Acme residents who requested the Government of Alberta investigate the way Village Council and Administration conduct business have been successful.
Barb Vanjoff, coordinator of the Acme residents’ petition was notified of the pending inspection in a letter from the province’s Municipal Affairs Minister Diana McQueen dated April 1 and received April 9.
The Minister advised both parties she has ordered the inspection, which requires the province to advertise for an independent consultant to carry out the work.
“An inspection into the operations of a municipality is an extraordinary measure and is not undertaken lightly,” the Minister states in her letter.
“The objective of the inspection process is for the inspector to report to me on the management, administration, or operation of the municipality, and to identify matters that may indicate that the municipality is managed in an irregular, improper, or improvident manner.”
Municipal Affairs was in Acme in January conducting a preliminary review of Village Council and Administration, work which included holding interviews as part of their information gathering.
Acme residents Doreen Ternowetsky and Leona DeKoter, who organized a separate petition on the proposed sale of a village park, were part of the concerned citizens group that worked on the Municipal Affairs .
“Relief. It’s a huge relief to receive this, and it’s much more than I was hoping for,” DeKoter told The Mail.
“I will note the petition deliberately left out any reference to taxation,” said DeKoter. But that wasn’t our main concern. Our main concern was that the law didn’t seem to be being followed,” speaking of those working in public service with the village.
She said the first item listed in the Municipal Affairs letter listing areas under the scope of their investigation will include “a review and evaluation of bylaws and key policies for adequacy, relevancy, consistency, and conformity with legislation, with a specific focus on property taxation, planning and development.
DeKoter said that really jumped out at her, because the issue was not referenced or listed on the petition, which was submitted to the province September 2014.
DeKoter said the next steps for the concerned citizens group are to wait to hear from Minister McQueen, and keep observing Village Council meetings.
Asked what it means for the Village Council and administration, Acme Mayor Bruce McLeod said he doesn’t think it means a lot. He said they’ll cooperate fully with whoever the province hires to perform the inspection.
McLeod was on Village Council and acted as Deputy Mayor for six years, then said he took a three year break prior to becoming Acme’s Mayor, the position he’s held for the past four years.
“We’ve done a lot of changes since we had our orginal review, going back late last year,” said McLeod, “and I’m not sure what the minister wants. We’ve done a lot of the new stuff, and the list that’s on there (letter), we’ve probably complied with just about everything that’s on his list. So I don’t know.”
CAO Brad Mason said the Village office hadn’t received the Municipal Affairs letter, so placed a call to Edmonton and received a copy via email.
Mason said the letter was added to the Village Council agenda, accepted as information under Correspondence, and a copy was distributed to Council.
