Since it was announced that North Saanich fired former director of planning and community and mayoral candidate Felice Mazzoni, more documentation has been released on the matter.
The District’s council voted in favour of releasing further documentation and another investigation report that spoke to Mazzoni’s performance in his department.
Of the documents released, a statement was included regarding the cost of the investigation.
According to a statement from council, the legal costs taken on by the District amounted to over $311,800.
This cost came from one investigation concerning Mazzoni and another that was initiated by Mazzoni himself, but was subsequently discontinued, in which he raised concerns that the allegations against him were fabricated.
There is also one investigation that remains ongoing concerning members of council and addressing allegations that indirectly involve Mazzoni, as well as legal costs associated with the termination of Mazzoni’s employment.
The $311,800 in legal costs does not include any severance paid to Mr. Mazzoni, says the District.
Furthermore, the District hired Poole Consulting Ltd. to conduct a departmental optimization review on the Planning and Community Services Department in September, 2025.
A redacted report was released to the public, which found that the department was being mismanaged by Mazzoni.
“Overall, staff morale and employee engagement are low in the department,” reads the report.
“Employees are committed to the community and each other but are disconnected with the leadership. Staff work well with each other, managing by assisting each other in the absence of direction.”
In terms of communication, Poole Consulting determined that there was little to no recognition of the importance of staff work and everyone the firm interviews within the department noted that responses to verbal requests and emails went unanswered by Mazzoni.
The report also found that the culture of the department was “suffering” and that communication “was the number one issue.”
Mazzoni’s position on the investigations
In a statement released on social media, Mazzoni addressed the investigation report being released.
He noted that the council released only 14 paragraphs of an investigative report which appears to be 357 paragraphs long.
“In June, when I was notified of the report, the District provided me with a very brief summary of the findings. This is the first time I’ve seen any portion of the report itself—the District informed me that I was not entitled to a copy of it, for reasons of confidentiality,” said Mazzoni.
He asserts that he has done nothing to violate the law or District policies regarding respect in the workplace.
“There were no grounds to terminate me,” said Mazzoni.
He also admitted that he “may not have shown sufficient empathy” regarding efforts that were contrary to council’s direction.
Mazzoni alleged that he was not given the opportunity to work with a coach to improve his managerial skills, which the District said he was offered.
Other documents released by the District
In another document released, council made note of an incident that was unrelated to Mazzoni.
Council released an excerpt of the transcript from an April 7th Community Planning Advisory Committee meeting in which a member of the committee conducted themselves inappropriately.
During the meeting, while debating whether to approve a development variance permit, Don Enright spoke in disapproval of the permit.
“I think that the changes that we’re talking about here today and in other places earlier are so extraordinarily massive and are so, you know, unbelievably um important that taking a look at something like this and providing the level of um understanding is is is you’re going to be doing it for the rest of your life because this is this is rat shitting the whole place,” Enright said in the meeting.
“And where this is going to go ultimately, I don’t know but I would be careful um in public because the people will be carrying guns. So um that’s basically what I have to say.”
To this, council released a statement in which they affirmed this language is not condoned.
“This comment is troubling but not typical of committee debate,” said council in the statement.
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