Chestermere city staffer charged with assault in connection with January incident

A city staffer in Chestermere is now facing a formal charge of assault after police were made aware of an incident while she was working at city hall last month.

Chestermere RCMP laid that charge against 56-year-old Kim Leanne Wallace.

Wallace is the City of Chestermere’s director of corporate services.

She has also acted in a chief-of-staff role in the past.

CTV News approached Wallace about this incident earlier this week, at which time she said these allegations are “very, very false.”

RCMP say they were made aware of an incident at Chestermere city hall on Jan. 26 and launched an investigation.

Wallace was arrested Wednesday.

She has since been released from custody and is set to return to provincial court in Strathmore on March 3.

'GOOSE CHASE'

Chestermere Mayor Jeff Colvin previously denied this incident took place, calling it a wild goose chase for the media that was exaggerated and propagated by people with their own political agendas.

He added that he is willing to co-operate with an RCMP investigation and any next steps that might take place.

“We definitely have to work with any authorities, of course. And again, our job is to make sure that you know everything in our city is protecting the safety of our citizens and of course our staff and management. We take that very seriously,” Colvin said.

Following the publication of this article, Colvin sent CTV News the following statement:

"This is about a personnel matter and it is not appropriate or legally permissible for the city to share personal information on our employees and personnel matters," he said. 

"That being said we can confirm that we are aware of the charge against one of our employees for allegedly tapping/poking on the shoulder of a manager by their manager and that employee is not currently attending city hall. I would like to confirm that I have not been provided or seen any official information that anyone was struck or slapped. 

"This concerns me that the media is sensationalizing and misleading the public, at the expense of our two city staff members," he added. "The city takes very seriously its commitment to a safe and respectful workplace and is in the process of its own review and investigation of the matter."