At the request of ratepayers via petition, the RM of Buchanan held a public meeting to discuss concerns regarding the actions of the RM’s council.
The Aug. 25 meeting, held at the Buchanan Community Centre, discussed the RM’s work environment, legal bills, bylaw enforcement, conflicts of interest and council procedures and decisions.
Council members at the meeting head table were: Reeve Don Skoretz, Div. 1 Coun. Wally Slobozian, Div. 2 Coun. Myron Kopec, Div. 3 Coun. Sean Wilson, Div. 4 Coun. Justin DeVries, Div. 5 Coun. Brian Brodziak, and Div. 6 Coun. Brent Pelechaty.
The petition to hold the meeting was spearheaded by Owen Carlson.
Chair conflict
The meeting began with a debate on who would chair the meeting.
Council had previously decided to hire Phil DeVos “as moderator/chairman for the public meeting.”
Carlson objected, and asked James Bodnar of Preeceville to chair the meeting.
Council and DeVos agreed to an election to choose the chair for the meeting, where DeVos was selected by a vote of 56 to 32.
“I was elected mayor in Yorkton and served two terms,” said DeVos, “but this is the hardest meeting I’ve had to run.”
Before the meeting, DeVos met with Carlson, and informed him that if DeVos chaired the meeting, he would not allow “any derogatory questions or any questions involving the name of an employee.
“My job is to get the two sides together, maybe not tonight, but to come to a resolution at some point.”
“I believe the chair is biased,” responded Carlson at the meeting. “I will be heading outside and holding a meeting for anyone who wants to come out and listen, because I am not allowed to make the comments and ask the questions here that I wanted to ask.”
A significant number of ratepayers followed Carlson outside, leaving the remainder to carry on with the scheduled public meeting with council.
Work environment
As a reminder to everyone at the meeting, it was indicated by Reeve Skoretz that “members of council shall refrain from disclosing or releasing any confidential information regarding individuals. We could be sued. To protect employees, I cannot disclose anything in their personal files.”
A question from the floor said: “Is there a policy in place that covers harassment complaints?
Skoretz responded, “Yes, and that has been updated in the last year.”
Coun. Wilson added, “Some of our policies have been found to be outdated. We’ve been going through and updating them.”
Response from the floor: “I have seen council hire moderators, consult with occupational health and safety, and hire legal council. They are doing due diligence in my mind.”
Legal bills
Reeve Skoretz stated about the RM’s legal bills, “All of you who own your own businesses know that in some situations, it’s necessary to consult with lawyers, including for tax enforcement and employee issues. For several years, our legal costs averaged $3,795 per year. For the last two years, it’s been $7,000 – $8,000 per year.”
Bylaw enforcement
Concerns about bylaw enforcement question were addressed by Coun. Wilson.
“We’ve been accused of planning to hire a bylaw officer to follow ratepayers around pretty much everywhere they go and spy on them. That’s a lie,” said Wilson. “We’re talking about hiring a bylaw officer for three hours per year to handle nuisance complaints.”
He added that council “has no teeth” in these matters and a bylaw officer would be authorized to work toward enforcement.
Conflict of interest
DeVos initiated this discussion by explaining a conflict of interest as, “Are you personally getting money as a councillor because you bought or did something?”
Reeve Skoretz said, “Honestly, I don’t know what the issue is with this. It was brought to attention that a member may have been in conflict. We had a discussion, then a vote, and decided that no member was in conflict. We would like to hear from you as a ratepayer if you think a member has a conflict of interest.”
At this point, a question from the floor brought up the fact that Div. 4 Coun. DeVries had headed outside to take part in ratepayer Carlson’s meeting.
“Is that a conflict of interest that he is outside right now?”
DeVos replied, “No, that’s his choice.”
He then added that the Reeve and council could investigate the councillor through municipal affairs for unethical behaviour if they so choose.
Council procedures and decisions
Coun. Kopec opened the discussion by stating, “Council procedures and policies have been updated regularly to change with the changing times.”
Reeve Skoretz added, “There’s been an issue because we as council have a small window to do our work, since we only get together once a month. For a major purchase or expense, we always wait for a meeting. To have a special meeting, it costs ratepayers close to $3,000 and that may be to discuss an item that doesn’t even cost that much. We can’t let small decisions get caught up in a lengthy bureaucratic process. But we do try to get the opinion of all council, even if we don’t have a formal meeting.”
A question from the floor asked why the council held the meeting during harvest (Aug. 25).
Skoretz responded, “The petition for the meeting was presented at the Aug. 3 council meeting. We have 30 days from receipt to call a public meeting, and we have to give a seven-day public notice. The RM office was closed on Aug. 8 and staff was on vacation, so we followed legislation as best we could when we called this meeting date. I wish this could have happened earlier, it would have been much better for all of us.”
DeVos added, “In the future, council may want to investigate sending a public meeting notice by email.”
Carlson returns
Owen Carlson and the other ratepayers that headed outside earlier returned, and DeVos handed the mic over to Carlson.
Carlson claimed there have been more harassment complaints brought to council in the last two years.
Reeve Skoretz replied, “We can’t talk to this. We can’t discuss any personnel file or any employee names.”
Skoretz then mentioned a situation where “an employee was terminated due to unacceptable behaviour and protecting the safety of a fellow employee. But council was told the firing was unlawful and contrary to the Saskatchewan Employment Act.”
It was at this point that tempers got somewhat heated, and DeVos commented, “The people who are complaining about being fired should be here. If you have an axe to grind with council, get together with them.”
Carlson responded and said that he attempted to attend the July council meeting and his request was refused, which motivated him to try to help make this public meeting happen.
Carlson then spoke on council’s management of the employee termination mentioned earlier, suggesting that council spent more in legal fees than they would have in back pay.
A statement from the floor expressed strong support for council, and then questioned Coun. DeVries for his support of the petitioners for the public meeting.
“I signed the petition for this meeting,” he said. “I believe council is making a lot of decisions where you ratepayers aren’t being considered. I supported this meeting to get open talk and get a discussion going. But this meeting is getting out of control and I don’t think it’s going to produce any results.”
At the end of the meeting, Council and DeVos reminded ratepayers that if they still feel their concerns are not being adequately addressed, they have the option of looking at outside avenues.
It remains to be seen if those options will be pursued.
