December 21, 2011
Townships to bill
reeve
by Kay McQuade
Legal bills were once again the focus of discussion at Head, Clara,
Maria council last week.
Prompted by the resignation of township solicitor Bill Instance due in
part to an unpaid invoice, council voted at its last meeting to pay his
account in full, including the portion that clerk Melinda Reith
described in her report as “costs for advice requested by Reeve Stewart
while acting unilaterally and at one point asking for personal advice
concerning alleged ‘threats’ made towards her.”
The amount in question is approximately $300 and refers to questions
from the reeve in April around the issue of the failure of two
councillors to submit election finance expense forms as required by
provincial legislation.
Instance stated in his letter of resignation that, “while council may
have perceived that this was penalizing Ms. Stewart, it was in fact
penalizing me for acting in good faith and answering various questions
posed by the township reeve.”
“With all due respect, council should have paid my account in full, and
if they felt Ms. Stewart should bear a portion of it, council should
have pursued that money from Ms. Stewart.
“However, misguided council feels Ms. Stewart was in seeking my
opinions directly, she was conducting township business.”
Reith said that staff needs “direction with relation to recouping those
fees.”
Reeve Tammy Stewart had excused herself from the council table citing a
conflict of interest and Councillor Jim Gibson assumed the chair.
Councillor Dave Foote opened the discussion saying he was “happy to
have Ray (Bonenberg) take a look and give his opinion to come up with a
solution.”
Bonenberg is the Delfi Group representative employed by council to look
into workplace harassment complaints filed by the clerk.
Councillor Bob Reid said he “would be happy to defer the issue until
the Delfi report has been received.”
However, Reith stated adamantly that “this is way beyond his
(Bonenberg's) scope.”
“There is no correlation; one issue has nothing to do with the other.”
Reith said she had previously provided council with documentation of
cases where councils were not liable for fees incurred without previous
council approval.
Councillor Jim Gibson felt that it would be “an abdication of our job
if we don’t deal with this issue.”
“The ratepayers expect council to do their job and deal with this.”
Gibson went on to say “council asked the solicitor to detail his
invoice which included personal business on behalf of the reeve of
$300.”
“Council previously voted to remove that and the solicitor said we
should pay it. This council then flip-flopped and said we should pay
it.”
Gibson declared the “invoice has been paid to Instance” and questioned
“is council going to pay for personal business on behalf of a
councillor?”
Foote remarked “if Tammy has to pay there may be hard feelings.”
He went on to speculate “some of the documented complaints mention the
persecution of Tammy and Ray (Bonenberg) may say that Tammy had a right
to do that (contact the solicitor).”
Foote said he was “trying to base his decision not on personal feelings
but on fact.”
Reid summed up, saying “are we going to try to recoup from Tammy?”
The answer to that question turned out to be yes, with Councillors
Gibson and Foote voting to send the reeve a bill and Councillor Reid
voting no.
In other business, council agreed to cancel the January 6, 2012 meeting
and meet again on Friday, January 20 at 2 pm in the township hall.
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