“I don’t do threats”: Berthold leaves executive committee after dispute with mayor

Sherbrooke Councillor Danielle Berthold has stepped down from her position as chair of the city executive committee after what she perceived as a threatening phone call from Mayor Évelyne Beaudin.

Berthold said she spoke with Beaudin on the evening of April 8. “I told the mayor I planned to vote against the pool tax, and she said, ‘When we’re on the executive committee, we need to stick together, and if not, there will be consequences.’ I consider that a threat, and I don’t do threats.”

Beaudin confirmed the conversation had taken place. “I told [Berthold] that in life, when you make decisions, it comes with consequences, and when you change sides, there are always consequences,” she told The Record. “When you vote to break the budget, there are consequences.”

The pool tax bylaw – which imposes an $80 per unit of evaluation tax on residential swimming pools – was approved by a single vote at the April 9 council meeting, with Berthold and Councillor Laure Letarte-lavoie, who briefly attended the meeting with her one-month-old baby in tow despite being on maternity leave, voting in favour.

Berthold explained that she voted for the tax not because her convictions had changed or because she felt threatened by Beaudin, but because the money had already been factored into the budget, which she had voted in favour of. She announced her resignation from the executive committee after the vote. “I voted for the tax even though I explained that it made no sense…there’s no way I’m always going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place and unable to act according to my convictions,” she later said.

Berthold said she was surprised by the tone of her conversation with Beaudin. “We have had conversations since we were not in agreement… since the beginning of [Beaudin’s] mandate, and nothing like this has happened before.”

Berthold said that despite stepping down from the executive committee, she intends to stay on as councillor for the Desranleau district, a position she has held since 2013. “I’m not leaving politics at all… the citizens gave me their trust and I love doing this job.”

Beaudin said deputy mayor Raïs Kibonge, who stepped in as acting mayor during her recent medical leave, will replace Berthold on the executive committee, meaning that every executive committee position will be filled by members of her Sherbrooke Citoyen slate.

“It’s [Berthold’s] decision to leave the executive committee, but I enjoyed working with her and I hope to work with her more in the future,” said Beaudin. She said Berthold’s resignation “says more about her intentions for the next election” than it does about the working environment at City Hall, which has led councillors to request outside mediators from the Commission municipale du Québec. She pointed to remarks made by independent councillor Nancy Robichaud about the fact that Letartelavoie brought her baby to council as “the biggest scandal we’ve had so far.”

Berthold, 62, has been vague about her electoral intentions. She told The Record she “had no bitterness” toward the mayor and wanted to “move forward.”

“I didn’t get into politics just to be against what someone else is proposing – I want to have results,” she said.

Beaudin said deputy mayor Raïs Kibonge, who stepped in as acting mayor during her recent medical leave, will replace Berthold on the executive committee, meaning that every executive committee position will be filled by members of her Sherbrooke

Citoyen slate.