Too many resignations leave Sunbury-York South council on pause until fall
Mayor’s temporary suspension leads to lack of quorum
A municipal council just outside Fredericton is left unable to function until September after resignations and sanctions have piled too high.
Following the temporary suspension of Mayor David Hayward for 90 days, two councillors resigned in recent weeks, taking away the council quorum in Sunbury-York South.
The recent council meeting on July 10 lasted for one minute.
Acting clerk Leslie Morrell read a provincial regulation saying the council lacked quorum after the resignations of Coun. Tegan Noble on July 3 and Coun. Matthew Standish on July 9.
Morrell said the next council meeting with quorum, once Hayward returns to his role, would be Sept. 16.
The council would normally have eight members, and five are needed for a quorum. There was already a vacancy before the two councillors resigned.
Normlly, if a council lost quorum, the Local Governance Commission of New Brunswick would appoint a supervisor, but that will not happen in this case.
"Although the Mayor is suspended, he is still a member of council, and as such, council still has overall quorum," commission director Mary Oley said in an email.
The rural community was created in 2023 and includes Nasonworth, Rusagonis, Waasis, Charters Settlement, Sunpoke and Beaver Dam.
Hayward was suspended after council found he violated the code of conduct by signing a two-year lease for the municipality's office space in Oromocto without bringing it to council for an official decision.
CBC News requested copies of the two councillors' resignation letters, but Morrell said they would not be available until they are read at the next council meeting in September.
Standish was unavailable for an interview, but said in an email that he chose to resign because he was unsatisfied with how council handled suspending the mayor.
He said council received a complaint "about one of our elected members and, despite my significant concerns, Council deliberately decided to not conduct an investigation before sanctioning the member," Standish wrote.
Standish also said he was disappointed by a Facebook group that some residents created to hold the local government accountable, which he described as including misleading information
"Due to their influence, there is a risk no good people will step up to run in the elections next year, and there will be only a few individuals with obvious axes to grind," Standish wrote.
"I am very proud of the work I have done, but the toxicity and disinformation, on top of the workload, was taking too much of a toll on my family."
The Facebook group, called "Stop the Madness," has been where resident Mac Burns has shared many posts, including right to information packages he's received showing spending receipts from former CAO Marjorie Turner.
Turner was terminated by council last month, and is still facing two court charges relating to incidents where she called police on residents who came to the office seeking public documents they were legally entitled to. Turner has pleaded not guilty, and her next court appearance is Aug. 10.
CBC News sent an interview request Tuesday to Lerry DeLong, the acting mayor, and did not hear back.
CBC could not reach Tegan Noble, the other councillor who resigned.
2nd time resignations have hit council this year
While Sunbury-York South council is temporarily unable to operate, this is not the first time this year that the council has been hit with councillors leaving their positions.
In January, Coun. Susan Yarom resigned, and in March, Coun. Gilles Turner resigned. One of the vacancies was filled in an April byelection.
CBC News recently obtained their resignation letters through a right to information request, which paint a picture of challenges in the municipal government that stretch back longer than the latest resignations.
In his letter, Turner wrote that the provincewide amalgamations that led to Sunbury-York South's creation was rushed and lacked proper guidance from the province.
"The lack of transparency, communication internally and externally and the resulting division damaged our credibility and effectiveness."
Turner wrote that he made his concerns known, but "the impact of not addressing them promptly" eroded his hope for meaningful change.
Yarom's letter also called the amalgamations rushed, describing it as "something that should be done over the course of years and robust public consultations."
She also highlighted what she called disrespect toward staff and council being too shortsighted.
"There has been a single-minded focus on gutting the budget to reduce the tax rate at the expense of essential services."
Yarom ended her letter by wishing the best for council, "but I can only hope that this council rights its course before the consequences cost the community."
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