It started when the board quietly fired General Manager Graham Edge and has spiraled into one of the biggest scandals of modern-day Moose Jaw City Council. An investigation into serious personnel issues at the Downtown Facility and Field-house has been released with three sitting members of City Council being disciplined for not acting on complaints filed.

It was an emotionally charged end to an investigation that started back in July but has been kept under a shroud of secrecy as Mayor Fraser Tolmie met with Councillors Dawn Luhning and Chris Warren to find out exactly what happened and then determine how to discipline their colleagues, Brian Swanson, Scott McMann, and Crystal Froese.

Mayor Tolmie presented the report to the general public Monday night, saying the whole matter has been very difficult to deal with but it was something that had to be done.

"As a result of the investigations conducted by a third party and on advice from outside legal counsel, it was determined that the members of the DFFH board, breached the Code of Ethics by not following proper protocols on a serious personnel matter and the rest of council was obligated to take corrective action," said Tolmie. "The estimated cost to date of these investigations is approximated $30,000."

Here's what we know according to the report filed during Monday's regular meeting of city council:

The report states that within days of taking over as GM, Graham Edge received complaints from multiple employees and went to the board for direction in January, 2018. The document accuses the councilors, who formed the board before resident members were appointed, of mishandling the complaint.

While the investigation was carried out, our newsroom found several inconsistencies with the way the DFFH board had been meeting and reporting their work. The report itself goes on to state that private meetings were held, where no records were taken and also indicated that there are gaps of information for meetings where notes were taken.

The report says the board failed to provide support and direction to the General Manager with Board Chair Swanson telling Edge that no actions were to be taken without direction from the board. Councillor Froese then sought advice from the City's Human Resources Department, who suggested an external investigation, but the board didn't act on the advice.

Shortly after, a staff meeting was held at the DFFH and educational programming was ordered. The next month the GM was fired, a story we brought you earlier this year but were denied further information about why he was terminated. In the days that followed, personal files are taken from his office by Councillor Swanson.

The start of July saw a tip to the Mayor from an unidentified source regarding the un-addressed complaints, prompting this investigation and leading to the missing files being turned over to Swanson's personal lawyer before being returned to City Hall.

Over the course of the investigation into the way the board handled the matter, a separate investigation was conducted into the original staff issues and deemed the complaint to be valid. The city has assured us those complaints have now been addressed, however, what they were and how they have been addressed are not being released by the city.

Falling short of calling the events a cover-up, the report does say the board members did not exercise due diligence to make sure the original complaints were addressed. The report calls out Swanson on several occasions for not only accessing personal files, that the report calls a profound misunderstanding of his roles and responsibility, but also singles him out for telling the general manager that no actions were to be taken without direction from the board.

With the report in hand, Mayor Tolmie read out the punishment for Swanson, McMann, and Froese on Monday, saying each councilor had varying degrees of involvement while also having varying degrees of cooperation with the investigation.

Councillor Froese received the lightest reprimand as the report concluded she was complete forthwith during the entire investigation and quickly realized the issues the mistakes that were made. She will not hold the position of Deputy Mayor, Chair or Vice-Chair of any standing committees, third-party boards or advisory committees until August 31st, 2019.

Councillor McMann, who has called the process a "Miscarriage of Justice", Miscarriage of Justice", will not hold the position of Deputy Mayor, Chair or Vice-Chair of any standing committees or advisory committees and not be allowed to sit on third-party boards associated with the city until Dec. 31, 2019.

Councillor Swanson was slapped with the harshest of the sanctions, including a complete ban on having direct access to confidential reports. The report says confidential reports of Executive Committee, Personnel Committee, Budget or any other committee will only be able to be reviewed in the city clerk's office. He is also barred from holding the position of Deputy Mayor, Chair or Vice-Chair of any standing committees and not be allowed to sit on third-party boards or advisory committees associated with the city for the remained of his four-year term, taking the sanctions through October 2020.

Caught up in all of this were the citizen members of the board who were also terminated as the investigation got underway, but the public was never told why leading to unfortunate speculation in the community.

"Council decided that due to the seriousness of the personnel issue, that it was in the best interest of the newly elected members of the community, to also be removed," explained Tolmie. "Let me make this perfectly clear, they had nothing to do with the issues that were raised and these issues were prior to their appointments to the board."

Tolmie, along with Councillors Chris Warren and Dawn Luhning expressed their regret over the matter and the fact that they were forced to pass judgment on their colleagues but also highlighted the importance of making sure proper procedures are followed.

The report concludes by highlighting the fact that this is the second serious matter at the DFFH that has resulted in a board being terminated and therefore, a full review of the governance model has been ordered. The first firing of the board was an ongoing issue with budget reporting and management under former General Manager Scott Clark. He would quit before the matters came to light, leaving the board to answer questions about mismanagement and inconsistent reporting to City Council.

For more on the situation, you can read the full report here.