Retired and rehired in 24 hours: Calgary police chief criticized for 'secretive' deal with deputy
CBC
Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld made a secret deal with one of his deputies which saw the senior officer retire one day only to be rehired the next, allowing him to collect two pensions plus a nearly $250,000 per year salary, CBC News has learned.
On top of that, the City of Calgary has a policy prohibiting employees from returning to work within 90 days of retiring unless an exemption is granted from the HR department, but the chief could not confirm he received the required permission.
Instead, Neufeld said CPS "followed the legal advice" it received regarding the deal.
"I don't know, I didn't have the conversations myself," said Neufeld. "I just want to be careful with the language; I wouldn't say 'permission,' we don't necessarily go looking for permission all the time.
"What I would say is that the appropriate people were in the loop on this all the way along."
In a supplementary statement, CPS also said the "appropriate parties were notified of the intentions."
"The deal was structured to address any risks involving the 90-day rule. We did this with legal guidance," reads the emailed statement from the service.
The new contract was supposed to be protected by what's commonly called an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) but in the last six weeks, news of Deputy Chief Paul Cook's November retirement accidentally made it into the Chief's Orders, an internal publication, according to high-ranking sources within the service who CBC News has agreed not to name because they fear professional ramifications.
The bi-weekly Chief's Orders live in an online archive but the edition announcing Cook's retirement was quickly pulled from the archive, the sources say.
"This type of secretive back-room deal will serve to further erode CPS employees' trust in the chief and his executive leadership team," said one officer.
But the chief said the confidentiality provision is standard in senior executives' employment contracts.
"I don't think there's any more secrecy to this than there is around any contract negotiation with any deputy chief or senior executive," said Neufeld.
The confidentiality provision has been partially lifted since the Chief's Orders technically breached the order, CPS confirmed.
"He wasn't being moved, he wasn't leaving the organization, there was nothing materially changing about his role or function inside the organization. So that should not have been on the personnel orders to begin with," said Neufeld.
Math is not Berry Genge's strongest subject, but she credits her desire to solve problems and her interest in how things work for making her want to study engineering. The fourth-year UPEI student was one of 10 chosen in Canada this spring to become 3M National Student Fellows. The honour, administered by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), recognizes students who demonstrate leadership qualities both on and off campus.