August 24, 2011
Mayor, deputy clash
over meeting
by Vance Gutzman
Deep River's deputy mayor may have exercised her franchise in last
fall's municipal elections, but says actions being taken by the mayor
are leaving her feeling disenfranchised from council.
Deputy Mayor Mary MacCafferty and Mayor David Thompson engaged in a
heated debate bordering on argument at last week's regular council
meeting.
At issue were claims made by the deputy mayor that the mayor has
circumvented council in regards to the town's dealings with its
neighbouring municipality.
MacCafferty alleged that Thompson, in a July 27 meeting with Laurentian
Hills Mayor Dick Rabishaw, handed his counterpart a letter proposing
that Laurentian Hills to contribute $189,000 towards Deep River's
recreation costs.
"Where did this decision come from? It was not debated at this
council," MacCafferty said.
The deputy mayor went on to claim that Thompson's letter also indicated
that he wanted Laurentian Hills to deduct the $20,000 that Laurentian
Hills currently contributes to Deep River for economic development
purposes "because our mayor told him that Deep River is no longer
interested in having an economic development role."
Continuing, MacCafferty claimed that, at that same meeting, Thompson
told Rabishaw that Deep River would also be pulling out of the
Visitors' Centre at the Petawawa Research Forest - an inter-municipal
venture cost-shared by Deep River, Laurentian Hills, Petawawa and Head,
Clara and Maria (though the latter municipality served official notice
last week that it will be opting out of the centre at the end of this
year).
"I learned about Deep River's apparent stance on these issues on the
street from some very irate neighbours, and I'm the deputy mayor who
should know through formal council discussion and votes," MacCafferty
said.
"The way the mayor has done this is unacceptable.
“It looks as if he has no respect for the democratic process, no
respect for his fellow councillors and no respect for the thousands of
residents who elected all of us to represent their interests at this
table."
MacCafferty asked Thompson if he would publicly declare that the
statements she was alleging he had made were his own private opinions
and not those of council.
Thompson, in turn, fired back at MacCafferty, saying that the letter
she was referring to wasn't a letter at all.
"This isn't a letter. This is statement of facts," he said.
"And I have discussions with people every single day as what I envision
for this community."
Thompson said he was merely trying to impress on Rabishaw the need for
Laurentian Hills to raise the ante on its current $5,657 contribution
to Deep River's operating costs for recreation, which totalled $475,883
last year.
"That's an inequity that must be addressed," Thompson told MacCafferty.
"There was no recommendation or no ultimatum. I think that's a very
legitimate comment from one mayor to another."
"You also told another community what you want," MacCafferty shot back.
"It was a private conversation with the other mayor," Thompson
maintained.
The mayor and the deputy mayor continued on with their verbal
volley until Councillor Daniel Banks stepped in to referee the match.
"Our normal rules of decorum do not seem to be being followed," Banks
said, calling for a time-out between the two verbal combatants.
"Maybe we need to have some others give their input on this."
So others around the table did, starting with Councillor Terry Myers.
"It was no surprise to me that the mayor was going to talk to the other
municipality about recreation costs," Myers said.
"I never understood it as being a decision or an ultimatum. I assumed
there would be further discussion. I assumed there would be lots of
discussion still to take place."
Nor did Councillor Ron Desrochers see any harm in the substance of
Thompson's meeting with Rabishaw.
"I think the mayor initiating the discussion with his counterpart is
not a bad thing," Desrocher said.
"I don't know if he needs our blessing to pass (along) financial
information."
The last council member to give his views (absent Chris Carroll, who
resigned his seat to take on the town's treasurer's job, and Ruth Syme,
who is recuperating from illness), was Banks himself.
"There's a fine line between presenting financial information and
presenting the views of council if those views haven't been expressed,"
said Banks, adding that he liked the fact there was an informal face to
face discussion between the two mayors.
"Perhaps we just need to be more clear that we haven't taken a position
on this yet."
"He said that we were out of economic development and out of the
visitors' centre," MacCafferty maintained.
Not so, said the mayor, noting those issues would be part of the 2012
budget deliberations.
"The issues are brought to council by formal resolution," said
MacCafferty.
"You're one vote, Dave, and there are seven people at this table. If
Ann Aikens had done this, Terry Myers would have nailed her to the wall
and put it on the front page."
(MacCafferty served two terms as a council member with Aikens, the
former mayor, while Myers covered council meetings in his
capacity as editor-in-chief of the NRT).
MacCafferty, it should be noted, made her allegations against Thompson
while reading from a prepared statement, which she emailed to this
reporter the following day after being asked for a copy in the
interests of accuracy.
Mayor Thompson emailed a comment for publication the next day as well.
"Mary chooses to stand alone on her island of negativity. As the only
returning member of the previous council, we had hoped she would choose
to make a positive contribution," he stated.
"This council was elected to provide creative and inspired leadership
and we will continue to do so, with or without her."
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