Eric Schmalz appeared very comfortable in his new chair, beside Administrator Roxanne Roy. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Local politics

A new chapter begins for the R.M. of Prince Albert

Jun 13, 2019 | 1:51 PM

Fresh off his byelection victory Wednesday night, the newly elected reeve for the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Prince Albert was at work Thursday, learning the ropes of his new job.

Eric Schmalz was officially sworn in at the start of the R.M. council’s monthly meeting.

“I’m learning as I go. I had a brief opportunity to reviews some of those rules and procedures in the manual and that was after the election. It wasn’t a lot of time,” he said.

Schmalz takes the oath of office. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

During his campaign Schmalz discussed the creation of a citizens on patrol group. With his experience as an RCMP officer, Schmalz said he said he would be well suited to help address the rural crime issues in the R.M. Schmalz told paNOW on Thursday he still planned to pursue it, but wanted first to speak to the other councilors about what practices were in place already.

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“I’m trying to determine what the state of affairs is in the R.M. as a whole. So once we have those discussions, I think we can determine where and when that can be implemented,” he said.

One of the issues that never came to head during the campaign, was the resignation of former Reeve Paul Rybka. During council’s December meeting, it was revealed that a third party investigator had found Rybka engaged in conduct contrary to the code of ethics adopted by the RM Bylaw 15 of 2016 by attempting to use his position as a Reeve to obtain a private benefit in the form of a loan or line of credit.

“I have to give congratulations to both my fellow candidates. They kept it a respectful and cordial campaign the entire way through and I think that speaks to their character,” he said.

During his opening remarks Thursday morning, Schmalz thanked all the people who voted and said he looked forward to working with council. With the exception of a few R.M. policy reviews, Schmalz’s first meeting proved not too stressful.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell