Malahide-Aylmer relationship deteriorating

Tensions ran high at the first meeting of the East Elgin Community Complex Board on Thursday, Sept. 28, the first session since Malahide withdrew from a joint committee formed with Aylmer to review the facility’s governance.

Early in the meeting, Malahide Mayor Dominique Giguère sought to insert a “personnel” item involving a municipal or joint board employee to the agenda’s secret session.

Aylmer Mayor Jack Couckuyt, meeting chairman, countered that it should have been either added before the agenda had been finalized or postponed until the next session.

Aylmer Administrator Andy Grozelle said town council members had received legal advice not to discuss the board’s governance at the meeting, and he would have to advise them to walk out if Malahide members insisted on doing so.

Later in the session, Mayor Giguère criticized how town officials described a report from Aylmer’s engineering consultant, acting on behalf of the board, citing that the consultant had subcontracted much of the work to another firm.

Other Malahide members demanded to know what other prices for the subcontracted work might have been received by the town’s engineering consultant.

For full details, see the Oct. 4 edition of The Aylmer Express.