For the second time in less than a month Dryden Council has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Closed Meeting Investigator Paul Heayn was asked to look into an August 15th meeting at the Holiday Inn involving four councillors, Mayor Greg Wilson and two candidates running in the upcoming election.
Darren Trist took his complaint of “a closed meeting” to the Ontario Ombudsman who directed it right back to the City.
Trist told Heayn that he was told about the meeting by a third party.
The investigator spoke to all involved and even Councillors who weren’t in the room and discovered that the meeting was an information session involving political expert Tannis Drysdale, who was providing tips on how to properly run a municipal election campaign.
One of the new candidates asked her to speak and not everyone was invited to the meeting.
Heayn says no municipal business was discussed and no rules were broken.
The City of Dryden will be responsible for paying for the investigation and the money will come from its legal budget.
Some on Council are expressing extreme frustration after going through another investigation, noting this is doing nothing but wasting taxpayer dollars.
Here is the findings from the Closed Meeting Investigator: “It is clear to me that the meeting held on August 15th, 2018 in which five members of the Dryden Council were in attendance, was NOT a Council meeting. I am quite confident that there was no municipal business discussed at this meeting. The meeting was a private meeting where invitees, friends and colleagues attended at the favour of those arranging the training session on how to run a municipal campaign. The organizer(s) are quite within their rights to invite whomever they want”.
Paul Heayn issued no recommendations for Council.
Complete Report HERE: http://ckdr.net/sites/default/files/ClosedMtgRport.pdf
