“They put me through hell,” Michael Sullivan said of the council. He claims he settled his case out of small claims court last week, with the town conceding he isn’t in tax arrears after all.
A spokesman for the town could not be reached prior to deadline Monday to confirm the conclusion of the case.
“I think (the municipal structure) should be reformed big time. It’s very easy to do,” Sullivan said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the RCMP announced in a news release that former Brent’s Cove town clerk Ellen Butler has been charged with fraud and other charges.
She will appear in court Nov. 28.
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Members of the RCMP serious crime unit in Corner Brook, working on a complaint from the Town of Brent’s Cove, said Monday they have charged Butler with fraud over $5,000, forgery, uttering a forged document and falsification of books and documents.
The investigation began in June 2016. Fraudulent activity reported by the town was allegedly discovered by a forensic audit and led to the additional charges, the RCMP stated in the news release.
The Telegram reported on troubles in Brent’s Cove — a town of about 90 homes on the Baie Verte Peninsula — last year and revealed details of a forensic audit obtained by Sullivan.
Sullivan’s small claims court case was supposed to be heard in Grand Falls-Windsor this summer, and was set over to February 2018, but Sullivan said he settled it last week.
Sullivan, who lives in St. John’s, disputed a tax bill from Brent’s Cove suggesting he owed unpaid taxes on his summer home. The town then countersued for those back taxes amounting to roughly $3,000.
Sullivan had also sought compensation for a burned-out hot water tank he attributes to the town shutting off his water for a time, but dropped that claim.
Monday, Sullivan said the town should have waited until any investigation was resolved one way or the other — confirming or dispelling what might have gone on with the town’s finances — before it sent bills to some residents for back taxes. An audit that Sullivan uncovered suggested the town had received an insurance payout of $50,000.
“(The town) should have done its due diligence (on the bills) from the beginning,” Sullivan said. “I am just glad to get it all over with.”
Sullivan spent two years gathering documentation he said backed up his contention that he didn’t owe money to the town.
He said small-town council affairs in the province are often complicated by family relations in the small areas and not enough resources to keep the finances running smoothly, which is a big argument for county systems.
