A long awaited meeting of Moose Jaw City Council Tuesday night as elected officials were presented with an online petition that called for the resignation of Councillor Brian Swanson.

The petition was a response to the Downtown Facility and Fieldhouse scandal that saw three councillors, including Swanson, sanctioned for their mishandling of employee complaints. Swanson faced the stiffest of penalties due to his position as board chair for the DFFH and for taking home personnel files.

Local resident Jody Chell was so concerned with the news that she started the petition, calling for Swanson's resignation over what she called privacy concerns.

"Researching our city bylaws, it became apparent that city council sanctioned the responsible councillors to the best of their ability," explained Chell Tuesday night. "I decided to create a non-binding petition to ask for Councillor Swanson to do the right thing and resign from his seat as a representative. It was apparent that the citizens were as upset as I was with almost 900 residents signing the petition."

Mayor Fraser Tolmie responded to Chell's presentation by saying that council is not made up of political parties where a mayor can just remove a member but he agrees mistakes were made.

"This was a grave and highly complicated human resources issue that required extensive expertise that was not available at the DFFH, which was highlighted in the MNP report two years ago. These files should have remained at a safe, secure place on site and not taken home."

Tolmie continued by saying that while wrong decisions were made, the appropriate actions were taken by the three elected officials who oversaw the investigation.

As expected based on the letter he issued last week, Swanson did not resign his seat but did reply to the petition and called it a matter of false accusations.

"There has been no breach of confidentiality or a release of confidential material on my part," said Swanson. "What there has been are numerous examples of jumping to erroneous conclusions and false accusations of wrongdoing. At all times during my tenure on the DFFH board, I acted to the best of my ability in striving to govern the facilities in the best interest of the DFFH and our community, as did the entire board."