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What is council hiding?

The following letter was sent to the District of Sechelt and copied to Coast Reporter. Alice Lutes has been stripped of all her committee positions. This was done in camera by a council and mayor that refuses to reveal any details.

The following letter was sent to the District of Sechelt and copied to Coast Reporter.

Alice Lutes has been stripped of all her committee positions. This was done in camera by a council and mayor that refuses to reveal any details. Lutes wants the reason(s) for the council's actions published. Lutes is the only re-elected council member.

Over the past year, local news media and private citizens have described how the present Sechelt council and mayor have embarked on a fruitless gambit to interfere in the running of a private business (golf course). The town has lost a legal action it brought against that business. Based on reports of the legal interactions and some published operating expenses, I would estimate the town's cost for this ongoing legal frolic to be approaching $500,000. Then, on Nov. 23, Coast Reporter ran a piece about this same group taking actions that silence and potentially discredit Lutes.

It appears to me that a council with a questionable performance record has stripped one member, with a good performance record (she was re-elected), of most of her vehicles for continuing to provide good service to the electorate. It appears the bad performers do not want the reasons for their actions illuminated, and the good performer does.

For the mayor to suggest that he is following the law by keeping elements of the in camera meeting undisclosed is absurd. Just whose "freedom of information and privacy" is he protecting with his silence?

I join Lutes in a demand to have all the in camera meeting minutes pertaining to the matter of Lutes' committee removals published immediately. Until this happens, I can only surmise the mayor and council have something to hide and Alice Lutes does not.

Peggy Malcolm, Halfmoon Bay