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Findings of Village of Andrew Municipal Inspection Report made Public
Findings of Village of Andrew Municipal Inspection Report made Public
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
The long awaited and highly anticipated findings of the Village of Andrew Municipal Inspection were made public on Feb. 28.
Shortly after 7 pm, around 30 people filed into the Village of Andrew multi-purpose room to hear the results of the Municipal Inspection that was conducted by Shari-Anne Doolaege, President of SAGE Analytics Inc. on behalf of the Department of Municipal Affairs.
The comprehensive analysis and detailed information included 42 findings and 26 areas of recommendations, and are contained in a 154 page document were presented by Doolaege.
Prior to her delivery of a power point presentation, Gary Sandberg, Assistant Deputy Minister of Municipal Services within the Department of Municipal Affairs for the Government of Alberta, thanked the people for coming out to the meeting and thanked council for hosting them.
Sandberg began by giving some background on the Municipal Government Act. He said council has the authority to make decisions and if it follows the legislative process there is no role for Municipal Affairs and council will be accountable to their residents for the decisions they make.
“Municipal Affairs does not judge whether council decisions are popular. We are concerned with whether the council and administration are fulfilling their duties and obligations under the legislation. Thankfully the large majority of Alberta’s 330 plus municipalities meet this test almost all the time, but once in a while the situation arises where the concerns run deeper than unpopular decisions, where there are concerns whether a local government is operating properly and lawfully, and in those cases, the Min of Municipal Affairs has the authority to order a municipal inspection.”
Sandberg pointed out that Municipal Affairs can order an inspection based on petition of residents, request from council or in rare cases by minister themselves based on concerns. He said Andrew Village council requested the inspection and explained briefly about a scoping exercise and preliminary review the team for Municipal Affairs (MA) conducted prior to the Minister granting the municipal inspection.
“The MGA does not authorize the Minister to simply dismiss members of council with ease. Those kinds of enforcement actions require a very long and deliberate process where the municipal council is provide with multiple opportunities to address the ministers’ concerns and take the necessary preventative action. We are not anywhere near that point with the Village of Andrew, and candidly, we do not expect that we will reach that point in the future with the Village of Andrew.”
Sandberg went on to say, “I want to re-iterate one very important thing, our role now and at all times throughout the process has been and still is to help the Village of Andrew council function properly and to deliver good governance to Village residents. We’ve done that by following the requirements of the legislation and following the requirements of the process designed to provide fairness and opportunity to be heard by all those affected.”
Findings by SAGE ran the gamut of operating with five councilors despite no bylaw allowing that to occur, conducting a meeting without a quorum present, not fulfilling byelection advertising requirements, Coun. Haight being ineligible to run for council in 2021 due to outstanding taxes and being allowed to remain on council, irregularities regarding taxation, utility rates bylaw, municipal records, disposal of village asset and pecuniary interest by former Councillor Benny Dubitz, pecuniary interest by Councillor Tammy Pickett regarding leasing of mini golf contract, failing to follow the process when handling Code of Conduct complaints, etc.
Mayor Barry Goertz thanked everyone for attending the meeting. In a follow up interview with the Vegreville News Advertiser, Goertz provided his overall thoughts regarding the municipal inspection, stating, “This was a great tool or process to help us as a Municipality to address our short comings and to ensure that we are moving in the right direction for the best governance for the Village.”
Regarding the Code of Conduct complaints, Goertz said, “There were issues that past council felt warranted to go in this direction. Unfortunately, there was no actual basis for them as well as using the wrong process to address their concerns.” Going forward, Goertz said they now know to use a third party regarding the process.”
Goertz said they will be developing a new bylaw to address the number of members on council.
As to whether there will be a cost incurred by the Village of Andrew for the Municipal Inspection, Goertz replied, “To my knowledge, we have not been advised of any cost for this inspection.”
Attendees were also given a copy of the list of 11 directives the Minister of Municipal Affairs has ordered for council and its CAO.
