- Start playing the video
- Click CC at bottom right
- Click the gear icon to its right
- Click Subtitles/CC
- Click Auto-translate
- Select language you want
Council's Legal Issues Spark Argument At Meeting
ARICHAT - A payment to a Halifax legal firm that covered two Richmond County municipal councilors' legal fees in a Nova Scotia Supreme Court case this past spring led to an argument among those in attendance at the county's Committee of the Whole meeting.
During a review of checks issued in June, July and August by the municipality, District Five councilor Jason MacLean demanded to know the details behind a payment issued on June 18 to the Halifax-based law firm Cox and Palmer.
"That is a fee that we paid to Cox and Palmer in defense of a conflict of interest charge that was made on two councillors," explained Richmond Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Don Marchand. "That is a motion that was put before council, and it was approved by council, and we paid it."
MacLean then noted that the municipality has been involved in several high-profile legal cases during the past council term, many of them involving former municipal staff that were dismissed by municipal councilors. Most recently, the municipality confirmed that it had reached a settlement of $33,518.25, plus $5,000 for legal costs, with former CAO Kent MacIntyre, who was dismissed by council only 13 months into a five-year contract in the spring of 2019. Following a 3-2 vote by council to terminate MacIntyre's contract, councilors Brian Marchand, Gilbert Boucher and Alvin Martell escorted MacIntyre to his office and ordered him to surrender his keys and all other similar items before leaving the building for the last time.
In light of these developments, MacLean put forward a motion at last week's Committee of the Whole meeting to have municipal staff provide a detailed report on all legal cases involving Richmond County over the past four years, as well as the exact costs for acquiring legal counsel for these cases.
When MacLean's motion received no seconders, rendering it defeated, the District Five councilor blasted his colleagues for touting "transparency" while refusing to come clean on the municipality's legal troubles over the past four years. That led District One councilor James Goyetche to chastise MacLean for not consulting with him before bringing up the issue at council.
"Do you want me to call you to have an individual conversation about this? I'm not doing that," MacLean shot back.
Add new comment
TV TELILE is a unique community television station in Nova Scotia. They are found on Channel 10 using an antenna, Channel 4 on the EastLink cable system in western Richmond County, and on Channel 5 on the Seaside cable system in eastern Richmond County. They are also on the Seaside cable system along Eastern Cape Breton from New Waterford and Glace Bay to Louisbourg and St Peters, and is now on the Bell Satellite system on Channel 536!
TELILE seeks the stories, achievements and scenes of our local neighborhood. We also enjoy joining with other communities in story, music and song.
Whether we are at a high school graduation, a summer festival, concerts, grand openings, municipal council meetings or just showing the beauty of our island, we celebrate our culture.
Recent Media
The Record Ep. 71
Strait Talk Ep. 70
The Record Ep. 70
We encourage comments which further the dialogue about the stories we post. Comments will be moderated and posted if they follow these guidelines:
The Community Media Portal reserves the right to reject any comments which do not adhere to these minimum standards.