Magda Konieczna

Kennedy settlement revealed

appeared in The Mercury Oct. 21, 2008

The city agreed to give its former finance director up to $340,000 in compensation when he mysteriously left his job.

That represents almost two and a half years of salary for David Kennedy, who left the city in July 2007.

Details of the city's agreement with Kennedy were obtained by the Mercury through a freedom of information request.

The agreement promises a continuation of Kennedy's salary -- more than $140,000 a year -- until December 2009 or until he obtains alternate employment. In that case, the city would pay him a lump sum of half the money they were still owing. The agreement says Kennedy will retire after the two and a half years, at which point he will be eligible for a pension.

But the city is not admitting any liability by offering the cash, the agreement says.

"Employee agrees that this settlement is not an admission of liability by the employer, and in fact such liability is denied," it reads.

It also stipulates the agreement is confidential.

"The employee and employer acknowledge and agree that the parties would not enter into this agreement absent such provision," the agreement says.

The information, however, sheds little light on the circumstances under which Kennedy left the city. The only hint is a letter written to Kennedy by chief administrative officer Hans Loewig.

"As was discussed with you in today's meeting, the City of Guelph has undertaken a review with respect to the operation of the city's finance department. This has resulted in a decision that your employment with the city will no longer be continued after (date blacked out)."

Rumours started to swirl July 12, 2007, that Kennedy had left the city. City staff and councillors refused to comment and Kennedy's office phone forwarded to a receptionist.

The city issued a press release the following week saying Kennedy had retired and thanking him for 25 years of service.

Kennedy never materialized in person, though he did write a letter to the Information and Privacy Commission asking that information regarding his departure from the city not be released to the Mercury.

Loewig yesterday defended the city's decision to not release the information, which initiated an investigation by the province's privacy commissioner that ultimately required the city to provide the documents.

"It's personal -- personal salary, personal compensation," Loewig said. "It's something we would not have divulged had it not been for the freedom of information order. . . . It's between an individual and the company they work for."

Severance packages offered to non-unionized staff vary from case to case, said Mark Amorosi, the city's director of human resources. The city needs to comply with the employment standards act and with common law, which is what the courts have required employers to pay in the past.

Factors affecting the size of a package include how long the person has worked for the employer, how senior that employee is and how likely it is they will obtain future employment. In Kennedy's case, the employment standards act requires roughly 33 weeks of pay. Common law requirements bring that to between two years, four months of pay and two years, ten months.

But "there is no normal amount," he added.

"We have to look at every case in its own merits."