The Township has no business interfering in an RCMP probe of Mayor Rick Green, a majority of council said on Monday.
Deputy Mayor Bob Long and Councillors Mel Kositsky, Steve Ferguson and Bev Dornan voted against a motion from Councillor Charlie Fox calling for an update on the investigation.
“I think it’s inappropriate,” Kositsky said, adding that council does not get involved in RCMP investigations.
“When the RCMP is ready to bring forward information they will advise us,” Kositsky said.
Only Councillor Jordan Bateman supported Fox’s notice of motion, which had been filed two weeks earlier.
The probe, revealed in January, centres on comments which the mayor made last autumn relating to Brownshak Developments. At that time, Green revealed that in 2009 he had received an anonymous letter and copies of corporate records relating to Brownshak.
He claimed that these documents might support allegations of improper conduct by Brownshak and its principals, who were the wives of realtors Joel Schacter and Bob Bailey, and of MLA Rich Coleman and Township administrator Mark Bakken.
When the Brownshak issue first came up in 1996, then-Conflict of Interest Commissioner Ted Hughes found that allegations of conflict against Coleman (referred to in the literature received anonymously by Green) were without foundation.
In 1997 and 2010, the Township’s legal counsel reviewed the Brownshak matter and found no wrongdoing by any of the parties.
Brownshak was a limited company, and its only purchase was an Aldergrove townhouse.
Green has denied any wrongdoing. “If there is an investigation under way, I am more than happy to let it run its course. It will be proved that I did absolutely nothing wrong,” he said in January.
He added: “It’s really sad and unfortunate that members of council are wasting their time on this. In my opinion, it’s a non-issue.”
Green did not attend the meeting, from which Councillors Kim Richter and Grant Ward were also absent.
Green was absent due of the serious illness of a family member.
