At the Oct. 5 meeting of Boyle village council, councillor Sam Assaf made a point to bring up a number of concerns over ongoing issues that he feels may act as a detriment to council and its dealings.
In an agenda item dubbed “council conduct,” Assaf brought up a number of complaints and points he has heard from residents coming into his business.
The first issue, he said, was that he has been getting flak over an alleged vote split between new councillors Roger Hall and David Bencharsky, and incumbents Mike Antal, Mayor Don Radmanovich and Assaf himself.
“They say every time you two have a proposal, the three of us turn you guys down,” he said.
Hall responded that there was no issue now that the public has access to council votes, which show any splits.
Both Radmanovich and Antal agreed that the idea of block voting and consistent splitting was a rumour that held no water.
“We’re all our own people,” Antal said the next day, adding that he too received complaints from taxpayers, as he owns a business open to the public. “That’s why we decided to record votes.”
In a phone interview the following day, Bencharsky said that he did not think it had to do with vote splitting, but more of an overall attitude of disregard to the two new councillors.
“It’s the half truths and the stuff they don’t tell us. The communication is lousy,” he said, citing the most recent meeting where he did not receive information beforehand about the delegation coming in.
The next point of concern for Assaf was that someone had been leaking confidential information from in-camera sessions.
“This is very dangerous,” he said, citing in-camera information from last meeting being on the street the next morning.
All councillors agreed that the release of information was a troubling trend.
Mayor Don Radmanovich said this topic was of particular importance to council and its business.
“This is very disturbing to me,” he said.
Assaf’s third point to make was negative attention brought towards village staff, particularly public works.
He said that since their election Hall and Bencharsky have brought up employee issues to meetings when it should not be their concern.
“The CAO and superintendent look after the staff,” he said the next day.
Antal agreed that “nobody is there to be a detective,” and it was not right to nitpick staff, adding that those tendencies create tensions between the village and its staff.
There was clearly disagreement as to council’s role in staffing issues, though.
At a meeting in August, Bencharsky clashed with Public Works Superintendent Dennis Tomuschat, claiming summer students were not wearing the required safety equipment. Tomuschat denied the accusation.
“It took meeting after meeting to finally get my point through that something had to be done,” Bencharsky said. “I almost had to pull teeth to get something done.”
The fourth and final point Assaf brought up was pointed directly at Hall.
He claimed that residents had been consistently complaining about raised utility rates, which ran contrary to an election platform Hall had made last year.
Assaf said he had not promised such things yet was still getting flak over what another councillor had promised.
Hall responded that he had pledged to work for the people, and that if residents had a problem over the work he did for council that they should approach him, and not through hearsay brought to council.
Overall, Assaf said he wanted to make his point and have it be done with.
“I’m not coming back to it anymore, we need to move on,” he said. “I hope this town will work hard for everybody.”
The next day, Antal added that there are “a lot of hard feelings from years gone by,” and council needs to get over that.
Bencharsky said that regardless of what happens, council will continue plugging away to get things done for the village.
Radmanovich, who was concerned about how the apparent divisiveness in council “creates a great deal of mistrust,” said he hopes council can move past its differences.
“Keep your private agendas at home and work towards improving and promoting our Village as a good place to live, work, and play,” he said in an email. “It is time to move on and think of the future, not dwell in the past.”
Hall was not available for follow-up comments.
