Bud Massey says he’s willing to step aside as Westlock County reeve, but only if his Div. 4 constituents tell him to.
That’s the guarantee from the embattled reeve after a heated July 12 council meeting where Massey was publicly asked to resign for the third time in the last 30 days.
Coun. Dennis Primeau attempted to remove Massey at council’s June 14 meeting (lost in a 4-3 vote) while on June 28 a ratepayer asked for his immediate resignation.
And although his promise to step aside if Div. 4 residents call for it seems honourable, the logic behind it is faulty — we wonder if councillors Ron Zadunayski, Albert St. Louis and Mel Kroetsch petitioned their residents for their thoughts on Massey, either in advance of, or following, their votes to support the reeve June 14.
Massey serves as chairman of the Westlock County council and represents all residents, in addition to his Div. 4 electors.
Ultimately a municipality runs the same as any corporation. There’s a board of directors (council), board chairman (reeve) and the shareholders, which are you, the ratepayers.
And just like with any corporation, the board of directors are in place to ensure the company remains healthy. But to be clear, they shouldn’t be the ones driving the graders, or working on spreadsheets — they direct their sole employee, the CAO, to carry out their wishes, so long as they don’t contravene the Municipal Government Act.
Simple as that.
So when the shareholders of a major corporation don’t like the where the company is headed, they call for a new chairman, or in some cases, an entirely new board of directors.
And in the case of the county, well, it’s hard to imagine many shareholders are pleased.
There’s been the Horizon North fiasco, more problems at the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill and a call for Municipal Affairs to step in and conduct an inspection. And then there’s the report that the chairman told Charlottetown’s mayor that former CFO Sue Oberg was “dead wrong” in her report on former CAO Peter Kelly’s involvement in the Horizon North deal … comments he’s since denied making.
So Mr. Massey, when’s the meeting?
