Humboldt’s city manager suspended with pay following allegation

Humboldt City Manager Joe Day has been suspended with pay, pending further deliberation.

That information was revealed on Wednesday, after council met in a special session on May 27 to discuss the allegations made against Day.

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City councillor Sarah McInnis’ shared a statement on social media which brought the alleged incident to light. McInnis said Day was in his vehicle in a school zone when he became impatient at a bus that had stopped with its lights flashing. McInnis said Day got out of his vehicle and shouted at a teacher who was assisting the children getting off the bus.

McInnis told northeastNOW that the alleged incident wasn’t the only one that led her to decide to make a public statement and withdraw her support for Day.

“It’s been building,” McInnis said.

The claims have not been independently verified.

“Council wishes to be clear that this is a preliminary step, not a final determination,” the city said in a statement.

“Council takes its obligation as an employer and as a public body seriously and will ensure that any further steps are taken in a manner that is fair, impartial, and consistent with those obligations.”

Lori Yaworski, Humboldt’s city clerk, has been appointed as interim city manager, in accordance with the city’s bylaws. The city said council is not going to comment further at this time.

A tense situation involving Day was also recorded at the Humboldt City Council meeting on May 25. Councillor Marilyn Scott spoke about Day at that meeting, stating that she and fellow councillor Karen Siermachesky were deliberately excluded from an email Day sent regarding a matter that was to be discussed at that meeting. She said they did not receive the information that other members of council received, yet were expected to cast a vote on the issue.

“Under the Cities Act and also under common law, you are accountable to the city council as a whole, not to individual members,” Scott said to Day at the meeting. “You, and we, are all subject to ethical guidelines that require us to perform our jobs with openness, transparency and fairness.”

Scott asked Day to explain what authority he had to exclude two elected city councillors from information he was providing.

Day said he didn’t believe it was a violation of any process, and said the issue would be discussed at June’s council meeting.

Scott countered that by saying it was not possible for all of council to effectively vote on something when information is withheld from some of them.

“Had we not been advised that this was going on by one councillor who came forward and said ‘This is not right,’ we wouldn’t have been aware of it,” Scott said. “We would have missed that whole thread.”

In response to Day’s reply about not being in violation of any processes, Scott said, “That is frightening to me, that that is your interpretation of this, that you actually think that you can withhold information from councillors.”

She added that she would deal with the issue separately, potentially in the form of a complaint.