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The Voice of North Dundas
Vol 5, No 21
October 17, 2024
The backstory of Council’s quorum conundrum
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by Brandon Mayer It was the talk of the community. At the start of the regularly scheduled Council meeting on October 10, while Mayor Tony Fraser was calling the meeting to order, three Council members stood up and walked out. Councillor John Lennox was the first to go, followed by Deputy Mayor Theresa Bergeron, and then Councillor Gary Annable. The three members looked solemn as they vacated their seats, leaving only Councillor Matthew Uhrig and the Mayor remaining. Quorum was lost. There were no longer enough Council members present to legally conduct municipal business. A confused silence fell over the room, and for those watching from home, the YouTube feed promised Council would return shortly, and then a short while later, explained that Council had lost quorum and a 30 minute waiting period would be required. The members who left never returned, and there was, in essence, no meeting that afternoon.
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The only live audience member that night was lifelong resident Peter Guy, who didn’t like what he saw in the room after the cameras were turned off. Following an exchange between Mayor Fraser and the Clerk regarding next steps (since neither immediately knew how to proceed in such an unusual situation), Peter reports that two senior Township staff members were laughing and joking. “I was not overly impressed with that,” Peter told the Times. Other sources confirm that these people were CAO Angela Rutley, and Recreation and Culture Director, Meaghan Meerburg. Peter later walked up and confronted the officials in the room and told them that he was not impressed with the laughing and joking, as it was an embarrassment to the Township. Peter says that nobody answered him, and he left. He wishes the YouTube stream would have been left on for transparency. In an email exchange, Councillor Uhrig added a different perspective, stating: “I wholeheartedly disagree they were laughing because this is
Deputy Mayor Theresa Bergeron
To understand what happened, it’s necessary to first consider the events of the September 26 Council meeting. At
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humorous. It is far from that - they laughed because, much like laughing at a funeral, this is the way the awkwardness and unusualness of the moment came out of them. The majority were dumfounded.” The question of why the walkout occurred has been a burning one ever since. Some locals criticized the members for walking out, suggesting it amounted to abandoning their post when the Township needs them the most, considering the hardships with finances and infrastructure that are currently hitting hard locally. Others knew there had to be more to the story, and that three wellmeaning elected officials would never do such a thing without a purpose. The Times interviewed three Council members and received submissions from two others. Their collective stories provide the backstory – or at least scratches the surface – of what is going on.
that meeting, Deputy Mayor Theresa Bergeron introduced a motion to suggest that Council instruct HR staff to develop a comprehensive “360 degree feedback component” for performance reviews for the current and any future CAOs. The 360 degree feedback refers to feedback not only from Council, but also anonymous feedback from staff under the CAO as well. Following the Deputy Mayor’s introduction of this concept, Mayor Fraser became agitated with her when she attempted to invite Counties CAO Maureen Adams to speak about 360 degree feedback. The Mayor scolded Deputy Mayor Bergeron for this, saying “I am still the chair of the committee, and the Mayor of the Township”. The Mayor later scolded his fellow Council members several times for “neglecting” to inform him that the idea of 360 degree feedback for the CAO would be proposed. “I look to staff saying it’s been neglected to keep me in the loop,” said the Mayor at the meeting, after providing a similar reprimand to his fellow Councillors. The Deputy Mayor provided the Times with critical background information on this interaction. She states that on October 4, she and her fellow Council members received an email from Mayor Fraser stating that he had single-handedly completed a performance review for CAO Angela Rutley, without first consulting with Council to check if the other members approved of this method of review. The Deputy Mayor took issue with this because she believes staff should have a voice in the CAO performance review, which provides Council with a sense of the workplace dynamics. She cont'd on page 2
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