Political power struggle sparks Teulon council crisis; province takes control
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2019 (2530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Town of Teulon has once again been thrown into a political crisis after three of its five councillors resigned en masse amid a power struggle within the local government.
As a result, the town council cannot make quorum — the minimum number of elected representatives needed to make official decisions — and a byelection has been triggered.
In a letter to the Town of Teulon, Lesley McFarlane, the province’s assistant deputy minister for municipal relations, said an order of administration has been put in place, effectively ceding control of local government to the province.
Provincial municipal services officer Benjamin Lyle will assume the powers traditionally held by the town council until a byelection can be held.
“In accordance with the Municipal Act, upon the appointment of an administrator, the municipality’s chief administration officer and all remaining members of council are deemed to have resigned from office,” McFarlane wrote.
“The administrator has been directed to hold a byelection for all of the seats on Teulon’s council as soon as reasonably possible to restore local governance to the Town of Teulon.”
The provincial government has not yet said when the byelection will be held.
The news was made public when McFarlane’s letter was posted to the town’s Facebook page Wednesday.
This development comes roughly three months after council members attempted to severely limit the powers of newly elected Mayor Debbie Kozyra.
In July, the majority of council members claimed Kozyra had failed to put her public duties ahead of her personal opinions. They demanded she hand over her powers to deputy mayor Mike Ledarney via two proposed bylaw amendments.
If the changes had been successfully implemented, Kozyra would have kept the title of mayor, but would have lost the capacity to carry out the duties traditionally associated with the job.
At the time, Kozyra said the allegations against her were “unfounded and vague,” adding: “I am still the mayor of this community and have been elected by the people.”
As of Wednesday, however, Kozyra is no longer mayor.
Ledarney, Coun. Rey Girardin and Coun. Danny Hutchinson were the three members of council who resigned, sparking this latest crisis.
Teulon is a town of roughly 1,100 residents located 50 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @rk_thorpe