Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench has ruled in favour of an R.M. of Rocanville councillor who had been forced from office.
Timothy Wushke, a councillor with the R.M. between 2013 and 2024, had been disqualified from council over an alleged conflict of interest.
But in the written decision from Judge S.M. Sinclair dated Feb. 4, it was ruled there was a breach of procedural fairness in the manner of Wushke’s removal from council.
At issue were two resolutions passed at an R.M. council meeting on July 11, 2024 regarding Wushke. According to the facts outlined in the court decision, it was indicated by the reeve, Melissa Ruhland that there was a problem regarding an unauthorized payment that was not on the agenda.
Ruhland indicated that at the Council meeting on June 13 an invoice for the removal of a beaver dam in the amount of $677.25 was improperly presented to Council and was approved for payment along with 10 other expenses that were also approved.
The expense was for the benefit of Wushke’s mother. Wushke’s response was to advise council that the contractor, Edge Excavating, had issued the invoice to the R.M. by mistake. Wushke added that he missed that the expense was among those being approved at the meeting, and also mistakenly did not recuse himself.
Council then met for 12 minutes without Wushke. When he rejoined the meeting, he was told council had passed a resolution to disqualify him as council.
A resolution was then moved to also declare Wushke’s seat on council vacant. According to the facts outlined in the court decision, Wushke spent approximately 32 minutes defending himself and asking council to reconsider, to no avail.
Wushke was also asked to resign from council, which he refused.
The vacancy resolution was passed, and Wushke filed an application soon after to seek to quash the resolutions. He was also prevented from running in the municipal election on Nov. 13 as a result of the council resolutions to remove him.
There were also further allegations in what the Court described as written reasons provided on Aug. 8 to Wushke by the RM outlining his removal from office, including an allegation that in 2021 Wushke had authorized hauling of dirt for a road repair project without approval, with an added expense of $12,760 to the RM. There were also several instances alleged between 2014 and 2020 that Wushke did not declare a conflict of interest when Council discussed hiring his son as a contractor.
In his ruling Judge Sinclair decided the RM “acted in a procedurally unfair manner,” He noted there had been a breach of procedural fairness. It was noted that Mr. Wushke was not advised in advance of the meeting that his conduct was at issue and that disqualification was a potential outcome, and his conduct had not on the agenda for the July 11 meeting. It was also noted Mr. Wushke did not have the opportunity to meaningfully prepare to speak to any allegations against him.
The resolutions were declared void, and Wushke was ruled entitled to costs. As for the other issues in the case, Sinclair ruled it was for a future court to interpret those sections of the Municipalities Act.
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