Tiny Brent’s Cove is fighting a small claims case — as detailed in an exclusive story by The Telegram in early December. St. John’s resident Michael Sullivan is suing his hometown for a broken hot water tank that happened, he says, after the town unfairly cut off his water.
The town is countersuing for back taxes, while Sullivan insists he already paid them.
The trial is set for June 12, 2017.
In documents released by the Department Municipal Affairs to The Telegram through access to information, a lengthy 2015 report by a Municipal Affairs analyst detailed to the town how some of the council minutes contained more about the now former clerk’s issues than about the regular business of council. The analyst had spoken to that clerk about the content of the minutes.
One such set of minutes — contained among the access to information documents — shows a special meeting called in February 2015 was so wrought with contention that the now former clerk opined she thought one of the councillor’s statements was a threat.
The lengthy minutes ended with that clerk telling council she was “tired of all the arguments, drama and stress.”
In 2016, the town received a forensic audit it commissioned for its claim to an insurance company, and the audit noted about $50,000 in missing funds.
The town claimed a loss of $57,479 over a 10-year period to its insurer, according to the forensic report.
Forensic accountants calculated the loss at $49,429 to $50,000 (the policy limit) for the time period 2009 and 2012-15.
No one has been charged with wrongdoing. The RCMP is conducting an investigation into the town’s finances.
According to a 2015 report, the Municipal Affairs analyst also detailed several pages’ worth of problems with accounts for residents whose names were redacted, as well as tens of thousands owed to Revenue Canada at that time.
In August 2015, council instructed one of its members to go to the town hall and force open the town’s safe, the analyst noted. It was alleged the now former clerk was not co-operative in handing over the combination, so the councillor had to pry the door open with a crowbar. They found no money in it, according to the report.
After years of warnings of financial statements not being submitted to Municipal Affairs, it was revealed an auditor the town had contracted in 2010 and 2011 was not a licensed chartered accounted as required by the Municipalities Act.
Subsequently, the town’s new auditor asked the former auditor to supply his working papers, but she could not obtain them.
The mess resulted in the former auditor filing a successful court claim for about $3,700 because, according to what the town told Municipal Affairs, the town had failed to terminate the auditor when it found out he was not licensed.
The tumultuous tale of Brent’s Cove stretches back years and was in part explained away by a former mayor in a 2011 letter to then-municipal affairs minister Kevin O’Brien.
In defending the now former town clerk, then-mayor Richard Andrews blamed the town’s woes on a bad water situation that began in 2002, and noted the clerk’s hours had been cut back and the fact council’s functions were strained by some having to work away.
Sometimes — he suggested at that time — the now former clerk and two other people, whose names and positions were redacted, had to hold off cashing their paycheques because the town did not have enough funds to pay them.
Municipal Affairs, meanwhile, has warned the town over the years its outstanding taxes were excessively high.
By 2014, tax collections were at a low of less than 35 per cent of the total levied in the town of about 180 people.
The Department of Municipal Affairs has acknowledged a ministerial exemption was granted to the town in 2012 waiving the audited financial statements for the years 2005-09 after the now former clerk requested it, saying the town could not afford annual audits.
The department has received audited financial statements from the town for the year 2010 and onwards.
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