Tag Archives: Cynthia St. John

04.10.10
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A ‘tough budget’ to blame for employee dismissals

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After hiding behind the no-comment curtain for several weeks, the less-than-transparent brass over at Elgin St. Thomas Public Health passed along a media release this week to shed some light on recent events.

According to Executive Director Cynthia St. John, the organization has approved its 2010 mandatory programs and services budget, resulting in an overall increase of 3%.

The “tough budget,” as characterized by St. John, is the reason being touted for the dismissal of four employees last month, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

“We anticipated it was going to be a tough budget year and a 3% increase is insufficient to meet current demands for the services we provide,” she notes.
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04.03.10
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There’s always room for one more in the Sunshine Club

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Membership certainly has its privileges. As in, when you are a card-carrying member of the $100,000 Sunshine Club, who needs to return calls from pesky reporters, like the T-J’s Kyle Rea, seeking comment from spokespeople from the Big 3.

That would be the Thames Valley District School Board, the London District Catholic School Board and St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital.

According to public sector salary disclosure information released Wednesday, every single elementary and high school principal in St. Thomas and Elgin earned a minimum of $100,000 in 2009.

More breath-taking, 280 TVDSB employees are Sunshine Club members, a bump of 100 from last year and a dizzying jump from the 65 just two years ago.
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03.27.10
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Why all the secrecy over at Elgin St. Thomas Public Health?

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This corner received several anonymous tips several weeks ago alerting four staff were let go earlier this month in the area of dental services at Elgin St. Thomas Public Health.
One individual passing along information noted, “no one knows why, no details were given but all staff are extremely upset and in turmoil, it has been a devastating week.”
Cynthia St. John, executive director with the organization, is unwilling to shed any light on the dismissals, which have obviously impacted staff morale.
“Truthfully, we do not comment on personnel matters,” she asserted.

Cynthia St. John


Well, truthfully Cynthia, we don’t view this as a personnel matter, but instead a cut to a particular service and as a publicly-funded operation, insight into the rationale for the cuts, who determined they were necessary and how this will impact the delivery of that service would be appreciated.
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