On Sept. 20, Town of Athabasca Coun. Tanu Evans walked out of chambers as a motion was being brought forward – a motion to ask fellow Coun. Nichole Adams to resign, or take her to the Court of Queen’s Bench for disqualification.
“If they’re going to behave like children, I’m just going to leave,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
This simple act of leaving the meeting and subsequent statement now has Coun. Tim Verhaeghe ready to call for another councillor disqualification, with an item on the next council meeting’s agenda to discuss just that.
But one word is at the crux of the case – and the result could also affect other councillors at the table.
Section 174 of Alberta’s Municipal Government Act, states that one of the reasons a councillor can be disqualified is if “the councillor does not vote on a matter at a council meeting at which the councillor is present.”
The key is the word “present.”
Municipal Affairs public affairs officer Jerry Ward said in an email that if a councillor leaves a meeting, it would be noted in the minutes that they were “not be present for that portion of the meeting.”
“If a councillor leaves the room during a meeting, the absence and time of leaving, as well as time of returning, would be recorded in the minutes,” he said. “This is not an uncommon occurrence and may happen when a councillor needs a comfort break in the absence of the Mayor calling a full recess to the meeting.”
He also pointed out that if a councillor leaves the room as a result of a pecuniary interest, that would also be recorded in the council meeting minutes.
That said, Ward added that while the province sets the law, the courts interpret it.
“The Province of Alberta is responsible for establishing the legislative framework for local government through the Municipal Government Act,” Ward said. “However, it is the role of the courts to make judgments regarding circumstances that contravene this or other legislation.”
Coun. Tim Verhaeghe has added an item to the agenda for the Oct. 4 council meeting, which includes a proposed motion to ask Evans to resign by Oct. 18, or get administration to prepare an application to the Court of Queen’s Bench to disqualify him.
“I’ve made this an agenda item, because at the last meeting as I was making a motion, Councillor Evans left council chambers during my motion, which is in contravention of Section 174 of the MGA, which is one of the reasons a councillor can be disqualified,” Verhaeghe said in an interview.
“I think, though, if you purposely leave a meeting while a motion is being made so as not to vote on that motion, in essence you are abstaining from the vote,” he said.
Evans pointed out in an email that he left the meeting before Verhaeghe finished reading the motion and before the vote was called. He said that, therefore, he was not present when the question was raised.
“The MGA contains nothing about manacles, and the inability to leave council Chambers,” he wrote in the email. “In fact if you look at the minutes of the past 3 years there have been other instances of councilors leaving before the end of the meeting.”
Evans walked out while the motion was being read, but two other town councillors walked out of a meeting earlier this year while a motion was on the table.
At a special meeting on April 21, town council discussed almost $400,000 in off-site levies that the town was charging to Aspen View Public Schools to build infrastructure to the new school.
After almost two hours of discussion, Coun. Tanu Evans made a motion to deny the division’s request to cancel the fee.
Councillors Shelly Gurba, Nichole Adams, Steve Schafer and Joanne Peckham were also present; at a previous meeting, Peckham, Evans and Adams had voted against lifting the levy.
“If the two of us walked out of here right now, they wouldn’t have quorum and couldn’t do anything, right?” Gurba asked at the April 21 meeting, referring to herself and Schafer.
“Correct,” confirmed former interim director of finance Rodney Boyko, who served in the chief administrative officer’s advisory role for that meeting.
“And then we would have to go to the next meeting where it would be equal, and then we could bring it up to the table?” she said. “At this point then, I’m leaving the meeting and I think Mr. Schafer is as well.”
The two then walked out of the meeting.
As there were not enough councillors for quorum, the motion died on the table. Mayor Roger Morrill – who had stepped out of the discussion for a “possible perceived pecuniary interest” – returned, and the meeting was adjourned.
At the next meeting on May 3, Gurba, Schafer and Peckham voted in favour of charging Aspen View $1 fee rather than waiving the fees outright; Evans and Adams voted against the motion.
When asked whether he would bring a motion of disqualification against Gurba and Schafer, Verhaeghe said he could not comment on that.
“I wasn’t at that meeting,” he said. When the Advocate noted there were meeting minutes, he said he had not thought about that. “I wasn’t there, I haven’t reviewed the minutes,” he said. “I simply can’t comment on it.”
