The Finance Committee met and maybe as a result of its chair, City Councilor Patti Devine, the meeting came in at under one hour and produced the funds for a complaint line to be set up.

Kelly Curran, the city’s Personnel director, asked for $5,069.13 to contract with Navex, a Charlotte, NC-private company that provides businesses with hotline services centered on whistleblowers, complaints from employees for personnel or human services departments to investigate.

Devine set timelines for each item on the agenda, thereby encouraging committee members to follow them.

Said Curran: “It was recommended during one of our meetings that there be a confidential complaint line. There was a feeling that some staff may not feel comfortable saying who they are while making a claim, whether, sexual harassment or other such cases.”

The money to pay for the service by Navex comes from an unused account that the city Auditor Tanya Wdowiak said could be used for contract services.

City Councilor Kevin Jourdain said he has been advocating for a long time for a way for municipal workers to submit complaints on wrong-doing for everything from stealing money to sexual harassment.

“I am thrilled that we’re doing this,” he said, because  “an organization of our size needs to have the ability to have, third-party reporting of compliance issues.”

The proposal to fund the contract was approved unanimously by committee members.

The complete agenda is here.

Documents provided to the councilor are here.