LAC LA BICHE - The June 10 meeting of Lac La Biche County Council adjourned at 9:42 p.m. after nearly 12 hours of proceedings - eight of those hours took place in closed session.
The open portion of the meeting included a presentation from Portage College, an update and discussion of regional childcare needs, and a rebuke of County administration for bringing a sewer update back too soon. Council went into closed session after returning from their lunch break at 1 p.m. and remained in closed session for the next eight hours.
According to the agenda, there were seven matters to be discussed in closed session: legal costs update; a delegation from Canecotred (a tire recycling company based in Stony Plain whose website proclaims “COMING SOON” but does not have a phone number or e-mail address); a development proposal follow up; road construction requests; downtown business district parking lot proposal; transitional housing; and an enforcement services update.
According to Municipal Affairs, council is permitted to go in to closed session “when public disclosure could be harmful to: third party business interests; third party personal privacy; individual or public safety; law enforcement; intergovernmental relations; or economic or other interests.”
Four motions were carried in relation to the closed session items.
Legal costs update
Deputy Mayor Jason Stedman made two motions regarding the May decision by the Court of King’s Bench to award costs to Mayor Paul Reutov after the County applied to have him disqualified for $8,000 in tax arrears.
“To recognize that the court found Mayor Reutov to be disqualified but exercised its discretion to allow him to remain in his seat on council. It has also ordered the parties to agree on legal costs. To direct legal counsel for the County to proceed with option two in relation to costs to Mayor Reutov’s legal counsel,” said Stedman.
The motion carried.
The second motion, “to direct administration to publish the original council motion and the Court of King’s Bench decision, along with what legal counsel has provided council,” also carried.
In response to follow-up questions regarding the legal bill for the debacle, Alex Fuller, a spokesperson for the County of Lac La Biche said “We cannot provide details of discussions held in closed session. Further information may be available upon the conclusion of matters before the Court of King’s Bench.”
Road construction requests
There was no discussion in open session of the specific roads to be funded.
A motion “To approve $40,000, $10,000 per project, with funding to come from accumulated surplus to complete construction assessment and cost estimates, including project management for the following road construction requests,” was made by Mayor Paul Reutov.
“Again, these are just described as in writing. There’s four separate road requests,” said Reutov, before calling the vote.
The written descriptions of the roads were not included with the published agenda package. Lakeland This Week requested the descriptions from County administration and received the legal land descriptions where the roads will be located, but no further clarifying details.
The four roads to be assessed and costed are: NW-32-67-15-W4, NE-2-64-12-W4, NW-15-63-11-W4, and SW-31-66-13-W4.
Parking lot proposal
A fourth motion, “to direct administration to prepare a parking needs assessment for the Hamlet of Lac La Biche and to present the results to a future council meeting; and further to respond to the initial request from the landowner,” carried with unanimous support.
The delegation from Canecotred, transitional housing update, and enforcement services update were taken as information and had no motions.
