City of Montreal to pay Sue Montgomery and former chief of staff $300,000, settlement out of court

The City of Montreal will reportedly pay former Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor Sue Montgomery and her former chief of staff, Annalisa Harris, $300,000, in an out of court settlement.

In 2019, Sue Montgomery, who was mayor of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, was thrown out from the Project Montreal caucus, after she refused to fire her chief of staff.

The city’s controller general had found that Montgomery’s chief of staff, had harassed two civil servants.

Montreal mayor Valérie Plante wanted Montgomery to fire Harris, but Montgomery refused to do so without seeing the controller general’s report, which was kept from her.

Montgomery and Harris filed lawsuits for defamations, among other things, against the City of Montreal, mayor Plante and the controller general.

On Thursday media reports said the City of Montreal will pay Montgomery $130,000 and Harris $170,000. The court also ruled that a copy of the controller general’s report should have been given to Montgomery and that the response to the report was unreasonable.

In a press release, the city says: “Ville de Montréal takes note of the Superior Court’s judgment of December 11, 2020.

The Court determined that Ville de Montréal should have provided a full copy of the DRP reports to Ms. Montgomery as mayor of the borough and employer of her chief of staff Annalisa Harris. The Court also determined that the measure put in place by the Comptroller General in response to the report, isolating Ms. Harris from all public servants in the borough, was unreasonable and should not have been imposed.

Furthermore, Ville de Montréal acknowledges that the DRP reports did not conclude that Ms. Montgomery, herself, had committed acts affecting the work climate within her borough.

Finally, Ville de Montréal takes note of the Superior Court judgment of January 28, 2022.

The Court overturned the decisions of the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) of January 22, 2021 and July 26, 2021 concerning Mrs. Montgomery’s citation for professional misconduct. According to the Court, the CMQ failed in its duty to act independently of the Ville de Montréal, which initiated the complaint, thereby vitiating the proceedings against Mrs. Montgomery.”