Contentious COW

Empty agenda and delay mark public meeting

Tuesday night's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting opened with a blank agenda for the public portion of the meeting.

The agenda, which was posted online the morning of the meeting, indicated only that Council determined the topics could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public.

In this case, the general topics included the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, and negotiations surrounding the proposed provision of a municipal service.

Though the open portion of the meeting typically resumes at 7 p.m., residents planning to attend were left waiting until 8:40 p.m., many lingering online as they were not notified of the delay.

The brief meeting (video HERE) was marred by technical difficulites and several instances of Council members speaking over each other.

Mayor Ken Berry opened by reporting out of the extended closed portion, noting that a discussion had been held on the subject of the legal aspects of short-term rentals, as well as a review of fire services in the Village.

Prior to approving the agenda, Berry stated that he would like to add an on-table report regarding a work plan intended for discussion with Council and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), and also to set a date for an evaluation of the CAO.

The discussion that ensued was complicated by technical difficulties limiting Councillor Jaime Cunliffe's participation. This resulted in her having to text her thoughts to Council members, and ultimately connect by phone.

A disagreement arose when Berry stated that Cunliffe had missed eight special Council meetings. "To be clear, I have not been absent from eight special Council meetings, as there was no quorum for those meetings, so there was no absenteeism," Cunliffe responded.

After further disagreement regarding whether information was distributed or received, a decision was made to discuss both topics at a special meeting to be held June 11.

This meeting followed on the heels of an unsuccessful attempt to hold a special closed meeting on May 29. At the beginning of the meeting, Councillor Neville Abbott noted that Cunliffe was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.

After discussion, Berry and Councillor Michael Broughton expressed determination to move ahead with the meeting despite Cunliffe's absence. Abbott (who had been attending online from his car) said he could not participate without all members present, and stepped away. Without a quorum the meeting adjourned.

In response to a request for comment from The Watershed after the meeting, Abbott offered a statement, which read in part:

This meeting was arranged at short notice to complete a matter that we had all agreed required a full complement of the current Council. Staff were not supposed to be present and yet two had been invited to the meeting and some required upfront documentation had not yet been shared with all of us prior to the meeting as had been agreed.

Unfortunately, nobody confirmed whether Councillor Cunliffe was available and as it happened, she had a work commitment that evening and was unable to attend. I should add that I am also very busy at work and ended up having to pull over and log in from the side of the highway otherwise I would have been late.

For all of these reasons I asked that the meeting be deferred at least until Councillor Cunliffe was available and stated that I would not participate without the full complement of council and necessary documents as had been agreed. It is unfortunate that two members of Council saw fit to move forward contrary to what had been agreed and what in fact was required for that specific type of meeting.

Cunliffe confirmed to The Watershed that she had notified Council of a work commitment which meant she would be unable to attend the May 29 meeting. She expressed frustration at the number of special meetings called on short notice.

"In this case, after a very busy workweek, I didn't see the email that a meeting had been called until Thursday morning. I immediately sent my regrets. Had I known earlier, I would have declined, due to a long-standing work commitment."

The next special council meeting is scheduled for June 11 at 6 p.m. The next regular Council meeting is scheduled for the same time on June 17.

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