Council purge at Redwood Meadows continues, as two more axed

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When Redwood Meadows welcomed a brand new city council in October 2021, members of the foothills neighborhood west of Calgary elected seven residents to steer the administration of the city web site.

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Simply over a yr later, solely a type of council members stays on the desk, after residents continued a battle over the city’s governance by firing two council members at a Jan. 31 assembly and changing them with two former council members who helped obtained across the group of dissidents who insist on the purge.

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The eviction is the fruits of months of discord in Redwood Meadows that started over allegations of economic negligence — significantly round investments in a rugby discipline and skating rink — and grew into an more and more bitter dispute that led to the firing of the city’s mayor, George Allen. included.

Allen, in the meantime, charged that the standoff surrounded a dispute over issues with the city’s water remedy system and included threats and intimidation.

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Paul Sawler, a part of the residents’ group that campaigned for the council’s turnover and a brand new councillor, mentioned he hoped the village web site may start to place the dispute behind them.

“I might say you may really feel an actual sigh of reduction from the neighborhood,” mentioned Sawler, a former Redwood Meadows mayor.

“There was a big quantity of spending that befell, and so they weren’t held accountable for it, so the neighborhood actually took motion into their very own fingers.”

One councilor from the latest normal election stays

Redwood Meadows is exclusive in Alberta because the province’s solely partially unbiased city web site. In contrast to a municipality, the neighborhood of about 1,200 folks has society standing as a result of it leases land from the Tsuut’ina First Nation.

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The city web site operates via a municipal-style city council, however members of society – or residents – also can vote on restructuring that council in particular normal conferences just like the one held on January 31.

At that assembly, 228 private residents and 245 proxies voted to interchange Mike Decore and Dan Foster on the council with Sawler and Glen Van Camp.

They be a part of councilmen Gord Tate and Dave Dunay, each elected in a July 2022 by-election, Sam Jackson, elected in a January by-election, and Glen Dzus – the one remaining council member from the final normal election, and Redwood Meadows’ present interim mayor.

“This neighborhood’s neighborhood members have selected a method ahead. We as their board will respect their route and transfer ahead, guided by their needs,” Dzus mentioned in an emailed assertion to Postmedia on Sunday.

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Group members beforehand voted to take away the board in November, however had been opposed by then-Mayor Allen.

Allen didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Sunday, nor did the opposite newly ousted board members.

‘Purported to be one thing on the neighborhood stage’

Provincial officers beforehand mentioned they might not intervene within the malfunction at Redwood Meadows as a result of the neighborhood is ruled below the Associations Act, not the Municipalities Act.

Sawler mentioned it was disappointing to see the foothills neighborhood, higher recognized for its bucolic golf course, seize headlines over the council upheaval.

“I do not assume any of us wished to see the neighborhood within the information about this. It was speculated to be a community-level factor, and it did not get tousled till the previous council, the one which was simply voted out, mainly defied the desire of the folks,” Sawler mentioned.

—With recordsdata from Invoice Kaufmann

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring