A Westlock County resident hoping for an inquiry from Alberta Municipal Affairs has now set a petition end date of Jan. 29 after failing to get enough signatures in the initial 60-day period.
Ken Mead explained the petition he’s been circulating, which calls on the province to conduct an inquiry into the county’s administration and council, didn’t get the necessary 1,600 signatures in part due to a lack of manpower.
“When I started it in November, because of weather and other things, I didn’t get enough, so we’re going to re-establish it,” he said. “We don’t have to do anything except exclude the names from those who signed before December 1.”
Municipal Affairs does not recognize the start or end dates of petitions, per se, but rather determines whether enough signatures had been gathered in a 60-day period.
Mead, who served as Westlock County Reeve from 2004 to 2007, launched the petition in early November following news of CAO Peter Kelly offering all county employees a severance package including three months salary — an offer that provoked the union to file a complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
In launching the petition, Mead said he was concerned that council and administration weren’t complying with relevant provincial legislation, and specifically expressed concern councillors are overstepping their bounds and becoming too involved in the day-to-day affairs of the county.
The petition has received mixed reactions so far, with insufficient signatures in the initial 60-day period and some county residents vocally opposed to it.
Shortly after the petition launched, a group of eight residents and ratepayers attended the Nov. 12 council meeting to express support for the current council and administration.
“We feel and we believe the majority of ratepayers are prepared to have this team continue looking after our business and to do your job,” Howard Ringstad said. “Thank you for all your efforts and good luck in the future.”
Mead said the recent news that the county planned to pull its firefighting equipment from the Village of Clyde’s fire hall has, for him, reaffirmed the need for an inquiry.
A tender, or large water-carrying truck, was removed from the Clyde Fire Hall Dec. 23, following a funding disagreement between the county and the village.
The department’s firefighters have said this move will make responding to fires in the eastern part of the county more difficult. Chief James Hoetmer said the vast majority of his department’s calls are in the county and not the village.
“That fire department out there is county people; they don’t all live in the Village of Clyde,” he said. “It is stupidity at its maximum, really, to do that. That’s all I can say about it.”
Mead said while he believes there is a lot of interest in the petition around the county, the difficult part has been physically getting out to people who want to sign. He said he plans to set up specific times and places in January where people can come sign the petition.
Up-to-date information can be found on the Facebook group Westlock County Petition to Municipal Affairs.
