Reducing the number of Bruderheim councillors defeated for third time
Bruderheim Councillor Judy Schueler once again brought forward a motion to decrease the number of councillors sitting on Bruderheim town council from seven to five during the Aug. 18 council meeting.
The motion, which was defeated in a tie vote in Oct. 2019, and struck down again in a five to two vote in Jan. 2020, was met with negativity from council.
Councillor Len Falardeau has long been a vocal opponent of the motion.
“We have beat that horse several times and it’s been defeated, defeated and defeated. And to keep bringing it back up like this, it’s a self agenda,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of people in the community interested, not the ones I talked to. The majority of people aren’t interested. I think it should wait until the next term, and let the new councillors make that decision.”
The municipal election on Oct. 18 could see an entire new council as all positions are up for election. Nominations are currently being accepted at the town office until the deadline of 12 noon on Sept. 20. In addition, those interested in running for Mayor or Councillor can find information about becoming a candidate at Bruderheim.ca.
Meanwhile, although councillors Pat Lee and George Campbell agreed with Falardeau, councillor Dan Skousbal questioned whether the public was consulted on the matter.
“Didn’t we talk about putting this to a referendum?” he asked.
Chief Administrative Officer Patty Podobor-ozny said the matter never reached a decision.
During the Oct. 2019 council meeting, councillors Campbell and Falardeau were not in favour of a referendum on the subject.
Schueler said her motivation for revisiting the motion was not only as a cost savings measure, but also to bring it to the attention of the public.
“The motion is really to bring it to their (residents) attention so that maybe the public can have an opinion on it,” she said.
Town Councillor is an elected position paid for by the town with a four-year term. The projected savings to the town by reducing the council team by two members was a total of $56,000 over the course of the term.
Falardeau’s attention then focused on an accusation of the administration.
“I believe the administration is behind this somehow and I don’t know why. Because the previous council did bring it in, we defeated it three times, she still keeps bringing it back. And I don’t know what the administration’s deal with this is. But at this time, that’s a council deal. We defeated it, leave it alone, let the next council makes a decision, not administration putting it on the table,” he said.
Mayor Karl Hauch cautioned Falardeau.
“You are out of order. This is not a finger pointing exercise here. It came from Councillor Judy not the administration,” he said.
Falardeau, who frequently argues with the Mayor and Council members, has been sanctioned twice during his first term as councillor, once in Feb 2019 for breaching the councillor code of conduct and again in Feb. 2020 for the same reason. Details of Falardeau’s infractions are unavailable as they were discussed during closed sessions. However, as a result, Falardeau was stripped of his committee assignments and barred from representing the Town of Bruderheim for the rest of his term.
Meanwhile, a vote on Councillor Judy Schueler’s motion of decreasing the number of councillors from seven to five was defeated for the third time in a vote of 5 – 2.
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Jana Semeniuk
Staff Reporter
