RM of Sherwood urges councillor to resign post
If no response by Feb. 28, council will use courts to oust Tim Probe
The Regional Municipality of Sherwood has sent a letter to embattled councillor Tim Probe asking that he resign, but he has yet to respond.
Council says it has placed a Feb. 28 deadline on its request, after which it will resort to the courts.
In recent weeks, Saskatchewan ombudsman Mary McFadyen wrapped up two reports into the RM, in which she found Probe and former councillor Joe Repetski were in a conflict of interest at a council meeting on Jan. 13, 2016.
The ombudsman suggested the RM vote on seeking a court order to enforce Probe’s dismissal, which it can do under existing legislation.
“Under The Municipalities Act, a council member who contravenes section 144 is disqualified from council, must resign immediately, and is not eligible to be nominated or elected in any municipality for 12 years,” the ombudsman said.
“If a disqualified council member does not resign, section 148 sets out a process for the council (or a voter) to apply to the Court of Queen’s Bench to enforce the disqualification.”
For now, the council has first asked Probe to step aside voluntarily.
During a Feb. 8 meeting of the RM, a resolution was passed to send the letter.
“It was passed unanimously and the letter was sent out within a couple of days of the meeting,” deputy reeve Carl Husum said. “Right now we’re in a holding pattern to see what he does.”
“We gave him until Feb. 28 for a response on it, and if we don’t get a response, or if he doesn’t resign, then in our March meeting, to comply with the recommendations from the ombudsman’s report, then we will take the steps that they suggested, of applying to the courts.”
“If he resigns, of course, then all it is, at our March meeting, is to accept the resignation.”
Probe did not return calls for comment Tuesday, but said previously the ombudsman’s report on him was not “accurate to where we felt it should be.”
The ombudsman’s reports stemmed from a January 2016 meeting at which citizens demanded that moves be made by the RM to recover money councillors had been repaid for legal fees during Justice Ron Barclay’s 2014 inquiry into the RM and its controversial Wascana Village development.
In a September 2015 ruling, the Court of Queen’s Bench struck down the RM’s bylaw that had let it reimburse councillors for such fees.
Probe was back-paid $50,000 and Repetski $11,000. One-time reeve Kevin Eberle, forced to resign after the Barclay Inquiry, had three-quarters of his $212,000 in costs repaid.
The ombudsman found Probe and Repetski “failed to take the steps required of them under the Municipalities Act to deal with their conflict of interest,” when the legal fees’ reimbursement came up at that Jan. 16 meeting.
“(W)hen a motion was made to take steps to recover the money paid to them, instead of declaring their conflict of interest and leaving the room, (Probe and Repetski) focused the council’s discussion on whether the motion was properly before council under Robert’s Rules of Order,” the ombudsman said.
Because of the move by Probe and Repetski that technicality was voted on instead, and the issue of the fees themselves was postponed. The ombudsman felt this should never have been allowed to happen, and made its resulting recommendations.
Probe resigning his seat, or being ordered by a court to do so, would prompt a byelection, Husum said.
Separately, Probe was charged in September with municipal corruption over an undisclosed matter that occurred on Feb. 2, 2016. He is next set to appear in court on June 6. Current reeve Jeff Poissant is among those expected to be called as a witness if the case goes to trial. Probe is presently on leave from the council until the charges are concluded.
The RM has also launched legal action over the legal fees, seeking some three-quarters of a million dollars from the councillors and McKercher LLP lawyers Daniel Kwochka and Joel Hesje.