The warden of Inverness Co. says she’s pleased she’s still in the position.
Councillors voted 4-2 in favour of removing Betty Ann MacQuarrie from the warden’s chair at Thursday’s regular municipal council meeting.
A vote for a new warden followed; MacQuarrie and Alfred Poirier were nominated for the position, with that vote, which was done by secret ballot, ending in a 3-3 tie.
The Municipal Government Act indicates the winner is decided at random; MacQuarrie’s name was picked from a hat, so she regained the job.
MacQuarrie tells The Hawk she’s not sure what changed between the two votes, but it may have been when she addressed her fellow councillors before the second vote.
“I would like to think that it might have been something I said that swayed the vote from 4-2 to 3-3, which meant a tie,” she says. “That may have changed, or somebody just maybe changed their mind in the meantime.”
MacQuarrie says she stands by her leadership, but she will try to do a better job staying in touch with councillors, and being aware of the issues in their districts.
John Dowling, the municipal councillor for District 6 (Hastings-Judique-West Bay), was one of the votes to remove MacQuarrie.
Dowling tells The Hawk there were a few main concerns with MacQuarrie’s leadership.
“How meetings were run, procedure wasn’t followed properly, a lot of times council meetings weren’t starting on time,” he says. “I just wasn’t happy with the way some comments (were) made that didn’t really represent what I felt were council’s wishes as a group.”
Dowling says he’s not sure why one person flipped their vote to help her return.
He says they have to live with the result, and move ahead to work for what’s best for the municipality.