Town councillor Marni Fedeyko will be bringing forward a notice of motion at the Sept. 25 council meeting, asking each individual town councillors to make a public statement on whether they have confidence in the leadership being provided by town CAO Mike Derricott.
At last night's council meeting, she gave advance notice that a motion would be coming forward. She said the vote is not personal in nature, but wants it to be recorded publicly for the sake of transparency.
"Accountability is one of our organizational corporate values and something I take seriously as an elected official," says Fedeyko. "As a person who has been elected by the community, I said this is the only way for the public-at-large to know where each individual councillor may stand."
"For me, transparency and accountability are very big quantities of what I look for in leadership. I just want everybody else on council to be able to state their own opinion and I think at that point, it becomes very clear as to whether or not you are supportive of the direction that we're going or not."
She says many people have raised questions to her about the town administration and that there have been many social media comments on the matter.
"You know, are you supportive of what's going on in council?" she explains. "I get that all the time. Are you supportive of what's happening with administration? Why? Why don't we fire certain people? Why don't we get rid of them?"
"I feel that council has not been set up for success in this particular term. The one thing I have said is that all I want is for council to be set up to be successful."
She says she won't be pressuring other councillors to vote in favour of her motion.
"Everybody's going to have their own opinion," she says. "I'm sure some people will be very angry at me when you bring some sort of motion like this forward."
She says moving forward with the motion was a tough decision.
"If I thought this was gonna be an easy decision to make, I would have done it months ago, but it's not. I felt that this point, this is where I need to stand up for myself and speak out as to some of the concerns that I've heard throughout the community."
Earlier that same day, Fedeyko hosted a coffee to hear from residents. About 14 people participated. She says they asked some tough questions, something she was expecting.
"I had some good conversation and I think all people want is to be heard. So when it comes to public engagement, it's not about me telling people what's happening. They want to have an opportunity to ask their questions. They want me to be able to respond. I really do feel that people just want to be heard. They want their frustrations to be noted."
She hopes to hold similar coffee events every two weeks at different venues.
Fedeyko had the option of bringing the notice of motion forward last night for immediate consideration, but it would have required a two-thirds majority of council to be heard. The deadline for councillors to submit notices of motion is the Thursday before a regular council meeting.
Town Bylaw 19 regulates the proceedings and conduct of council and council committee meetings, including the introduction of notices of motion.
A councillor can make a motion to introduce any new matter only if notice is given at a previous regular council meeting and a legible copy of the content of the notice is made available to the manager of legislative services or should the council waives the requirement for notice by a two-thirds majority.
There is no discussion when a notice of motion is provided, so it appears the earliest councillors will weigh in on the topic would be at their Oct. 2 meeting.
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