WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE???

LSARA has made several requests to obtain the Lac Ste. Anne Policy Handbook and any Policy relating to the Disposition of County Assets. Robert Osmond, Assistant County Manager and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Lac Ste. Anne County replied to us in a email dated February 27 2018; 

"Further to your request for a copy of a disposal of capital assets policy, Lac Ste. Anne County does not have such a policy. However, policy 265-1, Disposition of County Owned Lands, does speaks exclusively to land disposals.   The policy lays out Council's policy direction for land disposals. Administration is preparing a report to Council, regarding this policy, for the March 8th Council meeting. Further information about the policy will be available to LSARA at that time."

WHY are council just being appraised of potential for conflict with policies now?  Why wasn’t all this completed prior to the December 19th, 2017 List date as it should of been?

In that email he also stated,

"With regard to your repeated request for a copy of the LSAC Policy Handbook, Lac Ste. Anne County is currently undergoing a thorough review and restructuring of our Municipal Governance Documents (MGD), which includes all Policies, Procedures, Directives, and Bylaws.  In concurrence with the new Municipal Government Act amendments, we intend to have all of our policies available on our website by July 2018. In the interim, if you require any particular policy, please forward the request to Administration."

We did not ask for new policies. We asked for the policies that were in place at the time that LSAC decided to "Dispose" of our "Asset" being the old Administration Building. Our particular focus in the requesting the LSAC Policy Handbook was the policy contained in the handbook that speaks to the Disposition of LSAC assets.  LSARA received a number of replies denying such a policy exists.  It appears that those replies requesting the information from Administration that we received previously were not FACTUAL.

Mr. Osmond's email confirms that there is in fact a policy that pertains to "Disposition of County Owned Land" which in our opinion includes a County Asset such as the old administration building.  The asset contains three parcels of land. According to Mr. Osmond "The policy lays out Council's policy direction for land disposals."  

Unfortunately we cannot confirm if any other Policies also exist that relate to this matter because LSAC refuses to provide us with a copy of the LSAC Policy Handbook!  What are they trying to hide?  We just want to review the County policies, which are actually public documents and as per the MGA that is certainly the ratepayers right.  We want to see for ourselves if the Council was informed properly about the existence of policy and procedure in disposition of assets as a whole.  Lac Ste Anne Council should have received a copy of this Handbook when they were sworn in, as was customary with previous councils.

So here we go again.  LSARA is left with no other choice but to submit yet another Formal FOIP Request.  This was copied to LSAC Council and to the Alberta Government Municipal Affairs on Wednesday, February 28. Seems a bit early to be involving Municipal Affair doesn’t it?   LSARA can tell you that we are just following suit to the response that we received from the Assistant County Manager.  He ensured that he copied the Assistant Deputy Minister of Municipal Services and Legislation Division, Gary Sandberg. 

We have submitted a FOIP request to acquire a copy of our County Policies because our County seems to have something to hide by choosing to not provide Public Documents.  

LSARA requested that a document for payment be forwarded to us to complete the request and when no response was received, we sent an additional request for confirmation of receipt.  Still no reply from either correspondence.  

Today we finally received a reply.  REQUEST DENIED!!!

LSARA responded with another FOIP Request sent today by registered mail and have been advised to proceed with filing yet another complaint to the Privacy Commissinor of Alberta.

County does not waive the fees for FOIP requests, so this costs the Ratepayers each and every time we are forced to resort to this method to obtain public information.  It appears that we may have to send the FOIP request by way of Registered Mail, yet another unnecessary cost. 

This is a shame.  Once again, we ask the question.  Is our Council being provided with the information that is the responsibility of the Administration to effectively financially and ethically operate this County on our behalf, the Ratepayers of LSAC?

Following the passage of Bill 21, the Ombudsman will have an expanded jurisdiction over Municipalities.  Although they are intended to be essentially a “last resort” option, LSARA feels that they will be a valuable body for us to work with as Ratepayers.  They are an impartial and neutral organization that does not advocate for either the government or the complainant.  We saw previously that relationships have potentially swayed decisions that have been made with respect to LSAC and Municipal Affairs.  The hope is that we are heard and treated fairly with any concerns we bring forward.  

Having to ask for public documents via FOIP access is not being treated fairly.  Council must direct Administration to provide public documents.

Tell your Councillor how you Feel!