Following an unruly meeting Tuesday, the Union Bay Improvement District’s Annual General Meeting has been cancelled until further notice.
The AGM was in the calendar for Thursday evening, but board chair Ted Haraldson released a statement that the meeting has been cancelled “for the safety of landowners, trustees, staff and consultants.”
This statement came after Tuesday’s gathering of board members, staff and community members which resulted in arguments before the scheduled committee of the whole meeting even started.
According to Haraldson’s statement, the intention of the meeting was to give the Oath of Office to Paul Healey and Hein Vandenberg, the two successful candidates of the recent election. Results of the 2018 audit were also to be discussed in a closed meeting.
Healey and Vandenberg declined to be sworn in at Tuesday’s meeting and have chosen to be sworn in following the AGM.
According to Union Bay’s bylaws, the inaugural meeting must be held following the AGM but no later than 30 days after.
In a recording of Tuesday’s meeting obtained by the Record, Susanna Kaljur and administrator Gordon Mason were in a disagreement about the timing of the inaugural meeting. Kaljur did not think it was appropriate to have the new trustees sworn in before the AGM.
The disagreements escalated and resulted in Tuesday’s meeting ending within minutes of it starting. Haraldson’s release states that three staff members had to leave the office and the RCMP were called.
According to Haraldson, the AGM will be rescheduled once he has had the opportunity to discuss with the province a way to move UBID forward safely, such as appointing a Ministry facilitator to moderate the AGM.
“The issue of forceful outbursts and disruption of UBID public meetings has been ongoing for the past decade and the public meeting environment has to improve for the landowners of Union Bay,” he said.
Thursday morning, Union Bay’s 2018 audited financial statements were made available on their website and can be viewed here. The statements were to be discussed at the AGM.
The chief administrative officer report, public works report and fire rescue services report can be accessed here.