FILE PHOTO

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

The former top employee for the Penticton Indian Band claimed he was wrongfully dismissed after getting fired for orchestrating a massive raise for himself.

Seven years later, he lost in court and was ordered to repay the thousands of dollars he was paid, according to a recently published BC Supreme Court decision.

Brent Ryan-Lewis was hired in September 2017 as the band administrator, a role with the highest authority among non-elected officials at the First Nation. The previous band administrator had retired after a 34-year career with the Band.

Ryan-Lewis applied in February and agreed to a $95,000 salary by the summer. He was fired the following spring.

One of his first orders of business was to review the band's wage hierarchy, aiming to standardize them across the band and its development company, while also making them competitive. Chief financial officer at the time, Barbara Carpenter, testified that the band was struggling to hire staff and low wages were at least one of the issues. Her own department was gutted when she was hired a year earlier.

With the human resources manager on medical leave, Ryan-Lewis outsourced the wage review to a human resources specialist, signing Dexter MacRae to a short-term contract without approval from chief and council. The wage review was intended to be an independent assessment of the band's pay structure, according to the decision.

MacRae was also fired, but he was never called to testify and the decision doesn't detail his separate attempt to appeal the dismissal. The decision does, however, detail a coordinated effort between himself and Ryan-Lewis to restructure staff wages, particularly favouring the two of them.

In December 2017, Ryan-Lewis signed MacRae to a long-term contract giving him a raise from $55 per hour to $79. Just days later, MacRae emailed Ryan-Lewis to suggest he take up his own wage concerns with the chief as it was "seriously inadequate."

Although he wasn't initially successful, it would be baked into the new band-wide wage changes adopted by chief and council by March.

The new policies saw Ryan-Lewis' title changed to chief administrative officer and gave him and raise to $169,400, while also creating a new senior director position for MacRae. The human resources manager, who was still on medical leave, didn't qualify for the new role.

The March 2018 wage restructuring happened while Carpenter was on vacation, but she immediately tried to find more information on the budget approvals upon her return. She testified that she had no involvement with the wage changes, while adding that it was a more than $17,000 retroactive pay to Ryan-Lewis that caused her serious concerns. The court heard that the money came from a budget line restricted for emergency use only and that while chief and council approved the raise, they were not informed of the backpay.

His backpay should have first gone through a financial committee and gotten approval from Carpenter, according to the decision. That didn't happen and it was new human resources director MacRae who signed off on the $17,000 payment.

The band described it as causing a cash flow crisis and Carpenter was not expecting the changes, but she was stonewalled in her efforts to get more information on the raise and to address it with chief and council, according to the decision.

Going directly to chief and council would have been insubordination and so she tried to take the matter up with Ryan-Lewis directly. When she raised her concerns he led her to believe in April 2018 that he'd allow her an opportunity at a council meeting to address the issue. She was never invited to the meeting. She resigned days later.

Ryan-Lewis advised chief and council through an email that Carpenter resigned due to personal and health reasons, but it wasn't enough of an explanation for Chief Chad Eneas, who would separately meet with the former head of the financial department within the week. She expressed her true concerns with Ryan-Lewis and MacRae and the new salaries.

Ryan-Lewis would skip a meeting on May 4 where he was invited to discuss the issue and Carpenter's concerns. In his absence, Chief Eneas and the rest of council decided to fire him. Ryan-Lewis tried to appeal the decision, initially on his own then through a lawyer, but he was denied the chance and told he was fired for cause.

He would later file a wrongful termination suit, but the band fired back in court and accused MacRae and Ryan-Lewis of colluding to inflate their wages. While Justice Allan Betton stopped short of finding fraudulent misrepresentation, as the top guy, Ryan-Lewis owed a greater duty of care.

"The plaintiff placed himself in a conflict of interest in his interactions with Mr. MacRae. My finding that the defendant has not proved fraudulent misrepresentation does not mean that the plaintiff did not know that there was no (financial committee) approval of the proposed changes to his contract and that he ought to have made sure the Chief and Council were aware of that. In my view his position requires that he do so."

The firings and financial uncertainty caused outcry among the community as news of the court claims spread. Protesters occupied band offices at the end of July until chief and council addressed their concerns and promised there would be a forensic audit of band funds.

On Oct. 28, 2024, his loss came with an order that he repay the $17,067 in retroactive salary he earned from January to May 2018. The court found Ryan-Lewis misled chief and council when he failed to properly notify them of the retroactive pay. It also found his involvement with MacRae's wage review was a conflict of interest as he advised on his own raise with a subordinate.

Lawyers are expected to return to court to argue the matter of legal costs.

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