(Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Council Controversy

P.A. city council divided physically and ideologically

May 21, 2020 | 5:20 PM

Separate locations for participants of council meetings is proving to be another barrier to communication for an already divided Prince Albert city council.

Since last month some councillors have been in the chambers while others have been on phone lines, based on protocols around a ten-person gathering limit in a room.

It got particularly messy Monday night when proceedings descended into confusion.

During the last item of the meeting, Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp – who was on a poor quality phone line – moved a motion to suspend water shut-offs to homes without smart meters and asked the director of finance to answer what the financial impacts of the move would be.

Mayor Greg Dionne – who was in the chambers – offered his input. He then called on the next councillor on the speaker’s list, at which point Lennox-Zepp called a point of order. She wanted an answer to her question. Dionne said they had already discussed the issue heavily earlier in the meeting.

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A procedural mess ensued as Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick stood up to assert that in challenging the Mayor’s decision to move on, Lennox-Zepp has triggered a vote on whether the mayor was right to dismiss her question.

After nearly five minutes of squabbling, during which the councillors on the phone line at times couldn’t hear the people in the room and visa versa, votes were tallied. The five councillors in the room sided with the Mayor, while the three on the phones, voted against his ruling.

Debate continued, but when it was Lennox-Zepp’s turn to speak again, she repeated her question to the director, but the mayor refused.

When it came time for the final vote, the city’s politicians once again voted along their lines of location. The motion to suspend water shut-offs was defeated 6-3.

“I found it very shocking and strange,” Lennox-Zepp told paNOW after the meeting. “The fact that Mayor and council had a vote tonight to refuse to hear the answer to the question what would the impact to the city be really gives you the answer that there is a problem here with our decision-making process.”

Meanwhile Dionne maintained that councillors had already had ample time to question the Director of Finance about smart meter installation and utility shut-offs earlier in the meeting.

“The director was here, we had a great debate about it,” he said. “You can’t just keep bringing people back.”

Tensions around the Prince Albert council table are well documented and surfaced most recently during a high profile March meeting which saw two councillors walk out during proceedings.

Dionne acknowledged his council has communication issues.

“Half the problem is when you have three councillors that are on teleconferencing,” Dionne said. “I did hear afterwards that the Clerk said [Lennox-Zepp] didn’t hear some of the things I said or I didn’t hear what she said and that’s what caused the controversy and then it frustrated other members of council because we wouldn’t move on the so that’s why [Ogrodnick] called for a vote.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom