Newfoundland mayor wants 'dysfunctional' council dissolved for new election | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Newfoundland mayor wants 'dysfunctional' council dissolved for new election

Original Publication Date September 02, 2015 - 8:55 AM

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The mayor of a small Newfoundland town says its "dysfunctional" council is so stacked against him it would vote down a cure for childhood cancer if he was the one promoting it.

Sam Synard of Marystown called Wednesday for the province to dissolve the seven-member body — one day after it voted for his resignation.

"I honestly feel personally I could go out tomorrow and find a cure for leukemia in children and the council would say: 'Well, because Sam found the cure for leukemia, we really can't support it.' That's how dysfunctional it has become.

"Any given issue, the majority of council seems to vote against what I would vote for."

Synard has been mayor of Marystown for 15 years and has served in municipal politics for 26. He said an allegation of conflict of interest involving a sewer line to property owned by his brother, who died last year at 49 of a heart attack, is "frivolous and personal."

Synard was acclaimed in September 2013 but council was revamped as five new members won four-year terms. They included Al Spencer, who now serves as deputy mayor, and councillors Mary Beth Farrell, Darlene LaFosse-Blagdon, Lisa Slaney and Ruby Hoskins. Only Coun. Leonard Pittman was re-elected.

Spencer said in an emailed response that he was travelling out of province and not available.

Hoskins, reached by phone, said she could not speak publicly without "a directive from council."

Synard said he has no plans to step down as council reviews the conflict of interest allegation.

"I'm not in conflict but there's a process to go through, so I respect that process."

Synard also raised concerns that council has refused, again through majority vote, to table documents such as resumes for recent hires.

"I cannot get access to information pertaining to new hiring, which is unbelievable for me. It's an insult to the structure of municipal government anywhere," added the former president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Keith Hutchings, minister of municipal and intergovernmental affairs, said the province has intervened at least four times in the last 15 years to remove dysfunctional councils.

"I have the authority to send in an investigator to look at the whole operation of a town," Hutchings said in an interview. "If we were to identify some irregularities, or not, we would make decisions based on what we found."

The minister said his department has so far not received any related evidence from Marystown. Drastic intervention is not taken lightly, he added.

"People can have different views and philosophies on operations and how a municipality is run," Hutchings said. "There's dialogue back and forth at times that, no doubt, can get heated. But to step in and say we're going to remove duly elected officials is significant and there's a high threshold for that."

Synard said publicly airing the council's laundry was never something he thought he'd do.

"I worked my guts out for the last 26 years to make this place better, and it is better. I can't sit by and let people run it in such a way that I think is going to damage our future."

Follow @suebailey on Twitter.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015
The Canadian Press

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