ATHABASCA — Anyone has the right to say anything, within reason and your employer can limit what you say which may reflect poorly on them.
So, it comes as a surprise Spruce Grove Coun. Erin Stevenson took to her official Twitter Aug. 7 posting a thread of around 30 tweets bashing the Alberta government, Advance Education minister Demetrios Nicolaides and disparaging the Athabasca region, all while saying she works at Athabasca University (AU).
“For now, I think leave things the way they are. I think to some degree, everyone needs to dial things down a bit here,” said Town of Athabasca mayor Rob Balay in an Aug. 14 phone call. “That's gonna be my approach.”
It wasn’t the approach former mayor Colleen Powell took though, as she sent City of Spruce Grove mayor Jeff Acker an e-mail.
“My complaint was simple; it's that if you are using a councillor name or handle on an argument or a discussion, that really has nothing to do with your municipality then you are using that for extra influence,” Powell said Aug. 14. “You should be using a private account. The other thing you need to know is that she works in the university as a marketing manager.”
Where other AU staff are afraid of saying anything pubically for fear of retribution Stevenson is towing AU president Peter Scott’s line of leave Athabasca or perish.
“My second point was her comments are virtually the same as the comments that have been put out by the university president,” Powell said. “She's working as a marketing manager; she works in marketing effectively in what we used to call public affairs at the university.”
The third point Powell made is Stevenson is in breach of the City of Spruce Grove councillor code of conduct.
“Councillors are to be free from undue influence and not act or appear to act in order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, family, friends or associates, business or otherwise,” reads Article 9.2.
And 9.5 says, “Councillors shall not engage in any activity that is incompatible or inconsistent with the ethical discharge of a Councillor’s duties and obligations as an elected official or board member in the City of Spruce Grove.”
In Article 11, Improper Use of Influence, 11.1 reads, “No Councillor shall use their influence of their office for any purpose other than for the exercise of their duties” and 11.2 says, “No Councillor shall grant any special consideration, preferential treatment or advantage to any person or organization based solely on the identity of the person(s) or organization(s).”
Powell said she hasn’t heard back from Acker, but Athabasca County reeve Brian Hall spoke with him.
“This is definitely outside her role as a councillor, it's unprofessional,” Hall said Aug. 14. “In (Article) 3.6 ‘you shall not make a statement you know to be false.’ She has a statement in (Twitter) that she either knows or ought to know, is false.”
In a couple of tweets Stevenson mentions jobs, namely where is AU going to hire 500 staff after the mass exodus when people are forced to relocate, where are the spouses going to work, and there aren't qualified people in Athabasca.
“That has never been the push of the lobby group, it's never been about trying to hire local people," Hall said. “It's typical AU misdirection so, when you look at the thread of all the stuff they do, they throw in this other stuff like ‘we will continue to focus on serving our students,’ well, nobody has ever suggested they do otherwise."
One tweet in particular caught Hall’s eye: “Keep a small town alive when they need to seriously ask what they’ve done to keep their economic growth going as well as how they support the university. It is not as much as people may think."
“No. 1, it's not their job to tell the town what to do but if I were talking to her, I would say ‘What have you done for the economic growth of Spruce Grove? It's not as much as you think.’ What she has done is what every other councillor does, they build on the foundation of the people before them,” said Hall.
“I can give you 30 million things that we've done to help with AU’s economic growth. It's called the ARC building. AU was outgrowing their space and the community rallied behind them and lobbied the government and the end result of that whole process was in 2010 a $30 million dollar building that today sits empty.”
His discussion with Acker went well though.
“I did speak with Mayor Acker and I'm confident that he understands my concerns regarding the unprofessional conduct of Coun. Erin Stevenson.”
Acker did not return a request for comment by press time.
