Morinville’s newly elected sworn in

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From left: Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec, Councillors Stephen Dafoe, Rob Ladouceur, Mayor Lisa Holmes, Deputy Mayor Gord Putnam, Councillors Nicole Boutestein, Brennan Fitzgerald, and Barry Turner. – Lucie Roy Photo

by Ashley Janes
Photos by Lucie Roy

Morinville – The official Swearing In Ceremony for Morinville’s recently elected Mayor Lisa Holmes and Council members Nicole Boutestein, Stephen Dafoe, Brennan FitzGerald, Rob Ladouceur, Gord Putnam and Barry Turner was held in town chambers the evening of Oct. 29. Holmes revealed great expectations for this new council, explaining: “Our Council will begin a fairly in-depth series of orientation meetings over the next few weeks. We will be touring each of the town departments to meet staff and get familiar with processes and procedures. Our focus will be on getting up to speed with the financial processes as our first priority will be working on the 2014 budget.”

For Boutestein and Turner, swearing in was familiar, as both have served terms on town council before. Boutestein was elected in 2010 and has served three years to date. Turner was first elected in 1995, serving for 12 years before stepping back in 2007 in order to spend more time with his young family. About his re-election, Turner said: “I feel extremely grateful to receive so much support after two terms away from Council. I have gained some valuable experience regarding turning strategic and operational plans into reality. I intend to up the level of community interaction with Council and bring more residents and businesspeople to the table in setting community priorities and driving action.”

New members to the table this term include councillors Dafoe, Ladouceur and Putnam, who together bring experience on municipal boards and with civic and legal processes. That leaves 19 year old FitzGerald, who took the town by surprise when he won his seat on council with 801 votes. Regarding his election, FitzGerald stated: “Age doesn’t imply ability. It’s important to realize that just because a person is young, they won’t necessarily make a good leader- and this is also the case with an individual of a greater age than I. A good leader is one who understands that his position is actually (and ironically) one of servanthood, and whose service is driven by love. As a younger person, I’m less concerned with what end of the political spectrum I fall on, less concerned with the games played in politics, and more interested in how to help bring about the best quality of life for every person in Morinville. That’s a strength.”

After the ceremony was complete, Council met for an organizational meeting in order to assign members to town boards and committees. Among these delegations were: all members to the Finance and Audit Committee, Putnam and FitzGerald to the Assessment Review Board, Holmes to the Emergency Management, FitzGerald to the Morinville Library Board, Boutestein and Dafoe to the Municipal Planning Commission, Ladouceur to the Roseridge Waste Management, Ladouceur and Turner to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, Holmes to the Capital Region Board, Boutestein to Affordable Housing, Turner to Land Use, Dafoe to the Transit Committee, Holmes to the Alberta Capital Region Waste Water Sewage Commission, Boutestein to Edmonton Salutes Community, Dafoe to the Northern Lights Library System, Turner to the Regional Tourism Action Plan, Putnam to the Sturgeon Foundation, Putnam to the Sturgeon Regional Economic Development Committee, and Dafoe to the Tawatinaw Community Futures.

The first regular council meeting will take place on Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Above Left: Councillor Gord Putnam takes his oath of office from Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec. Putnam also took an oath to serve as Deputy Mayor, a position he will hold until June 24, 2014. – Lucie Roy Photo

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Maureen Kubinec, MLA Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock presented the Keeper Medallion to outgoing Mayor Gordon Boddez at the Swearing In Ceremony of the Morinville Council held Tuesday night in Council Chambers.

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3 Comments

  1. Congratulations to all. I think that the board appointments make sense and hope that the incumbents will do great things.

    Like many citizens, I can hardly wait to see the budget discussion start appearing in this humble forum.

    Good luck!

  2. Congratulations to the new council … I hope they don’t rush the budget perhaps they can delay it for a bit to get time to study where they need to speed money and where they don’t

  3. The best thing would be to pass an interim budget. Get the new council up to speed. Then pass the budget.

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