On the sales block
Acting mayor becomes deciding vote on property deal with mayor
A rare thing happened recently at the Town of Kensington’s committee of council meeting. The acting mayor had to break a tie vote. The town’s CAO, Geoff Baker, remarked that it was the first time in his nine years with the community that this happened. The impasse was in regard to the sale of 2 North St., which the town owns, to Mayor Rowan Caseley. The mayor already owns the adjacent 61 Broadway St. North, known as King George Professional Centre, and he had intended to use the second property to add parking for the centre. Caseley had submitted a proposal to the town seeking to purchase about half of the currently vacant 2 North St. Council had previously authorized Baker to sell both halves of the property for no less than $12,000 total.
It had originally envisioned selling one section to the owner of the King George Professional Centre and the other to the owner of the art gallery at 59 Broadway St. North. However, the town had since been informed by consultants that if the property was subdivided, as requested, it would leave the second half in noncompliance with some of the community’s bylaws, which would impact the viability of selling it in the future.
Seeking to avoid that scenario, Coun. Coreen Pickering put forward a motion authorizing Baker to sell the whole property to a single new owner for no less than $12,000. Coun. Marvin Mill voted in favour of the motion while Councillors Mack MacLean and David Doucette voted against. Caseley had declared a conflict of interest and left the room for the discussion and vote. Coun. Jeff Spencer became acting mayor for that portion of the meeting as deputy mayor Rodney Mann was not present.
The mayor only votes at council when there is a tie, and with two in favour and two against the motion Spencer became the deciding vote, which he cast in favour of selling the whole property to one new owner. Because Caseley’s proposal had only been for half the property, Baker was going to present the new deal to the mayor for consideration.