Ex-councillor painted as difficult in defamation case

The Saint John pension boards lawyer continued to paint a less than flattering picture of former city councillor John Ferguson for the Court of Queens Bench on Monday.

The board is suing Ferguson for allegedly defamatory comments he made in 2005 about its handling of the pension fund, which had a $47 million deficit at the time.

The plaintiff's lawyer Barry Morrison has presented Ferguson as a person who is difficult to deal with, chronically dissatisfied with any answers he gets to his questions, and the only one distracting council with what he alleges was unnecessary suspicion about the pension fund.

On Monday, Morrison questioned former finance commissioner and pension board treasurer Andrew Beckett about a heated exchange he said took place between Ferguson and then-councillor Glen Tait.

Although Beckett didn't go into what exactly was said, he testified that after the meeting, Ferguson physically intimidated the recording secretary.

"He placed himself physically between her and the exit," refusing to let her leave without first handing over her CD.

Beckett said he had already left the room, but somebody called him back to help with the situation. When he returned Ferguson was "very combative," he said.

Beckett said he told Ferguson to leave or he would call the police. Ferguson did leave and returned the next day to listen to the CD, he said.

Beckett also found a greeting card on his desk which was signed by Ferguson and said something to the effect of, take care of yourself.

As far as he knows, Ferguson never offered any apologies, he said.

Council demanded proof

The jury also saw a video of a July 4, 2006council meeting where it seemed clear that tensions were coming to a head.

Then-deputy mayor Michelle Hooton moved a resolution to make Ferguson produce the evidence to support his many months of accusations and innuendo.

"It's been many months...14 months...listening to Ferguson's passionate pleas and requests. I'm tired of the innuendo and implications," she said.

"It's time we had that material presented, to see if there was wrongdoing. If he has the evidence, it's time to put it on the table."

Coun. Peter McGuire agreed. "I'm getting tired of things not getting tied together."

Coun. Chris Titus said he had "grown weary" of it all. "I don't appreciate it. Personally, it offends me," he said.

Council voted to give Ferguson a deadline of July 13 to produce his evidence.

On July 17, the next available council meeting for Ferguson to make a public presentation, Ferguson gave a lengthy presentation with slides, which the jury also saw a video of.

In it, Ferguson said he is not a policeman, nor an investigative journalist but he does see irregularities and has questions.

"The principal problem that has come to my attention, and this comes from documentationis that a number of city employees have been put on disability pension and have been given the medical documents authorizing them as qualified for permanent disability pension," said Ferguson.

"The real reason it is alleged for the disability was simply because they could not get along with their supervisor," he said.

"It is stated this happened when there was no medical evidence to support the disability pension. The sole criterion for it, allegedly in many cases, for a disability award was that the supervisor and employee could not get along in the workplace."

Ferguson claims the disability awards cost the city $5.9 million a year.

He said he raised the issue with a senior member of the pension board and said to that member, "Isn't that shocking?"

Ferguson claims the person replied, "Yes, it is. But so is drinking and driving. But people do it every day."

Ferguson argues that person was laughing at council and laughing at Saint John taxpayers.

Ferguson goes on to say that early retirement packages also cost the pension fund $3.7 million and in the end, the number of city staff wasn't even reduced.

Many of the positions that were cut, were quickly reinstated, he said.

Claims challenged

The video shows Beckett then disputing some of Ferguson's presentation.

For example,Beckett said the costs associated with the early retirement packages was $3.4 million in 2003 and $400,000.00 in 2004, which was duly reported to council.

In addition, positions that were created in the years following job cuts were not the same positions, Beckett said.

The trial resumes Tuesday, when Ferguson's lawyer Rod Gillis is expected to start cross-examining Beckett.

Last week,Gillis named Beckettas one of the people responsible for the pension plans deficit.

Gillis claims Beckett was among the members who voted for expensive changes to the plan in the mid- to late-90s, which they stood to benefit from the most.

The changes, which included increasing the maximum pension cap to $45,000, up from $40,000 and then indexing it, did not benefit the average pensioner, but did benefit the top-earners who enacted the changes, argued Gillis.

The pension deficit hassince ballooned to $190 million.

The trial is slated to last another five weeks.