Editor:
Keith Maxwell equally admonishes Sechelt’s mayor, council and staff for lack of mutual respect and argues “there are two sides to every story.” In fact, there appear to be two lop-sides to this story: the mayor on one side and all six councillors united on the other.
The public may never know the specific origins of council’s united criticism of Mayor Henderson’s conduct and comments directed towards Sechelt’s staff because the issue was properly discussed in camera.
However, what we do know is that what was said was sufficiently egregious to warrant council’s rare and unanimous sanction against Mayor Henderson.
In the spirit of moving forward council has asked Mayor Henderson to make a formal apology for his conduct, which seems to be a reasonable request. Henderson has refused to do so.
It is clear that council has lost confidence in Mayor Henderson’s ability to fairly represent and report back on the interests of Sechelt and have consequently asked that the mayor seek prior approval of council before visiting any provincial cabinet minister or senior officials and that he be accompanied by another council member and the CAO.
Trust has been broken between the mayor and the rest of council and it would seem clear, given the lop-sided imbalance, that the primary responsibility to re-establish that trust lies with the Mayor. Mayor Henderson, you owe it to the good people of Sechelt to make that effort!
Jef Keighley, Garden Bay
