Richmond councillors must fix 'culture of dysfunction,' says business group
Businesses in and around Richmond County, N.S., are calling on the municipal council to clean up its act or resign.
In a split decision, council recently voted to fire its chief administrative officer, and the warden subsequently stepped down from that position in protest.
The council has also voted down tourism initiatives and indicated its intention to withdraw from regional economic development and planning agencies.
This week, the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to councillors asking them to reverse those plans.
The letter, which was also sent to the premier and the minister of Municipal Affairs, also recommends council seek help from the province with conflict resolution and conflict of interest.
The chamber said if council can't fix its "culture of dysfunction and mistrust," it should resign.
Amanda Mombourquette, the chamber's executive director, said the letter was drafted with the help of dozens of businesses in the area asking the chamber to step in.
"It is strong wording, but where that's coming from is from speaking with members," she said.
"The level of dissatisfaction with the recent decisions of council … they're pretty dissatisfied with it. They're telling us it is impacting their business. They have legitimate concerns."
Mombourquette said the chamber canvassed a cross-section of the membership to see how big the problem was. She said up to 40 expressed "extreme dissatisfaction" with Richmond council.
Concerns about business reputation
Shauna Austin, a chamber member and owner of the Clairestone Inn in Arichat, said council's recent actions could hurt the area's business reputation.
"I think where we're coming from in asking the council to resign is that we cannot seem to see how they can manage to function as a council, as an entity, when there seems to be so much dysfunction," she said.
"It's too early to say what the direct effect [on my business] is, but there is no question in my mind that it will have a direct effect in the coming months or years, you know, if this were to continue this way."
The strongly worded letter was intended to get council to consider ways to protect the municipality from long-term damage to its reputation, said Mombourquette.
The chamber has also asked for a meeting with council, but by Thursday afternoon it had not received a reply, she said.
"At the end of the day, what we really want is to be able to work together to solve this, to be able to rebuild public trust.
"We want Richmond County to have a really well-functioning local government. We want it to have a really strong business climate."
Meeting Tuesday
The acting warden and acting CAO did not return calls for comment.
Richmond council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The agenda includes election of a new warden and deputy warden from among the five councillors.
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