The print issue of the Boundary Creek Times misquoted Councillor Noll. The correct quote is, "I know what I did wrong." We apologize for the error.
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“Under legal advice I will not attend any in-camera meetings at this time without legal representation,” Greenwood councillor Barry Noll told the rest of city council as they prepared to go in-camera following the regular public meeting on Monday, Feb. 24.
This prepared statement was in response to Noll being removed as the city’s regional district representative by the rest of council at a special in-camera meeting held on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
No one is saying anything more.
“If I was to say what it is about, I would be breaching confidentiality,” said Mayor Nipper Kettle when asked to comment on Monday morning.
When asked how the community is helped by removing Noll, the mayor side-stepped the question, saying only, “It was decided that Councillor Noll has been acting on his own without the authority of council.”
Other members of council have confirmed that the vote was unanimous to remove Noll.
Noll was out of town and not present at the Feb.19 meeting. “We tried on several occasions to get a time that fit,” Kettle told the Times.
Minutes of that special meeting state that the meeting was moved in-camera under section 117 of the Community Charter, “Duty to respect confidentiality”.
“According to the minutes the meeting needed to be in-camera because the subject of the violation related to information that would normally be in-camera under section 90 (l)(c) “labour relations or other employee relations”, and 90 (l) (k) “negotiations and related discussions respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages and that, in the view of council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public”.
The minutes recorded that council considered action to be undertaken because of a breach of section 117, and that a motion was passed to release the decision reached by council, which was that Noll be removed as representative of the City of Greenwood with the RDKB board and committees effective immediately.
Section 117 of the community charter requires a council member or former council member must (unless specifically authorized otherwise by council):
(a) keep in confidence any record held in confidence by the municipality, until the record is released to the public as lawfully authorized or required; and
(b) keep in confidence information considered in any part of a council meeting or council committee meeting that was lawfully closed to the public, until the council or committee discusses the information at a meeting that is open to the public or releases the information to the public.
Last Monday night’s regular council meeting was attended by all members of council. At the close of the public portion of that meeting, council voted to go in-camera under Section 90 (l)(e) of the Community Charter—“the acquisition, disposition or expropriation of land or improvements, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the community.”
As the public and press were gathering their belongings, Noll read his statement and left council chambers.
“I don’t know what I did wrong,” said Noll, declining to make further comment.
The mayor said this relates to Noll’s position at the regional district table only.
He has replaced Noll at the regional district position; Councillor Darla Ashton is the alternate.