Chestermere City Council accepted one of two required apology letters from Councillor Laurie Bold at the May 7 council meeting.
The requirement for a public letter of apology came after Bold was deemed to have contravened the Elected Officials Code of Conduct bylaw in January of this year.
Bold was instructed by two council resolutions made at a special meeting on April 17 to complete two letters.
The first resolution was for, “inappropriate behaviour in council meetings,” and, “behaviour that created an unproductive or poisoned work environment,” for, “inappropriate use of social media,” and finally, “failure to treat staff with courtesy and respect.”
“The letter of apology is in accordance with the first resolution,” said Chestermere’s Mayor Marshall Chalmers.
Both the letter of apology and minutes of the special meeting were read into the minutes of the May 7 council meeting.
The second resolution demanded a letter of apology from Bold to Councillor Yvette Wagner for the, “publication of libelous statements on social media.”
The deadline for the letter to be delivered to the Mayor was May 1 which did not occur.
When asked by members of the public during question period about the missing second letter of apology, Chalmers said that council has not yet had a chance to address it.
“Specific to the second resolution…council has not had an opportunity to have the discussion in regards to that,” he said.
“There’s no timeline for us to do that,” said Chalmers, “we will address it on our own timeline.”
He also stated that council will use the processes laid out in the code of conduct to resolve this issue.
“It’s a personnel matter and it’ll be treated as such and we will follow the code of conduct,” said Chalmers.
Several members of the public, including former members of city council, attended the May 7 meeting and addressed council during question period about the contravention of the code of conduct by Bold and council’s response.
Former City Councillor Stu Hutchison addressed the issue during the first public question period.
He admitted to having made comments that were off side during his time on council.
“Sometimes you say things you don’t really mean,” he said.
“When I went home and reflected on what I said…I didn’t need anybody to issue me a directive to make things right.
“I found it in my heart of hearts to go back and sit on my chair and say I’m sorry…for what I did to you in public, I did it in public and I will apologize to you in public,” said Hutchison.
His question was whether the Mayor or Councillor Bold would publicly read the letter aloud in the meeting.
While the letter was discussed and accepted by council during the meeting, it was not read aloud.
