Former mayor disputes account of Avondale council blowup

By Mark Squibb

Former Avondale Mayor Owen Mahoney has broken his silence and is contesting the portrayal of what went down at a council meeting in December that led to his resignation and the resignations of two other councillors.

Mahoney couldn’t be reached until now but said Thursday he wanted to clarify what happened at the meeting.
Mahoney said a story about the meeting in The Shoreline earlier this month based on interviews with councillor Tom Cantwell and others made it seem like Town Manager Karen McGrath tendered her resignation because she was intimidated by the behaviour of members of the fire department at the public meeting held just before Christmas.

Mahoney maintains McGrath was leaving anyway because she had other employment and that he in fact had given her a reference.
McGrath has declined interviews about the meeting, at which a group of volunteer firefighters reportedly showed up demanding more money in the Town’s budget for their department. Fire Chief Chad Costello couldn’t be reached for an interview.

“The way it was put in The Shoreline, and the way that councillor Tom Cantwell put it, was that she resigned because the Fire Chief, Chad Costello, intimidated her at that meeting,” said Mahoney. “He didn’t intimidate her. He was allowed five minutes to speak about any concerns he had with council. And he’s allowed to do that, and that’s exactly what he did. And after his five minutes I said, ‘Okay, that’s it.’ And any resident of Avondale can do the same thing as long as they give prior notice by Friday before Tuesday’s meeting. They’ll then be on the agenda to speak. And Chad — probably the best fire chief in the province, and Avondale is the best fire department in the province — had concerns, legitimate concerns. And he spoke his five minutes and that was it.”

McGrath, meanwhile, has since agreed to work two nights a week in the council office in a strictly clerical role to help the Town get through the crunch while it finds replacements for her and a couple of other staff.

Mahoney said the concerns raised at the council meeting were largely based on the fact the Town had approved a budget without consulting with volunteer groups first, as is the normal custom.

“Every year, we meet with the volunteer groups, and we discuss what they need from the budget, what they’re looking for,” said Mahoney. “But this year, we put the budget ahead without talking to the volunteer groups.”

Mahoney said he was against the budget but voted in favour of it anyway as his lone ‘nay’ would not have been enough to defeat it.
“We passed that budget without talking to volunteer groups first, and that was wrong,” said Mahoney.

The former mayor said he can’t recall exactly how much money had been budgeted for the fire department, but allowed it was “a bit less” than the year before.
“Volunteers run the town,” said Mahoney. “The Town Clerk runs the office, but it’s the volunteer groups who run the town, and thank God we got them.”
Mahoney also disputed former Deputy Mayor Don Lewis’s claim that he, Lewis, had resigned because the Town could not conduct business without a town clerk.
“I met with the deputy minister of Municipal Affairs myself at the Confederation Building, and they said, ‘Yes, you can carry on as a council without a town clerk,’” said Mahoney. “All we need is for one councillor to keep minutes… Or we could ask another town clerk to take the minutes.”

Mahoney served as Mayor of Avondale for 13 consecutive years, plus another two years as Deputy Mayor. He served 35 years with the fire department, and said he knows how much time volunteers invest in their communities.

Mahoney said he resigned from council for the good of the community.

“I appreciate the people of Avondale and have enjoyed working with them over these last 13 years as mayor,” he said,
Residents of Avondale will go to the polls Tuesday, April 30 to fill three open slots on council. Nine candidates are vying for the seats. The Shoreline will feature those candidates who have agreed to interviews in next week’s edition.