Richmond council elects new warden
Municipal councillors have turned to a relative newcomer to their ranks as their choice for the next warden of Richmond County.
Jason MacLean was elected to the two-year term at a council meeting Tuesday. The councillor for District 5 and resident of River Bourgeois had been serving as deputy warden.
Brian Marchand, who had served a two-year term as warden, was defeated in a secret ballot by MacLean. Marchand, who represents District 3 on council, was then acclaimed as deputy warden.
MacLean described his reaction to being elected warden as, “a little bit surprised and a little bit not.”
He said he will work to balance
his responsibilities as principal at Richmond Education Centre/ Academy with his new duties as warden.
“It’s something that I have thought a little bit about in the past and was open to it, for sure, but also know that with my position it brings on a little bit of added challenges with regards to meetings and what-not through the day,” MacLean said. “I’m hoping that people are understanding to the fact that my days are quite busy and that maybe we have to rejig some meeting times and some schedules.”
MacLean was first elected to council in 2016. He said he was motivated to run for office because of controversy that the municipality was facing at the time.
A forensic audit released that year, looked at about $800,000 in expense claims at the municipality, and revealed a lack of documentation, with a large number of transactions not supported by detailed receipts. The audit also revealed questionable expense claims by some councillors and staff. The revelations led to the
resignation of its former CAO.
“It’s old news, but it was certainly big news at the time, where Richmond County was experiencing a lot of issues and Richmond County was in the news for a lot of wrong reasons,” MacLean said.
“You talk about it and you just talk about, or you try to get involved and do something about it … I did have something that I could bring to the table as far as council decisions go.”
As for what his priorities will be for his term, MacLean said they will likely be set by the strategic planning process that the municipality has undergone, having recently completed a series of community consultation sessions.
He lauded the work done by CAO Kent MacIntyre and staff during the process.
“(We were) really looking for some input from the public on where they would like to see priorities of council lie, so really a lot of the direction will come from what the people are asking and what the people want and council will set some priorities from that document once it’s all put together,” MacLean said.
The next round of municipal elections in Nova Scotia takes place in October 2020.