Catholic trustee fires ‘low blow’ at lawyer during meeting
An outspoken Edmonton Catholic school trustee may face repercussions for criticizing the school district’s lawyer during a heated school board meeting.
During an exchange about potential conflicts of interest on Tuesday, trustee Patricia Grell said, “It’s interesting you’re interested in following bylaws now ...” to school district lawyer Carole Karbonik before someone turned off Grell’s microphone.
The comment referred to Grell’s disagreement with Karbonik’s advice at a January board meeting where trustees quarrelled over the extension of the superintendent’s contract.
“I’m highly, highly concerned,” board chairwoman Laura Thibert said in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting.
Tuesday’s open meeting of the chronically clashing board had stretched past the four-hour mark when the exchange occurred. Trustees spent the first 55 minutes of the meeting sparring over which items should be included and excluded from the agenda.
During a discussion about school fees for busing, Grell said she has a child enrolled in the programs in question and volunteered to recuse herself from a vote.
Grell disagreed with Karbonik about whether board bylaws say trustees with a declared conflict of interest must leave the board room during a vote.
After Grell’s comment about Karbonik’s adherence to bylaws, people in the room groaned and gasped. “A low blow,” someone called out.
“Oh my goodness. Trustee Grell, please. Trustee Grell, please,” Thibert said.
Trustee Larry Kowalczyk then asked Grell to apologize to Karbonik.
“No, sorry,” Grell said. When board vice-chairwoman Marilyn Bergstra attempted to get on with the meeting, Kowalczyk waved his arm.
“I would like to apologize on behalf of this board to legal counsel,” Kowalczyk said, which was greeted with loud applause from some trustees and people in the audience.
After the meeting, Thibert said the board will discuss the incident at a future meeting.
Edmonton Catholic trustees’ code of conduct states “No trustee shall attempt to exercise individual authority over the superintendent or any staff. In particular; a. No individual trustee shall make an individual judgment of superintendent or staff performance.”
Grell was reprimanded by her board colleagues last month for breaching board policy after a heated debate in January about whether to renew superintendent Joan Carr’s contract.
Grell has said trustee Kowalczyk was in a conflict of interest when he voted on Carr’s contract because his wife is a Catholic school principal. At a January special meeting, district lawyer Karbonik told the board she did not think Kowalczyk stood to financially benefit from Carr’s continued employment, and saw no reason why Kowalczyk should recuse himself.
Trustees battled about several other issues at Tuesday’s meeting, including:
Whether trustees had adequate ■ access to Carr’s contract before they were asked to vote on it
Whether trustees had ever ■ reviewed Carr’s contract line by line
Trustee John Acheson proposed bringing in an outside lawyer to help the board manage its conflicts. The board voted to put off the motion indefinitely after trustee Debbie Engel said voters had no appetite for the board to spend more money on external legal fees, as reported in a Journal investigation in February.
Trustees also voted to remove two of Grell’s motions from the public agenda, both of which dealt with the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association.
Acheson, Bergstra, and Grell all protested the agenda juggling.
“This isn’t democracy. This is really sad,” Grell said.