s contract with Jennifer Murray Consulting of Moncton, whom he said were “responsible for overseeing a biased free [sic] recruitment process leading to a fair and objective evaluation of candidates.”

The letter reads, “The position advertisement, essential qualifications, competencies, and candidate evaluation grid were based on an objective assessment of the position requirements and all candidates were assessed based on the established criteria.”

Allain then offered up a timeline of the process that took place.

On June 3, a small HR subcommittee was appointed by provincial appointee Chad Peters. That committee included Sackville Deputy Mayor Andrew Black, Dorchester Deputy Mayor Robert Corkerton, and appointed representative from the Sackville local service district Chris Milner.

Black later explained to CHMA that he had concerns about the make-up of the committee early on, because it involved two people with existing working relationships to the candidates. Black had worked with Jamie Burke for years, and Robert Corkerton had likewise worked with Jennifer Borne. That would leave Chris Milner, appointed by the province, to break a likely tie vote.

Black says he voiced those concerns to Chad Peters before the process began, but was told the process was decided and the same process was being used province-wide.

Black would later resign, but not before a single round of candidate interviews were conducted on June 8th and 14th. According to Allain’s timeline, Black’s resignation comes on the July 15, a day after “the HR subcommittee finalized the evaluation of the candidates as well as their recommendation on the candidate most qualified for appointment.”

Black agrees that he participated in both interviews and that the committee had essentially finished its work when he resigned, but he says he did not sign off on a recommendation.

Jennifer Borne has been CAO of Dorchester for nearly five years, managing a staff complement of three full time employees and two casual workers. Burke was hired as CAO of Sackville in April 2020, and as of this month manages about 37 permanent employees as well a temporary and summer contracts.

Reactions from Sackville town council

Mayor Shawn Mesheau is out of town and unavailable for comment this week, so CHMA reached out to Sackville town councillors to get their reactions to Allain’s refusal to review the hiring process.

Councillor Bruce Phinney wasn’t at the meeting where council unanimously asked the Mayor to express their concerns to Allain, and may not have supported the motion. Phinney has long been critical of Jamie Burke and was the lone vote against hiring Burke in 2020. Earlier in July, Phinney responded positively to the news that Jennifer Borne would be appointed Tantramar CAO. Phinney told CHMA via email that he felt the hiring committee had “hired the right person for the CAO position,” and that he wished Jamie Burke all the best.

Deputy Mayor Andrew Black had previously shared his concerns about the hiring process, but declined to comment on Allain’s response.

Councillor Sabine Dietz, who made the motion calling for the letter to Allain, replied by email that she was “not surprised” considering that the provincial government has “not given an inch” on any requests from Sackville town council throughout the local government reform process. Dietz said although she wasn’t surprised, the situation remains “frustrating and infuriating.”

Councillor Bill Evans, who has been a vocal opponent of the forced amalgamation process all along, was willing to share his thoughts in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

Here’s that interview, editied for length:

Evans says he was not pleased but also not surprised at the answer from Allain, which he characterizes thus: “The guy who created the flawed process has assured us that it wasn’t flawed.”

Evans says he can’t prove it, but he suspects Minister Allain of punishing Sackville for being outspoken about the local government reform process.

When the plan for forced amalgamations first came to light, Evans recalls, “some people advised us that pushing back would get the Minister mad at us, and we might suffer consequences. And I thought, oh my god, this is like a mafia protection racket. We cannot call out wrongdoing, lest we be punished.”

Evans says he feels the process was flawed in part due to the membership of the HR committee that made the final recommendation to Allain. “One of them was the facilitator [Chad Peters] appointed by the Minister, one was a person [Chris Milner] appointed by the facilitator, and one represented Dorchester [Robert Corkerton],” says Evans. “And they pick the Dorchester CAO.”

Evans also believes that based on Borne’s work experience managing the village of Dorchester and working for the town of Amherst, she would not have made the shortlist in an external hiring process such as the one used to hire Jamie Burke in 2020. “With that CV, she would not have got an interview,” says Evans.

“This is not anything personal against [Borne],” says Evans. “But a group of people picked somebody who, in my opinion, is the inferior candidate.”

Evans was one of seven town councillors who voted in favour of hiring Jamie Burke in 2020. “We have someone who has done the job well, and has the support of the existing council, representing whatever it is, two thirds of the population of the new entity,” says Evans. “And the minister imposed his will and picked someone else. And it’s my opinion that he did it out of spite.”

CHMA has reached out to Jennifer Borne for an interview, but she was not available at this time. We hope to bring you that interview in the near future.