The provincial Ombudsman has released a report on a conflict-of-interest complaint involving the ex-mayor of the Village of Manor.

A group of Manor residents filed a complaint with the Ombudsman, over the sale of a campground to the son of the mayor at the time, Vickie Aikens.

The land was sold for $10,000, in a deal which was not made public.

The provincial Ombudsman, Mary McFadyen, concluded that the village council contravened its own bylaw in agreeing to the sale. "They had a bylaw that said if they were going to sell any municipal land, they had to give 7 days public notice of their intention to do so." McFadyen told Discover Weyburn.

"The reason that they would give that notice, was so people of the community could actually show up at council and make their concerns known if they disagreed with the decision. So that the council that's supposed to be acting in the interests of the community had all of the viewpoints in mind before they made their decision."

However, the Ombudsman pointed out that public notice of the sale was not given in advance.

She also reported there was a conflict-of-interest on the part of the mayor.

mary mcfadyen
Provincial Ombudsman, Mary McFadyenMcFadyen noted that the Mayor left the council meeting when her son made his pitch to council, but then returned for the vote. "She knew there was an issue with the fact that her son was wanting to buy municipal land, so she did take the step to leave the room when he made his presentation." she added.

"However, our investigation found that she was in the room when the council actually made the decision to sell the land. And, it's really important under the municipal act in Saskatchewan that she did not, even though she knew there was a conflict of interest, and took some steps, she did not take all the steps that she was required to under the act."

McFadyen felt it was important to release her report to the public. "Just to hopefully help other council members and all the municipalities in the province just really see how serious this is, and they take steps to identify if they are in a conflict of interest with anything with respect to anything before council."

The Ombudsman did not recommend any action be taken against the mayor, because she had lost her position in the municipal election.

Nor did she order the campground be sold back to the village, because the village had transferred the land to the mayor's son before her investigation began.

That concerns one of the outspoken residents of the Manor area.

Linda Aalbers has been leading the battle over the issue, and promises to continue to fight. "What really bothers me right now is the fact that we are going to celebrate 150 years of Canada, and we don't have the campground there to say yes, we can go ahead and have people come home, park their campers there, anything like that."

She noted that while designated a campground for 30 years, the site has been used for much longer than that. "Way back in the early, early sixties, there was tent revival meetings held on that site. It's been something that the community has used for a good many years."

While feeling vindicated by the report, Aalbers feels the Ombudsman should have ordered the campsite sale be rescinded. "I thought the Ombudsman, at the time, could have went further than what they did. Conflict-of-interest is a procedure that should cover anything."

However, armed with the Ombudsman's Report, Aalbers says she will be reaching out to provincial government ministries to try to get the campground back.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF PROVINCIAL OMBUDSMAN

We recommend that the council of the Village of Manor pass a bylaw adopting procedures:

(a) Requiring the procedures in section 144 of The Municipalities Act to be followed whenever a council member has any conflict of interest – whether under The Municipalities Act or otherwise under the common law.

(b) Allowing any person – including another council member, village staff, and members of the public – who honestly believes a council member may have a conflict of interest or may have contravened the code of ethics to:

  1. address the matter directly with the council member and encourage him or her to stop or otherwise avoid the confl ict of interest or contravention of the code of ethics; or
  2. make a written request to the council to address the matter.

(c) Making it a contravention of its code of ethics for a council member to threaten to take or take any reprisal against a person because the person initiated the procedures in clause (b)

(d) Ensuring any request made to the council to address the matter is brought to the attention of and addressed by the council at its next regular council meeting.