Mayor Jeff Genung says the leak of confidential information accused of originating from council incamera sessions is a very troubling matter.
But without more details, he's uncertain if the information leak came from those within the closed sessions.
The information has been used for a series of attacks upon Councillor Marni Fedeyko from an encrypted email account and has lead to her appealing to the public to share any emails they receive. She's also filed a formal complaint with the RCMP.
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"It's a very troubling matter," says Mayor Genung. "Yes, I'm aware of it. We've had a discussion internally. The administration has been working through this. There's very little we can do as an organization. It's more of an administrative matter and the CEO is looking into it."
He says the town can go through its IT department to see if any of these emails were generated from a town e-mail but notes that doesn't prevent someone from taking a screenshot or a piece of paper and sharing that on their own device.
He says the town has strict measures in place during their closed sessions when dealing with confidential and private documents. They are shared in a view-only format that can't be copied or forwarded to someone else.
"They're locked in kind of a portal where it's a view-only situation, so I don't know what more we could do organizationally to prevent such a thing. The accusations that they came from a closed meeting, I haven't seen any of the information or the shared emails to really verify where they were generated from."
"I think it's unfair to say that it's coming from a certain number of individuals. But again, without all the information--that councillor hasn't given us any more information to really dig into that any deeper--some of the information that I've seen that those emails contain could be known by a larger number of people than what is just being shared on social media."
He says they have been dealing with investigations surrounding Councillor Fedeyko for nearly two years. Coupled with the current information leaks, he says it's been a complete "energy drain."
"It's been a huge distraction, but I've remained focused on the work that we have as a community. There are so many issues that we're faced with that require our attention. A security breach or an information leak is troubling, and we'll do what we can to look after it, but I'm just remaining focused on the work that council has in front of it."