ATHABASCA – A local municipal leader was told he needed to apologize after a January phone call left a school board trustee feeling intimidated in the lead up to a major decision.
Athabasca County council voted 5-4 on June 27 to require reeve Brian Hall to apologize to Aspen View School District, council, and the municipality’s administration after he called his local school board trustee in January regarding the closure of the Rochester School.
Councillors Tracy Holland, Gary Cromwell, Kelly Chamzuk, Joe Gerlach and Rob Minns voted in favour of the motion, while Hall and councillors Ashtin Anderson, Natasha Kapitaniuk and Camille Wallach were opposed.
The vote came council reviewed a third-party investigator’s report on the incident in the closed session portion of the meeting – a report which Hall said exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
“I accept the investigator’s conclusions that I did not breach the code of conduct, and because of that, and because I’ve already apologized to the affected school board trustee, there’s not much more to say,” said Hall in a July 10 interview.
“I believed I had made a sufficient effort to clarify that I was calling in the capacity as a parent after having introduced myself as, ‘Brian Hall, a parent in your district,’ but clearly that effort fell short.
“I regret that I was not clearer on that. The fact remains, I am a parent and I spoke to my school board trustee. I regret that a call that was described by all trustees as short and respectful has created this level of difficulty.”
An initial motion to accept the investigator's report and deem the matter closed was defeated in a 5-4 vote, split along the same lines as above.
Holland, who moved the motion forcing Hall to apologize, declined to comment on the matter, while Cromwell said he was happy with the decision.
“All I can tell you is, I voted with my conscience, what I believe was right, and in the best interest of our municipality,” said Cromwell, who cited the confidential nature of closed-session discussion as a reason he couldn’t discuss it further.
“I stand by the decision council made as a whole, to proceed the way we did."
What happened?
Hall’s call to trustee Brenda Fulmore was detailed in a letter sent by Aspen View Public Schools board chair Candy Nikipelo to all nine county councillors on Feb. 12.
In the letter, Nikipelo said the board felt the conversation, which centered around a Jan. 16 Rochester School Council meeting, was inappropriate for two reasons.
“It is inappropriate for an elected official to question the actions or decisions of the Board of Trustees, other than by formally contacting the board chair,” wrote Nikipelo.
“While the trustee acknowledges that the conversation was short and respectful, the unexpected nature of the conversation, as well as the timing of the conversation, was interpreted as an attempt to intimidate the trustee prior to the Rochester School decision.”
Aspen View did not file the letter as an official Code of Conduct complaint and didn’t name Hall in its initial letter.
Nikipelo wrote: “After careful consideration, our Board unanimously passed a motion to advise all councillors of this incident, to allow (Athabasca) County Council to collectively address the matter as they deem appropriate.
County councillors referred the letter to an investigator on Feb. 29. At their March 12 meeting, councillors voted against a motion to contact Aspen View and request they make the original email a formal complaint so it may be investigated.
On March 14, Nikipelo sent a follow-up email expressing the board’s willingness to work with a third-party investigator.
