A Penhold councillor was bumped from his scheduled rotation as deputy mayor and continued to be barred from serving on committees at the council organizational meeting held Oct. 29.
Coun. Chad Hoffman was not appointed to serve on any committees as council's representative. Committees range from administration groups like the Council Bylaw Review committee to representation to community groups like the museum committee.
Mayor Dennis Cooper acknowledged Hoffman wasn't assigned any committees.
“During the course of Coun. Hoffman's tenure he's had numerous warnings and requests from council to be a little bit more of a team player,” Cooper said. “As a council we tried to help Coun. Hoffman by removing some of his privileges.”
He said the decision was initially made at the organizational meeting in 2011, which is shown in the minutes from that meeting, but was reviewed by council at the most recent organizational meeting.
The minutes from the Oct. 24, 2011 organizational meeting show a motion to exempt Hoffman from council committees and portfolios for the next year, to restrict his privileges for the 2011/2012 year and have him return his access keys for entry into the council chambers and to give him a letter “detailing acceptable conduct and encouraging Councillor Hoffman to participate as part of the council team.”
Hoffman was listed in the minutes from that meeting as being absent. Minutes show him as absent from the Oct. 29, 2012 organizational meeting as well, but he brought up the topic during the regular council meeting Nov. 12.
He said during the meeting he saw he wasn't appointed to any committees again and that his term as deputy mayor had been skipped over.
The deputy mayor roster set out at the first organizational meeting of this council's term, held Oct. 25, 2010 after the municipal election, set out November 2012-April 2013 as Hoffman's turn. Cooper said council made a decision Oct. 29 to appoint Coun. Wendy Dodman as deputy mayor for this time instead.
“It was a sanctioning due to his actions that he has done over the course of the last two years,” Cooper said of the deputy mayor and no-committee decisions.
Cooper said Hoffman has a responsibility to council and the town to conduct himself in an appropriate manner following the council code of conduct.
Hoffman declined to provide a comment to the Province about the proceedings.
Jerry Ward, public affairs officer for Municipal Affairs, said appointments for deputy mayors are under the jurisdiction of council and Penhold is not in contravention of the Municipal Government Act with its actions.
