Editorial
Madawaska Valley’s CAO, Suzanne Klatt’s, leading role in the malicious vendetta based on fabricated facts against The Current has been well documented throughout the course of our successful legal claim against members of the former Council and the Township itself. By her conduct Klatt flagrantly breached her legal, ethical and moral obligations to the community which she is paid handsomely to serve. Above: Suzanne Klatt at October Council meeting. (Photo: YouTube/Madawaska Valley)
Not that there has ever been any doubt about it, but the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators recently published a White Paper containing the following reminder:
“The CAO’s position in the public service can be precarious. On the one hand, he or she must carry out the instructions of council in a conscientious manner provided those decisions are legal and ethical. On the other hand, a CAO must also be loyal to the best interests of the municipal corporation and its residents which may occasionally mean telling councillors truths that they would rather not hear … No one should want a CAO who is reluctant to give good advice.”
MV ratepayers, who pay her salary of $127,224.39, have been unquestionably ill-served by her conduct which has fallen afoul of these basic obligations. Among other things, ratepayers are now subject to increased insurance premiums and deductibles as a result of the improper resort to our municipal insurance policy. She has also compounded her maladministration through her complicity in ensuring that the majority of MV residents have been deprived of learning the facts and consequences of their elected representatives’ spiteful vendetta. This is a reference to the fact that the publishers of both the Valley Gazette and The Eganville Leader were prevailed upon to act as if it, and the subsequent Court losses, had never happened. Here is a link to one of the articles we have published on that subject. LINK: https://madvalleycurrent.com/2025/02/06/public-interest-news-and-information-suppression-in-madawaska-valley-is-a-disgrace-update/
Township refuses requests for delegation
The Municipal Act contains provisions designed to ensure that elected representatives take appropriate steps when faced with evidence of improper conduct by municipal employees. It provides a mechanism which, it must be said, should be a last resort, for a referral to a Superior Court Judge to investigate allegations of misconduct. The Current, in addition to publishing articles on the subject, has written to Council on several occasions requesting it to take appropriate action about Klatt’s conduct. All such correspondence was ignored. The writer therefore requested permission to make a delegation to Council for the purpose of confronting it with its lack of compliance with its Municipal Act obligations. This request was refused for reasons which did not make any sense to me, so I asked for clarification. None was provided, but instead the Township then tried to justify its refusal by saying my request “did not comply with the wording of the Township’s Procedural By-Law.” That, too, made no sense and so I asked what wording it was relying on, but that request has also been ignored despite my giving the Deputy Clerk, with whom I had been corresponding, a deadline of last Friday to respond.
The Delegation Request contained a summary of Klatt’s impugned conduct and concluded with the following statement:
“Her conduct as set out above is contrary to her statutory obligations as a municipal CAO to ensure that the financial and other interests of ratepayers are not prejudiced by the conduct of elected officials. Rather, it appears she subordinated those obligations to her desire to curry favour with those officials.”
Role of the current Council
Because of Mayor Willmer’s untimely death, only two members of the current Council were participants in the vendetta against The Current, and therefore parties to the legal proceeding, namely Mayor David Shulist and Councillor Ernie Peplinski. As a side note, Peplinski was returned to Council earlier this year as a result of his name being drawn out of a hat by Klatt to replace former Councillor Olsheski. It was Shulist who was responsible for proposing him which, given the justified disparaging comments about Peplinski’s record on Council that Shulist made to me and others in the past, was surprising to say the least. Conspiracy theories abound …
However, it is assumed, and I stand to be corrected, that all current members of Council are up to speed on all relevant facts that gave rise to the our legal claim and its consequences including the abuse of the Township’s municipal insurance policy to fund a manifestly unmeritorious defence. Thus, they should be ashamed if they are facilitating this continued attempt to protect an unsuitable chief executive from the consequences of her acts.
A wider investigation
Recently the Editor and I participated in a filmed interview with a reporter for one of our national news organizations. It was part of an investigation into municipal “bad actors” generally and, specifically, certain Integrity Commissioners and lawyers across the province who have been accused of lacking “integrity,” while at the same time lining their pockets with exhorbitant and unnecessary fees. We discussed our experience including with reference to the soon to be enacted Municipal Accountability Act 2024. We are told that a program will likely be broadcast to coincide with that event so keep reading The Current for further information because you will not likely read about it in any of our competitors’ newspapers.