The Corporation of Hamilton’s top administrator could face disciplinary action after councillors moved that he be suspended.

And the municipality’s chief engineer is also the focus of an investigation into misconduct allegations after elected officials met last week.

Details of the allegations against Chief Operations Officer and Secretary Ed Benevides, and Chief Engineer Patrick Cooper have not been revealed, but a “special, hurriedly called” meeting was held last Tuesday in which the suspensions of both officers was on the agenda.

At that meeting, Alderman Carlton Simmons listed a catalogue of misconduct allegations against Mr Cooper. Councillors then voted to suspend the engineer on full pay pending an investigation into the allegations. However, The Royal Gazette understands that, as of yesterday, the resolution had not been carried out and Mr Cooper has been turning up for work.

It is also not known if any action will be taken against Mr Benevides. Although a resolution that he be suspended was also on the agenda and discussed at the meeting, councillors decided to defer any decision until the following day. The outcome of that meeting is not known. Mr Benevides is currently on vacation, but is expected to return to work on Friday.

It is not known how many of the Corporation’s nine elected officials were at the meeting. Mayor Graeme Outerbridge, Alderman Simmons and Councillor George Scott were present, but Alderman Gwyneth Rawlins was absent, while Councillor Larry Scott was only able to attend the early stages.

Yesterday Larry Scott said he had raised objections to the suspension of Mr Cooper, claiming that none of the allegations made by Alderman Simmons were substantiated.

And he also questioned the legality of the behind-closed-doors meeting. Typically, an administrator is on hand to take minutes of what transpires whenever the Board sits and an audio recording is also made. However, only councillors attended the session and so far no recording has been made available, despite requests from staff.

“I attended part of that meeting, and Item 5 [suspension of COO and Chief Engineer] was the first item that the Mayor insisted should be up for discussion first,” Mr Scott said.

“That discussion was led wholly by Alderman Simmons with a 45-minute diatribe of allegations against the engineer, not one of which was substantiated, and all done without the presence of the Secretary CEO or any other management staff.

“At the end of that discussion when a vote was called for Alderman Simmons insisted that I should have my say. I simply stated that I had objections to the whole process. The vote was taken and everyone present voted in favour of the resolution to suspend the engineer with pay subject to an investigation into the allegations made by Alderman Simmons.”

Mr Scott said he left the meeting at that point.

“I am informed that the rest of the agenda was completed but that certain items needed further consideration at a meeting scheduled for the following day, particularly a discussion on the suspension of the COO. I did not attend that meeting,” he said.

“No management staff nor our recording secretary nor any other substitute recording secretary was present at the meeting as is required by best practice.

“Neither has the recording device that was present during the meeting — which I thought was being used — been seen since, despite requests for it by staff so that the minutes of that meeting could be prepared and distributed among members and form part of the Corporation record.

“The Mayor and his quorum must account for these actions, they won’t to me and I understand why. I will make the information public as I am duty bound to do if they fail to make it accessible to all of the Council — and they have not.”

“Let me be clear, these actions by me are not vendetta nor not being a team player on my part but simply to protect the integrity of the Corporation and its other members and staff from personal liability for wilful negligent actions by the quorum which can implicate each of us by being part of the Corporation.”

The Royal Gazette yesterday e-mailed Mayor Outerbridge with a list of questions concerning the meeting. The Mayor replied: “Those questions are for the Secretary. I will not comment on any internal operational matters.”