Toronto Community Housing alleges former CEO Kathy Milsom “manipulated” and “improperly influenced” a bid process in favour of a contractor who she communicated with privately, and had “ample grounds” to terminate her earlier this year.The public housing agency responsible for the large majority of the city’s subsidized rental housing made the claims in a statement of defence recently filed in court in response to Milsom’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit. The statement of defence accompanies a total $4.2 million counterclaim by TCH against Milsom and the contractor, the consulting firm Orchango, alleging they, among other things, “worked together to ensure that Orchango won” the contract, even though Milsom and Orchango understood that Orchango’s bid was likely to be more costly than other bids.Milsom filed her $2.7 lawsuit against the public agency and one named employee in March after she was fired as the head of the housing corporation in February — just a year and a half after she took the helm of the agency that has faced years of turmoil in senior management. The controversy followed media reports on a $1.3 million contract awarded by the agency for change management consulting.TCH’s statement of defence is also filed on behalf of Andrew McKenzie, TCH’s senior director of service integration and delivery who Milsom alleged was the one to vet proposal documents for the contract with Orchango. TCH and McKenzie deny that and other claims, including that defamatory or misleading statements were made about Milsom, saying the claims made against them should be dismissed.Milsom, in an email Thursday, said the allegations in TCH’s new filings were “false” and “are not supported by evidence that has been presented.”“We will defend vigourously and the facts will be proven in court,” she wrote.Orchango, through a lawyer, said they will be filing a ...
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