For the second time in as many years, the Downtown Facility and Fieldhouse Board has been dissolved. The first time, it was due to financial irregularities at Yara Centre and Mosaic Place but this time it's because of an investigation into staff issues. The move was made Wednesday afternoon and took just eight minutes from start to finish.

The decision came after several closed-door meetings over the last week as some members of city council reviewed accusations being made at the DFFH. Up to this point, council members on the board had recused themselves from meetings, declaring a conflict of interest leaving Mayor Fraser Tolmie to discuss matters with Councillors Dawn Luhning and Chris Warren, along with some members of the administration and occasionally, a lawyer.

Councilor Brian Swanson was not in attendance and as soon as the meeting started Councillor Crystal Froese excused herself as the meeting was to deal with the DFFH investigation. However, Councillor Scott McMann had enough of the secrecy and asked some very pointed questions.

"They don't speak to why this is happening and I'm wondering if someone can advise whether the current board members of the current DFFH are ever going to be advised as to why this bylaw is being changed and secondly, is communication to the at-large citizens board members... has it been sent to them or will it be happening?"

This is the first time that the investigation has been spoken to in an open meeting and the first time that members of council have made public statements. Tolmie briefly addressed McMann's questions but barely scratched the surface.

"I can say that this decision was not made lightly, however, the board is being dissolved due to the potential conflict of interest and perceived influence on a current DFFH investigation."

That wasn't good enough for McMann. "I don't believe a conflict of interest guidelines were ever intended to limit or stifle debate, but that's what is happening here."

"Since it was not done in an open and transparent way and while I'm not in favour of the process they chose or the new bylaw, I do need to declare a conflict of interest and recuse myself from what I believe is a miscarriage of justice."

The move immediately dissolves the board and transfers power to City Manager Jim Puffalt as Acting General Manager. While overseeing the DFFH, Puffalt will also oversee the ongoing investigation that is being handled by an independent, third party that has not been identified.

The turmoil at the DFFH goes back a number of years with the first major hiccup being made public by former Councillor Candis Kirkpatrick. In 2016, she stepped down from the board, saying she couldn't support the way things were being done. It was around that time that requests for funding from the board started to increase.

"When the DFFH budget was coming to council, I knew that I could not support it, I knew that I couldn't defend it and I knew that the only way to do that was to leave the board. (With) that I would become independent in my thinking at council, so that is what I did," explained Kirkpatrick at the time.

In the months that followed, the rest of the board would be disbanded after accusations of financial irregularities. A review by M.N.P. (Meyers Norris Penny) suggested a general lack of oversight and too much trust being placed in CEO Scott Clark, saying his early success lead to a lack of annual performance monitoring by the board. Clark resigned from the position only weeks before the report was released.

We would then vote for a new council in the fall of 2016 leading to a new interim board made up of Councillors Brian Swanson, Scott McMann, and Crystal Froese. At the time, the new board was only in place to help carry out daily operations and sign documents so bills could be paid. They would not have the power to make major decisions or cancel events until a motion in November of 2017 that laid the groundwork for a full board that included four members of the community. Parks and Recreation Director Ted Schaefer would oversee operations on a day to day basis until they hired a new General Manager in early 2018, welcoming Graham Edge to the team.

In the months that followed, Edge would present a report to council showing a solid year for the two local facilities under his care. "Operations in 2017... we had a really good year and we were able to do something that has ever happened before, we came in under budget."

According to their audit, the DFFH posted a $184,000 surplus for 2017 after years of posting deficits. They received $537,000 from the city for an operating grant with their grant for 2018 being trimmed to $482,000. Coming in under budget on their expenses was the biggest factor for not using the entire grant in 2017.

Things appeared to be back on track with Edge in the driver's seat until a board meeting in the spring of 2018 that resulted in Edge being fired. Meeting minutes from May 24th, available on the city's website Tuesday, August 14th showed the board voted to relieve Edge of his duties but gave no other details. 

Members of the board declined to comment on the release of Edge and then Dave Depape resigned from his citizen position on the board at a meeting in July, saying the time commitment was too much. Days later we learned of a meeting of the Executive Committee that started to explore issues with the DFFH. That closed-door meeting would be continued on August 8th, resulting in an official motion to kick off the investigation into "personnel issues". A four-hour meeting Monday afternoon and then Wednesday's eight-minute meeting brings us to where we are.

Puffalt says their focus is on conducting a fair and thorough investigation but cannot say how long it will take for the third party to wrap up their work.