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CLOAK AND DAGGER IN WOLFVILLE
BY WATT ITSAY
IN SPRING A YOUNG MAN’S FANCY TURNS TO THOUGHTS OF LOVE, BUT
IF YOUR NAME IS LUTZ BECKER AND YOU LIVE IN WOLFVILLE, AND TOWN
HALL WON’T ANSWER YOUR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST, THEN
YOUR FANCY TURNS TO THOUGHTS OF LITIGATION.
Lutz has once again opted to go the Supreme Court route to unlock
Wolfville’s vault of many secrets, and to pry the mayoral digits of gatekeeper
Bob Stead from its closed crypt.
A sense of deja vu is overwhelming, as Lutz is suing the town for the
second time around, to force the release of a pristine, unedited copy of
the (cue organ music — ed.) mythic Stead Letter.
This mysterious missive is the one-page note dated Feb. 15, 2007
from Mayor Bob to cao Roy Brideau, outlining Roy’s robust four-year
ROY’S SWEET DEAL
BY MEG A. BUCKS
MY MIND REELS AT THE THOUGHT OF WOLFVILLE CAO ROY BRIDEAU
BAGGING $100,000-PER AND LIKELY ENJOYS THE SWEETEST PENSION
DEAL IN TOWN.
Is there a major oil sands project underneath Mud Creek, and untold
wealth that permits Mayor Bob Stead and his merry councillors to pay
town employees top dollar?
On January 18 town council unanimously ratified Roy’s contract, as
it was formally written in a Feb. 15, 2007 letter to Roy from Mayor Bob.
This is the infamous Stead Letter, with its final paragraph blacked out,
the missive Lutz Becker has been trying to wrestle from the town since
May 2008.
In the non-redacted paragraphs, Mayor Bob spells out Roy’s pay from
Year 1 (2007-2008) to Year 4 (2010-11), beginning at $91,000 and
steeply climbing to $100,403.
We’re talking serious change, in a town with a tax base the size of
Wolfville’s. For comparison’s sake, Robert Thibault is making
$125,000-per as cao of Richmond County, an area vastly larger with
nearly 2.5 times the population.
Wolfville’s pension contributions seem equally as outlandish, er, generous.
In Year 1, the town contributes 12% to Roy’s pension plan, to
salary raises (see story below).
You’ll recall Lutz first sued town officials after a fruitless 18-month
quest for answers, via the misnamed “Freedom of Information” Act.
In Frank 581 I reported Lutz settled his row with Mayor Bob and Roy,
at a cost to taxpayers, some suggest, that hit about $17,000 in legal
fees. A cost, of course, Mayor Stead’s administration could have easily
avoided, by handing over the letter in the first place.
Turns out, Lutz had a premature notion of settlement. The town did
not release the full Stead Letter as Lutz expected and the contents of
the Stead Letter’s blacked-out paragraph elude him to this day. What
heinous mystery does this missing paragraph foretell?
Stay tuned.
Does Frank Know?
atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
Roy’s 6% contribution.
By Year 4, Roy contributes nothing to his
retirement fund, while the town contribution
maxes out at 18%.
For context, our poor, beleaguered MLAs
ante up 10% of their salaries for their
cadillac pension plan, an amount the government,
ie. the taxpayer, annually
matches.
Maybe Roy is worth every penny of his
present and future take-home, I don’t know.
The Banff School of Management and
U. of Alberta grad toiled for 12 years as a
senior municipal manager with the Alberta
government before becoming executive director
of the New Brunswick Council on
Recreation for the Disabled, and subsequently
cao of Sackville, N.B. Roy has
served as Wolfville cao since 1995.
I believe he was first hired at just below
$60,000-per, though I cannot state it as fact.
Roy Brideau
Roy’s wife Sherry Brideau teaches primary at Hantsport school.
They live in a $319,300-assessed abode on Avon Street in the tiny
hamlet of Hants Border, Kings Co.
Does Frank Know? atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
Frank News Tips
Hotline
1-888-335-5505
www.atlanticfrank.ca
2010014
APRIL 13, 2010 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK 19