After a Court of King’s Bench judge denied an application against her, City Manager Niki Anderson responded to the decision.
Anderson said that she feels vindicated by the decision.
“As a new employee at the City of Regina, I found the actions of Councillor LeBlanc and Councillor Stevens to be humiliating and intimidating.”
“As the Judge said in the court findings, a polite inquiry would have been a greater assistance and likely more effective than suing the City Manager for breach of duty,” Anderson continued.
It was in late November that Councillor Dan LeBlanc represented Councilor Andrew Stevens and resident Florence Stratton in a motion filed against Anderson that claimed city administration did not include action on the issue of homelessness in the proposed budget after being told by council to do so.
On Wednesday, a judge declined to issue the court order and said the interpretation or misinterpretation of the order provided to Anderson must be addressed by the council, not through a judicial order.
“I also think it was unfair and misleading to the general public to continually refer to me as the unelected City Manager,” Anderson said. [I was] unanimously hired by council but not elected, but I think where I took great front to it was this idea that I was unilaterally going against all of council and I was in a room alone just making decisions.”
She added that Councillor LeBlanc felt his perspective was the perspective of all Councillors, and it was not.
Anderson also explained why she didn’t include the ‘motion to end homelessness’ in the proposed budget.
“I went back, and I watched different council meetings, and it was really clear to me that there wasn’t consensus on whether or not that was supposed to be actually hard-baked in the budget.”
She said she had a discussion with the interim City Manager, city councillors and reviewed the documents once more before making her decision.
Anderson added that as for her relationships with Councillors Stevens and LeBlanc, she believes she can do her job well without having personal relationships with each member of council.
