St. Andrews mayor loses court battle against RM council that stripped her of some powers

The mayor of the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews has lost her court fight to see a bylaw stripping her of council chair and spokesperson responsibilities struck down.

Joy Sul did not establish she was treated in bad faith, with bias or denied procedural fairness by colleagues on the RM council, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Vic Toews ruled in a decision released publicly on Thursday.

A political fight between Sul and five of the RM's six councillors came to a head around fall 2019.

Sul was stripped of her chair and council spokesperson duties after a vote to change a bylaw and two resolutions passed during a special meeting of council in December 2019.

• St. Andrews mayor takes RM to court after being stripped of duties

Despite this, Sul remained entitled to debate, vote and sit on committees, and retainedher signing authority for municipal cheques, Toews said.

She launched legal action just weeks later, arguing the bylaw change was outside the bounds of Manitoba's Municipal Act and that the RM council and the then-deputy mayor breached a duty of fairness owed to her.

John Preun told CBC at the time that problems in council started shortly after the 2018 election, in which Sul claimed more than 61 per cent of the vote.

He said Sul would try and change bylaws without total understanding of council, and that she was "biased" in council meetings. Last year, he said Sul wrote public letters on behalf of council about the South St. Andrews Wastewater project without council approval.

No bad faith intended, RM argues

Toews said the RM's court filings characterized Sul's actions as being perceived as "dysfunctional" and not in the interests of the citizens of the RM.

"On the contrary, [they] state that the evidence here demonstrates that the bylaws and the resolutions were passed to address the failure of [Sul] to address the difficulties in conducting municipal business and meetings," Toews said.

Toews ultimately agreed.

"The evidence available to me clearly indicates that there was a difficult political issue that needed to be resolved," he said, "and that the majority of councillors were of the opinion that the mayor was not only undermining the unanimous vote the council had made in respect of a political decision over an important wastewater project, but that she was failing to properly control the proceedings in the course of public meetings related to that issue and other matters incidental or consequential to that matter," Toews said.

Councillors didn't act in bad faith, Toews said. "Rather they were motivated by concerns over the proper governance of council and the broader general public interest of the municipality. In doing so they acted reasonably and fairly," he said.

Toews ordered Sul to pay the RM'scourt costs.