Cochrane Coun. Marni Fedeyko surprised her colleagues at the council meeting on Sep. 11 by giving them advance notification that she was going to bring forward a formal notice of motion asking them to vote publicly on whether or not they support CAO Mike Derricott.
That vote would take place at the next council meeting if approved.
“I’m bringing a notice of motion for a public vote as to whether each council member remains confident in the leadership direction under Mr. Derricott,” Fedeyko said at the meeting.
Fedeyko added that her motivation in raising the issue of Derricott’s leadership in such a public forum was not personal in nature.
“Accountability is one of the organizational corporate values I take seriously as an elected official. This is the only way for the public at large to know where each individual councillor may stand.”
In what amounted to a ‘notice of notice’ of motion, Fedeyko raised it Monday as a way to give council a heads-up of her intention.
That being said,there is no guarantee the publicly recorded vote on Derricott’s leadership will ever take place, as council has to first vote in favour of the motion to have a recorded vote when it is officially brought forward.
Fedeyko said she had some supporting documents she will be able to make available should council agree to go ahead with her idea at the next meeting Sep. 25.
The deadline for councillors to submit notices of motion is the Thursday before a regular council meeting.
A councillor can make a motion to introduce any new matter only if notice is given at a previous regular council meeting.
In a post-meeting interview Fedeyko said that after listening to a group of concerned citizens earlier that day, it became clear to her that “more than just a few” residents are upset with the current administration.
“A lot are frustrated with leadership, with the lack of communication, not being able to get answers,” she said.
Some of the members of the public she talked towere just as angry and frustrated with council as they are with administration, and she added she’s aware that only people with beefs come to these types of meetings.
“It’s a small percentage of the population, but everybody’s opinion needs to be heard,”she said.
Her push to have a vote on the CAO is not motivated by any wish for termination or censure, Fedeyko explained, but more to have a public sounding board for council to make it known where they stand on Derricott’s leadership.
“Over the past six months, I’ve really struggled with the accountability,” she said.
Fedeyko said residents continually ask her what she’s going to do about the perceived problems with the Town’s administration, and that’s how she arrived at this approach.
She cited a couple of examples of things that people are complaining to her about: Derricott’s expense claims (previously described in an Eagle story) and a recent audit that discovered the Town had misinterpreted the rules behind a federal grant that, had it not been uncovered in the nick of time by an outside auditor, would have meant some $5.86 million would have had to have been withdrawn from reserves.
Coun. Morgan Nagel was clearly not pleased with what he was hearing at the July 10 council meeting where the grant error was revealed and explained, as he asked administration: “Am I to understand that an auditor has discovered there is up to a $5 million shortfall in our budget that administration was not aware of?” he asked.
As a result of the mixup, Glenbow residents will have to wait until next year for badly-needed infrastructure improvements, as the project will have to go through all the budgetary red tape all over again.
The lowest bidding contractor had already been named but – luckily for the Town – the contract had not been officially awarded. The contractor is reportedly “not pleased.”
“Unfortunately, I think a lot of people in the community have lost trust,” Fedeyko said. “They’ve lost trust in me, and in council.”
Derricott was watching from the gallery as Fedeyko made her notice.
In an interview with The Eagle the day after the meeting, he said he didn’t take it personally, and he’s confident the majority of council will support him when the issue comes up again.
“When you’re in this job, you serve at the grace of council always, on behalf of the community, so it is a pretty active dynamic always – not usually as active as it was last night,” he said.
He said council members often value what he brings to the table, and at other times some may not always have the same opinion.
“I believe the work I am doing and my team has done and is doing is good, solid work on behalf of the community, and (it) bears fruit,” he said.
“I’m going to continue to whole-heartedly invest in the future of this community until someone tells me not to anymore.”
