With Regina’s City Manager facing a lawsuit from two councillors, the rest of the city council reaffirmed their confidence.

Mayor Sandra Masters was joined by eight of the ten councillors in backing a motion that ‘affirmed and conveyed’ confidence in City Manager Niki Anderson and expressed disappointment over the negative impact on City Council’s operational integrity and oversight that the initiated court action has created.

The court action references Councillor Dan LeBlanc, Councillor Andrew Stevens and Florence Stratton filing a court application against Anderson for not including full funding to end homelessness in the city’s proposed budget.

Both Councillors LeBlanc and Stevens recused themselves from the vote.

Masters, who brought forward the motion, said she felt it’s important that Anderson knows council has confidence in her abilities.

“Just to make sure that the public knew that the balance of council was supportive of Ms. Anderson and that we were, as a collective, disappointed with the legal action taken.”

“I think as an employer, it’s enormously important that our employee knows she has our confidence and that we want her to do the things that she was hired to do. To lead administration as she is employed to do,” she continued.

As for creating a further divide in council, Masters said the lawsuit has not affected how council operated as they have remained productive in meetings since the suit was filed.

“As to the relationships, I can’t speak to folks’ relationships,” she stated.