Councillors walk out of North Dundas meeting

WINCHESTER – In a rare move, three members of North Dundas council walked out of the October 10 meeting, forcing the abandonment of the council meeting.

Deputy Mayor Theresa Bergeron, Councillor John Lennox, and Councillor Gary Annable packed up their belongings and left the council chambers as Mayor Tony Fraser was reading the motion to call the meeting to order.

“We’ve lost quorum,” Fraser said after the council members left the room. Per the township’s procedural bylaw, the two remaining council members at the table, Fraser, and Councillor Matthew Uhrig, remained in chambers for 30 minutes in case the meeting regained the needed quorum to continue the meeting.

After 30 minutes, the municipality posted a notice saying, “During the Regular Meeting of Council on Thursday, October 10, 2024, quorum was lost prior to the Call to Order being carried, as per the municipality’s Procedural Bylaw we were unable to conduct the meeting, all business will be deferred to the next Regular Meeting of Council.”

Fraser said he was bewildered by the action of the three members of council, having no knowledge of the planned walkout before it occurred.

“It was a blind-side to me totally,” he told The Leader. “It was a blind-side to staff. It’s never happened before in this council.”

Fraser added that he had talked to former of members of North Dundas council and they had not seen it before either.

“It’s highly unusual. I get that people are upset for whatever reason, but we have to conduct the business of the corporation in the manner it is to be conducted.”

Fraser would not comment or speculate on why the three members of council walked out of the meeting.

“It wouldn’t be right for me to put words into their mouths,” he said.

Uhrig characterized the walkout as an “interpersonal battle.” Prior to the walkout, he was informed of it being planned but did not participate saying he preferred to deal with matters at council.

“There were important matters at the meeting that did not get to be discussed or passed,” Uhrig explained.

Fraser said council business, “came to a screeching halt.”

“When three people get up to leave without comments, is there really an effort to ensure the business of the corporation supersedes any conflict,” Fraser asked.

One matter on the October 10 agenda involved passing a bylaw needed to rename the community park in Hallville that is about to be expanded in a $2 million project. The park is to be named after long-time proponent for the project, Brian Telford. Telford died in late-October 2022 and was a community volunteer for over 40 years.

“Tuesday (October 15) was scheduled for the ground-breaking for the park and we wanted to have the signs completed to honour Brian. The walkout prevented that work from happening,” said Uhrig.

He continued that while there were issues that needed to be brought up and discussed that were not pleasant, staging a walkout to end the meeting before it began was not the best way to handle the situation.

“It’s allowed under the Municipal Act, and I respect their ability to do it. But we were elected to have the difficult conversations,” Uhrig said.

Tensions at North Dundas have been growing for a number of weeks. At the September 25 council meeting, Deputy Mayor Bergeron advocated for the adoption of a performance review policy process for the township’s chief administrative officer.

Current CAO Angela Rutley just returned from a medical leave. SDG Counties Director of Transportation Ben deHaan was loaned to North Dundas to fill that role during Rutley’s absence. At one point in a report from former acting-CAO deHaan, Bergeron tried to move the discussion of the performance review policy process ahead in the agenda, only to be reminded by Fraser of their duty to adhere to the agenda as presented.

Following the abandonment of the October 10 meeting, a special meeting of council was called for October 15, which did not cover any of the agenda of the abandoned meeting. A petition to the clerk from Bergeron, Annable, and Lennox for a closed session Special Meeting was received. That meeting is scheduled for October 22. No agenda has been published for this meeting yet.

Closed session meetings are allowed under Section 239 of the Municipal Act if the matter deals with security of property, property sales, labour relations, or personal matters about an identifiable person.

The Leader contacted Bergeron for comment. No response was received by publication deadline.

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