Some New Brunswick residents are fed up and considering calling police over a municipal council saga that has spanned months in Sunbury-York South Rural Community.
Last fall, residents learned that council planned to take out an $8-million loan to construct a building, but resident Mac Burns says he made several concerning discoveries.
Burns alleges the mayor and CAO signed a $13,000 monthly lease for a building in Oromocto, N.B., without council approval.
Mayor David Hayward has since been suspended by council, while the CAO left her position to “explore other options.”
“It’s our tax dollars,” Burns said.
“They had budgeted $1.1 million in office admin to run an office for a population of 7,800 people. It’s totally ridiculous to have that much money.”
Burns showed Global News three dozen pages of complaints that he’s ready to bring to the RCMP.
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“We have about 29 issues that we have that either are under (the) Criminal Code or violations of (the) Local Governance Act,” he said.
Fellow resident Amy Soucy says she’s also concerned.
“I feel like we have had to, as a community, keep tabs on what our council has been doing because they haven’t been transparent on what they’ve been doing,” she said.
Residents are especially concerned because Hayward recently attended a Capital Region Service Commission meeting, which Burns argues is a violation of his suspension.
“You’re not supposed to act as the mayor when you’re not the mayor,” he said.
However, the community’s deputy mayor — who is now acting mayor — says the council is uncertain about what the laws are when it comes to the suspension.
“The current bylaws and applicable legislation leaves it open to an interpretation as to whether (the) mayor can be seated as a counsellor or not,” acting mayor Larry Delong said.
He adds that council is considering changes to policy and bylaws that would improve transparency.
“Council members are attempting to move the community forward, attempting to deal with some of the issues that we are facing, and we are doing that as earnestly as we can,” he said.
Global News reached out to Hayward, but didn’t receive a response by deadline.
For more on this story, watch the video above.
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Sunbury-York South residents concerned about transparency in council after mayor’s suspension
