This ‘resignation’
was no surprise:
Police complaint commissioner
left the government with no option
Les Leyne, Victoria Times-Colonist, May 28, 2002
Backed by dozens of pages of testimony raising questions about how poorly he did his job, you'd think the legislative committee deciding Don Morrison’s fate as police complaint commissioner would have recommended just firing him outright.
MLAs could have made history by axing a special officer of the legislature for cause for the first time, making an example of him, and letting the chips fall where they may.
But of course that's not the way these things are done. There are proprieties to observe and consequences to consider. So better minds than mine spent the last week or so wrestling with the dilemma and came up with the unsatisfactory but inevitable arrangement unveiled Monday.
Morrison "resigned" in return for getting half his $158,000-a-year salary as a kiss-off and $15,000 to cover the lawyer he hired to help him out of the mess. The deal was actually done last week. When he started packing cardboard boxes in his office Friday afternoon, it was taken as a sign by his bewildered, traumatized staff that the bizarre four-year ride was coming to an end.
He left quietly, without a word to any of the staff who put their jobs on the line and testified about how poorly led and dysfunctional the office had become during his tenure. And what a compelling parade of witnesses they were. When it comes to whistle-blowing, there has never been such a long parade of people willing to stand up and publicly take on the boss.
As one of them noted, "whistle-blowing is not a career-enhancing activity." Several expressed how fearful they were for their careers, their livelihoods and their futures. But it's a measure of how poisonous the atmosphere in the office is that no fewer than six past and present employees and associates stepped up and told the hard truth about what's really been going on there for the last several years.
Former deputy Matt Adie told the committee bluntly that the only real problem in the commission office was the commissioner. He highlighted Morrison's refusal to hold a public hearing into the hypothermia death of a comatose, disabled alcoholic -- Frank Paul -- who Vancouver police dumped in an alley rather than booking him. He diagnosed Morrison as suffering from "agency capture": being in thrall to the very police he was supposed to oversee.
Former counsel Dana Urban testified he was embarrassed and ashamed of his time with the commission, because of the Paul case, and Morrison's cavalier refusal to consider disturbing evidence about police conduct. (Urban said the commissioner walked out of a meeting with a forensic expert to play solitaire on his computer.)
Another former counsel, Steven Kelliher, testified as gently as he could about how he had to quit after Morrison undercut and discredited him by praising another police investigation that was actually considered shoddy and self-serving.
Most devastating of all was current deputy commissioner Barbara Murphy. After being warned by Morrison "you better get yourself a good lawyer," she laid bare the whole story of his bullying, manipulative, intimidating attitude, his lack of leadership and his questionable spending and legal hiring practices (still subject of an auditor general's investigation).
Compounding that damage, two more office staff showed up weeks later to say Morrison had stripped Murphy of most of her responsibilities shortly after she went back to work. And that routine work had ground to a halt while Morrison prepared for his own appearance before the MLAs.
Morrison did his best to defend himself during a marathon appearance two weeks ago. He tried to rebut as many of the claims as he could and said he looked forward to completing his term.
But the effectiveness of his defence can be measured by how soon after that the negotiations started that led to his departure.
As Kelliher told the committee: "He brought it on himself."
Committee chairman John Nuraney said the lesson to be learned is the critical importance of public trust, which is earned by how people handle themselves and their staff, as well as the public.
"Each and every one of us is accountable," said Nuraney. "That is a lesson to learn."
Taxpayers who feel put out by having to shell out almost $100,000 to get rid of Morrison can take comfort in one fact.
The politicians are going to start the elaborate search process up again and find a new commissioner.
With all the problems brought to light in the current budget-cutting climate, it's a wonder he didn't take the entire commission down with him, and destroy the concept of civilians overseeing municipal police in the process.
[end of Les Leyne’s column]
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