Another meeting cancelled in Witless Bay
Special public meeting of town council cancelled due to lack of quorum; rescheduled for Thursday
The Witless Bay town council had called a special public meeting for Tuesday night with one item — and one item only — on the agenda and that was to set a nomination date for the general municipal election scheduled to take place next month.
About 4 p.m., however, Mayor Maureen Murphy announced on Facebook that the meeting had been cancelled due to lack of quorum.
Unfortunately, that’s become a common occurrence in the southern shore town this summer.
Now, Murphy has rescheduled the meeting for Thursday evening in hopes that a nomination date can finally be set.
The town hasn’t had a successful regular town council meeting since May due mainly to a division on council and in the community over development issues and fallout from a Newfoundland Supreme Court case that found the former deputy mayor Fraser Paul had faked his residency prior to an October 2016 by-election.
The last time all remaining four councillors (out of a former seven-member council) sat down together in the chamber for a regular monthly meeting was on Tuesday, Aug. 8 — but that meeting deteriorated quickly amid shouting and heated words, and it ended abruptly before any of the summer’s backlogged list of town business could be addressed.
Previous meetings scheduled in June and July had been cancelled due to a lack of quorum.
Despite the fact the town council has basically been ineffective in moving town business forward and leaving residents frustrated, the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment has repeatedly stated it cannot interfere as long as there are sufficient members on council to form a quorum.
The department has also said it has been in frequent contact with the Witless Bay town councillors advising it would be willing to work with them to help resolve their differences, but that appears to have failed, as well.
In a new development Tuesday, the Department of Justice and Public Safety stated it has completed its initial review of the court decision regarding Paul and has given a response to Eddie Joyce, minister of Municipal Affairs and Environment. Joyce has said he was waiting for the response from justice officials before deciding if any action will be taken as a result of the court ruling.
A request for a statement from the department Tuesday was not received by deadline.
Prior to the October 2016 byelection, Witless Bay resident Lorna Yard and others had claimed that Paul was not a permanent resident of the town when he filed his nomination papers. They criticized the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment for not properly investigating their claims.
Yard then took it upon herself to challenge Paul’s residency claim in court and won the case. The judge found that Paul had faked his residency during the required 30-day period prior to the nomination date for the byelection. Paul resigned from council earlier this summer as a result of the court decision.
Yard has been concerned since the decision that the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment has not taken any action, given that municipal elections are just around the corner.
She said more stringent measures need to be put in place to ensure residency claims and legislative changes need to be made, as well as possibly banning Paul — and any others found to be in similar circumstances — from being able to run for council for a period of time.
Yard said Joyce had a number of opportunities to prevent the current chaos in the town. She said that, as a private citizen, she should not have had to take the case to court herself.
Yard is now is considering launching a complaint with the RCMP to look into possible election fraud.
“It has to be resolved,” Yard said. “People need to be able to have faith in the election process.”