Woman irked with RM De Salaberry

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2014 (4322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A frustrated Otterburne ratepayer has had enough with what she claims is an incompetent RM of De Salaberry.

Marie Lefevre, the public face of the Otterburne Ratepayers Association (ORPA), has enlisted Manitoba’s ombudsman, who investigates public complaints against governments, to look into two instances where she believes council did not follow proper procedure.

The RM of De Salaberry, in response, claims Lefevre is only attacking the municipality because she is bitter after not being re-elected.

In a provincial ombudsman report published in late May, Lefevre alleged a council member approved a road repair expenditure of $5,025 without proper authority and that she was treated unfairly by the RM when she questioned the expense.

The ombudsman, however, ruled the council member did not violate The Municipal Act, but that the email was unnecessarily bitter.

That correspondence, penned by deputy reeve Gerry Maynard, helps illustrate the longstanding frustration held between the municipality and Lefevre. The Carillon received more than a dozen documents from Lefevre detailing numerous arguments between the two parties over the past four years.

Maynard’s letter was scathing in its conclusion.

“I choose to ignore your phantom organization that you hide behind to spew your venom trying to poison this council,” Maynard wrote.

 

Read more on the ongoing dispute, and the reason behind the second ombudsman report, in the July 10 edition of The Carillon.