'We lost our voice': Residents left baffled after RM of St. Andrews mayor stripped of powers

Residents walked away baffled after an emergency meeting was held in the rural municipality of St. Andrews that saw the mayor removed as chair of council and stripped of her ability to act as a spokesperson for the community.

"An attack against our MayorJoy [Sul]is an attack on the residents," said Lou Morissette, who has lived in St. Andrews since 2014.

"We lost our voice, we elected her to do a job and clearly the group of five will not allow her to do that."

Joy Sul was elected mayor in October of last year with more than 61 per cent of the vote. In the past several months, there has been division between the mayor and five of the six councillors, who residents call 'the group of five.'

On Monday afternoon, an emergency meeting was held at the municipal office in Clandeboye, Man. to vote for a new council chair and designate a new municipal spokesperson jobs that were previously held by the mayor.

The sixth councillor, and only other woman on council, Kristin Hoebee voted in support of the mayor but lost to the group of male councillors.

The group also voted to add another signing authority, and discussed new media and press-release procedures.

"It's what we felt had to happen in order for us to move forward in a positive fashion," said Deputy Mayor John Preun, who was voted as the new chair and spokesperson for the municipality.

"We were stuck in a rut," he said.

"We were having one issue alone, the wastewater issue, come up at every meeting and we couldn't move past it, so we felt that taking this direction would help free us from that."

'I still don't have answers'

Dozens of people packed into council chambers hoping to hear the reasons behind the move but were left with little explanation.

"I came here looking for answers to see why this was happening and I still don't have the answers," said resident Sid Prokipchuk.

"I find it to be disturbing, it's disgusting, I just can't make heads or tails of what's happening here."

Some residents felt the councillors were being allowed to override the people's choice for mayor.

"Joy Sul was elected by a landslide victory so the fact that they're making decisions seemingly against what the people wanted doesn't sound very democratic to me," said Gayle DeGagne.

"I would think she would have had to do something illegal for this to happen."

Not a gender issue, councillors say

Specific reasons for the upheaval weren't given, only that the five councillors could not see eye-to-eye with the mayor and felt they had no other choice.

"After numerous attempts to try and make her a better leader and a better person, it wasn't working out for us, and we weren't moving ahead as we thought we should," said Preun.

"It was a very combative atmosphere, very antagonistic and there's not one person that is not responsible for it, we all were responsible for it, but as leader of the group she couldn't steer us back on the right path," he said.

But Sul said she felt there was an element of discrimination.

"It's been for a while now, the group of five against the two women," said Sul.

"I think it's egos, big egos," she said.

"There is difficulty with some males taking direction from a woman."

Councillors disagreed with that sentiment.

"It was never a gender-related issue, it always had to do with the policies and the issues at hand," said Preun.

Hoebee, who voted in support of the mayor, said while she felt saddened by what happened, it wasn't about being a woman.

"For me, I don't feel it's a gender-related issue, I feel it is a policy-related issue and it just so happens that I happen to be female and the mayor happens to be female," she said.

Following Teulon example, mayor says

Sul said the move to diminish her role mirrored what happened to another female mayor in Teulon earlier this year, who had her powers stripped by councillors there. Three of the councillors later resigned, forcing a by-election.

"The province should have stepped in because of Teulon, that is unprecedented, this is new to everybody" said Sul of the move, which appears to be within the scope of the Municipal Act.

"It's not right, there's an election for a reason, there's an election for mayor and there's an election for councillors," she said.

Sul expressed regret that the situation came to this point and said the energy spent working against her could have been used to address issues facing the community.

"This was a difficult meeting, our residents deserve so much better, and today should have never happened," she said.

'This is a real coup'

Sul's lawyer, Norman Boudreau was at the meeting andsaid he felt there was grounds for a judicial review, because the emergency meeting seemed to be in violation of the RM's own bylaws.

"If you're talking about a coup, this is a real coup," said Boudreau.

"It's taking away the mayor's power, the mayor's position, by using the Municipal Act," he said. "This is not the spirit and intent of the Municipal Act."

Boudreau said allowing the act to be used in this way sets a bad precedent.

"From this point on, any mayor that is appointed could be very well and easily removed," he said.

"Democracy is in a very poor state of affairs in Manitoba if this is to stand."

Residents at the meeting said they felt discounted as voters andfelt they had no recourse other than to wait till the next election.

"I don't know what we can do," said Prokipchuk.

"Everybody gets voted in wait till the next election, the people can speak their minds again."