Michael Butler is a resident of Rothesay who ran for Council last May. As some of you know, he narrowly missed out on a council seat in a hard fought campaign. But he hasn’t let that dull his interest in municipal issues.

A six year dispute with Rothesay over actions taken with respect to a drainage ditch on his property has given Michael a unique perspective on how our town’s officials and council operate.

Here is the post from Michael that I hope councillors will read, especially the new members:

During the recent municipal election a hot topic for all candidates (including me) was Rothesay’s lack of transparency. Mayor Nancy Grant promised a new era of openness and transparency. Dr. Grant beat that drum throughout her successful campaign.

Watching the happenings in the town these recent months has left me wondering just how open this town really is. Could it be that we’re worse off now than we were with the last Council?

From my observations closed sessions of council have become an ever expanding feature of Rothesay Town Council. The last monthly meeting of council started at 4:30 pm and I’m told that it lasted for 6 hours. Given that the open session starts at 7PM sharp, just what did our council have to discuss in private for those hours prior to the open session?

The NB Municipalities Act clearly lays out what is allowed behind closed doors. That is finite and limited to items such as legal matters, land purchases and personnel matters. I can’t imagine that our Council would need more than two hours to discuss a limited range of topics like that and it begs the question – what was discussed in private that should have been in open session?

On the topic of the monthly “open session” of council, the town has not posted the minutes for any council meetings since July. Certainly, they’re not posted to their normal area and a dig through the town’s website looking for them was fruitless.

The pre-budget period of November/December is just around the corner and town residents have not been made privy to what our council has discussed as far back as August, let alone any indication of what the council priorities will be for next year. Is this an open and transparent way to run a municipality?

Town staff are responsible for posting these minutes, but it looks like they’ve been left on a very long leash here, which shouldn’t surprise. We may have changed some of our council but the same problems that existed with the last one appear to have carried over with the new. So far this current council doesn’t seem to be any more successful as a collective group in addressing the transparency issue than the previous council was.

In July’s council meeting I made a presentation to council and toward the end of that presentation I made an appeal to council for more openness when it comes to legal matters.

I suggested that Council hire a lawyer on retainer to keep themselves out of hot water and to ensure that council is fully informed of all legal matters. I was interrupted by the chair, Mayor Grant, and was told that this was a staffing matter and not open for discussion.

The town’s legal bills have long been a source of contention for many of us who closely watch the town’s actions. Currently the Town Manager appears to have pretty wide authority to engage lawyers. I believe that in some cases council is not informed when a lawyer is hired or even why.

I’ve attended several council meetings over the last year or so and I only recall one member of council asking for a detailed breakdown of the town’s legal bills – who was paid for what and why? All legitimate questions.

Then Councillor Gallagher-Jette asked the questions. But to my knowledge, they were never properly answered. In my opinion, the last Council didn’t seem concerned with how much their legal bills were or why there was a bill in the first place. It remains to be seen whether or not the current council will follow the same path.

Benjamin Franklin said, “lost time is never found again”. From what I see, the new council is slipping into the habits of the old one. They’re losing time and with it the argument that it can be a council committed to openness and transparency.

If they don’t soon address these “transparency issues”, they’ll fall into the same trap the two previous councils fell into – hunker down in the foxhole with an “us against the world” mentality, forcing residents into time-consuming and costly procedural processes and legal actions to get this Town to do what it should have done in the first place.

Then the questions will be, which councillors were the roadblock to a truly open council, why are other town councils in the area not facing these same issues and, why have successive Rothesay Councils been so easily manipulated?

The clock is ticking.