Witless Bay council down to the crunch
Tuesday’s scheduled monthly meeting may be last chance to get business moving this summer
A regularly scheduled meeting set for Tuesday in Witless Bay could be the last kick at the cat for the current town council to get stalled town business moving this summer before September’s municipal elections sweep across the province.
And with summer passing by, residents and businesses of the southern shore town may have given up hope of getting their permits approved to build sheds, fences and to start other projects.
The council has been a lame duck since the last regular town council meeting in May.
Regular monthly council meetings, as well as special town council meetings, have all had to be cancelled due to a lack of quorum.
There’s been an ongoing division in the town and on the town council over various issues, including future development and the town plan.
The council itself — due to resignations and a recent court case that caused the deputy mayor to vacate his seat — finds itself with only four councillors, down from seven.
Mayor Maureen Murphy, who has tried unsuccessfully to get the remaining four councillors together since May, said the town had been worried about people getting frustrated and proceeding to do their projects on their own without the proper permits. But, she said, there are no reports of that occurring.
“The town would be concerned about residents working without permits, however, to my knowledge this is not happening,” she said. “Hopefully, our Aug. 8 monthly public meeting will go ahead and town business will move forward.”
According to the province’s Municipalities Act, a town council is required to hold a regular public meeting at least once a month. In the event councillors do not attend regular public monthly meetings for three consecutive months — without having received the leave of council — their seats will be vacated.
If there are not enough councillors remaining to form a quorum, the minister of Municipal Affairs and Environment can appoint people to sit as councillors to get town business moving.
Since the last successful regular council meeting in May, the June 13 regular public meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum. That meeting was rescheduled to June 21 but it failed to go ahead again due to a lack of quorum. The July 11 regular public monthly council meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum.
In addition, two “special public council meetings” — May 30 and June 6 — had been cancelled due to lack of quorum.
In a statement to The Telegram, the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment said it cannot interfere as long as there are sufficient members on council to form a quorum: “As the legislation states that ‘three successive months,’ it does not matter how many meetings are held in those three months and does not include special meetings or privileged meetings.
“In cases were meetings are planned, but then cancelled in advance of holding the meeting, it cannot be determined whether councillors were available to attend. The (Witless Bay) council currently has a quorum of councillors and is able to conduct its business; however, if the town does not have enough councillors for a quorum, the minister would be in a position to consider other alternatives, such as appointing councillors.”
The department also said it has been in frequent contact with the Witless Bay town councillors advising it would be willing to work with them to help resolve their differences.
Meantime, the Department of Justice and Public Safety is reviewing a recent Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador Decision that found former deputy mayor Fraser Paul had not been a resident of the town when he obtained the nomination for an October 2016 by-election and subsequently voted onto the town council.
Despite concerns raised at the time by Witless Bay resident Lorna Yard and others that Paul was not a permanent resident of the town, Paul was still allowed to have his name on the ballot.
Yard initiated an action in Newfoundland Supreme Court that challenged the residency claim that Paul made on his nomination forms. Yard won the case.
The judge found that Paul had faked his residency during the required 30-day period prior to the nomination date for the by-election. Paul resigned from council earlier this summer as a result of the court decision.
Yard has been concerned since the decision that the Department of Municipal Affairs has not taken any action given that municipal elections are just around the corner. She said more stringent measures need to be put in place to ensure residency claims and legislative changes need to be made, as well as possibly banning Paul — and any other found to be in a similar circumstance — from being able to run for council for a period of time. She said that, as a private citizen, she should not have had to take the case to court since there were a number of complaints lodged prior to the by-election that the department failed to thoroughly investigate.
Municipal Affairs Minister Eddie Joyce has said he referred the court decision to the Department of Justice and Public Safety for review.
In a statement last week, the justice department stated: “This is a priority file and it’s currently being reviewed by solicitors with the Department of Justice and Public Safety. There is no timeline on when the review will be completed.”