Four West Nipissing councillors skip meeting on Mayor’s motion

A meeting was scheduled for West Nipissing council on November 30th but it was over before it began.

For their council meeting to commence, a certain amount of council members must be in attendance. With four councillors absent, quorum was not met, and Mayor Joanne Savage had no choice but to adjourn the meeting.

Councillor Dan Roveda mentioned via email before the meeting that “the Mayor has decided not to withdraw her Notice of Motion” for the scheduled meeting.

The motion appeared as Section L-1 on the agenda— “discussions between Mayor and CAO.”

As the motion regards a staff issue, Roveda was not able to comment on specifics, although he was at liberty to explain that “this is definitely an HR issue.”

He added that all human resources issues “must be dealt within an in-camera session.”

Speaking of staff issues confidentially is “in my opinion the right thing to do out of respect for the employee,” Roveda said, noting that as reflected in the agenda, the mayor’s motion may have been discussed publicly.

To avoid this public discussion, councillors Leo Malette, Rolly Larabie, Chris Fisher, and Roveda “collectively made the decision to not attend tonight’s meeting,” Roveda explained.

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“We have based our decision on advice and wish not to risk the legal and financial liability of the Municipality,” Roveda said.

On November 24, Roveda sent the mayor an email asking her to remove the notice of motion from the upcoming agenda.

“Unless you can confirm that you WILL NOT include the NOTICE of MOTION next week,” Roveda wrote, “I and likely my colleagues will not attend.”

“Your Motion does nothing to advance the day to day operations” of the Municipality, he continued, “and is counter-productive to a harmonious relationship between Council members and between Council and staff.”

“It’s boils down to respect,” Roveda said.

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.