Central Alberta municipal councillor violated confidentiality obligations, says County Complaints Adjudicator

Rocky View County (RVC) Division 1 Coun. Kevin Hanson has been reprimanded by council for breaching council confidentiality.

At the conclusion of a closed session at their Tuesday meeting, RVC councillors voted to officially receive a report from the County’s Complaints Adjudicator about a breach of confidentiality obligations from Hanson. 

It was the desire of council that Hanson, who by nature of having a complaint filed against him must have violated council’s Code of Conduct and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, obtain “professional training on the nature and extent of his confidentiality obligations.” 

The motion was passed unanimously by council. Divisions 4, 5, and 6 Councillors Samanntha Wright, Greg Boehlke, and Sunny Samra said at the meeting that they would voluntarily also seek out more training on the nature of their confidentiality obligations. 

When reached out to, Hanson declined to comment on the matter, but said that he was appreciative of his fellow councillors' support. 

“It was nice to see the support from my colleagues that want to be trained as well,” said Hanson, who must complete the additional confidentiality training within 60 days. 

As per the County’s website, any complaint regarding councillors or any other County officials needs to be filed within 90 days of any incident taking place. If the Complaints Adjudicator deems that the filed complaint has validity to it, an official investigation will occur and a report to council will be made. 

In Hanson’s case it was determined by the Complaints Adjudicator that he contravened the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw, which then initiated a completed report that was then submitted to council with a recommendation for sanctions.

On Thursday, RVC published the full report written by the County's interim Complaints Adjudicator Ellen-Anne O'Donnell, which describes the nature of the complaint filed against Hanson. 

O'Donnell's report states that at the October 10 meeting between council and the audit firm BDO Global, Hanson had made statements that reference the termination of a former RVC employee, referring to the termination as a firing. It's stated in the report that Hanson believed there is no difference between termination and firing.

The report states that Hanson's position was that the information regarding the employee's termination was already public based on the motion put to council at the August 1, 2023, special council meeting. The motion stated in part that council decided “to terminate his appointment and employment with Rocky View County without cause” and they were “moving on to a different style of leadership”. Hanson’s position was that he provided details that could have been deduced from council’s motion and that this allegation was "groundless."

The motion referred to former CAO Dorian Wandzura, who was terminated by a close 4-3 vote at the time.

Hanson also allegedly made statements that connected the termination of the former County employee to the County's inability to complete its budget. 

According to O'Donnell's report, the Complainant alleged that Hanson had brought up financial information that was "not appropriate", including the inability of the county to have the budget completed since the employee was terminated, linking him to the delay, and undermining RVC staff. 

It's mentioned in the report that Hanson did not deny making the statements but considered them to be public knowledge and considered that, as BDO was bound by a confidentially requirement under their own code of conduct, the information he gave was protected by it. Hanson said he raised the concern about the timeliness of staff meeting obligations in the financial statement and budget processes. He did not recall tying the statements to the employee.

At the same October 10 meeting, Hanson allegedly accused another former County employee of "stealing time and money" over $60,000 to $70,000 from the County. The report states that this is false. 

The Complainant alleged that the employee information mentioned by Hanson in the meeting was confidential and that the issue that gave rise to the termination of the employee was related to vacation accrual policies at Rocky View County and that it was an "organizational issue." Hanson claimed to O'Donnell that the matter of vacation pay liability being high was discussed in the closed session and said that the former employee’s name was mentioned pertaining to the portion of the discussion focused on vacation reporting. However, Hanson did not deny mentioning the former employee but he did not recall attributing a dollar amount to them.

O'Donnell determined that Hanson had "more probably than not" violated confidentiality, and said that "Councillor Hanson has been on council since 2017. He is not new to the role. He has knowledge and experience with respect to confidentiality matters and should have been aware of the code of conduct requirements."

O'Donnell recommended that Hanson obtain more confidentiality training to better understand the extent of his "confidentiality obligations". O'Donnell also recommended that Hanson be forbidden to use electronics in closed meetings. Council only accepted the first recommended sanction.  

In the conclusion to the report, O'Donnell stated that "councillors are expected to meet the highest standards of privacy and confidentiality, especially with respect to County employees."