CREMONA – Village of Cremona residents will not be going to the ballot box before the upcoming general municipal election.
“There’ll be no byelection between now and October,” said Doug Lagore, of Transitional Solutions Inc., who has been appointed as official administrator by Ric McIver, the minister of Municipal Affairs.
The municipal council was left without quorum and unable to function following the recent resignations of three out of five members including the mayor who cited as their primary reason for stepping down the minister’s decision to appoint Lagore in a supervisory role they felt undermined their ability to make decisions.
For his part, McIver had expressed concerns about what he called “dysfunction within the community” in justifying his decision.
The resignations came on the heels of a byelection held just this past November following another round of resignations late last summer.
Speaking with the Albertan, Lagore was asked his thoughts on the situation in the village.
“I’m not prepared to make any comment on that,” he said.
In response to previously submitted questions, the minister’s press secretary Kevin Lee had said, “Given the proximity to the 2025 general municipal election and the extraordinary second loss of quorum in a short timeframe, the minister may consider other options, such as a viability review.”
Lagore was also asked how likely a viability review might be at this time but said he couldn’t immediately offer a comment.
“I don’t have any information available on that,” he said.
Lagore expected to sign a contract solidifying the ministerial appointment by March 24 at the latest, after which he said a special meeting would be called to get signing authorities in place.
“Then we’ll go back to the regular, scheduled council meetings,” he said.
Although there were no additional updates on the unfolding process through Municipal Affairs as of March 21, Lagore said, “I hope to have more by the next regular council meeting.”
The village’s meetings are held the third Tuesday of the month with the next lined up on April 15.
Although McIver could not be directly asked to elaborate on what he had referred to as “signs of significant dysfunction,” there are perhaps some hints to be found.
In council’s agenda package for the Feb. 18, 2025 meeting were minutes from the Village of Cremona Library Board’s Nov. 28, 2024 meeting that included a recap of a meeting with Lagore and Karen O’Connor, the municipality’s chief administrative officer.
According to the minutes, Lagore requested a meeting on Nov. 19 at the library with the library board’s chair and manager as well as the CAO to discuss the library’s unpaid funding invoice. But shortly before the meeting, O’Connor informed both the library’s chair and manager that the meeting had at Lagore’s behest been relocated to the village office without the manager’s presence, which left the board’s volunteer chair feeling caught off guard and cornered.
“Instead of the meeting only being about the unpaid invoice as previously arranged, another secret agenda was launched,” reads part of the detailed entry in the minutes, adding, “the library board’s integrity and vetting process for potential board members were questioned.”
Additionally, allegations were reportedly levelled against the library manager claiming she had “conspired with community members to initiate legal action against the village, though she was simply performing her duties of providing library services” and that “the library board’s loyalty to the village was also questioned.”
With respect to the unpaid funding, Lagore was said to have confirmed it should be paid but had noted that due to a payment that had been delayed until 2025 by the previous council, a re-submission to the new council would be required.
The library’s board ultimately went onto unanimously pass a motion “indicating their extreme displeasure at the gross unprofessional conduct of the Village of Cremona’s Official Administrator and the chief administrative officer in arranging a meeting with the board chair and library manager that they then changed the location of and changed the attendees last minute without any consideration in order to bring unsubstantiated allegations against the library board and library manager.”
The Albertan also asked Lagore about the library board’s motion as outlined in its minutes.
“I have not seen those,” he said. “I’m not prepared to comment on them.”
