Local official calls police on residents seeking public government records

An official of a rural municipality outside Fredericton is facing charges after she called the RCMP on residents asking for public documents they were legally entitled to. 

Marjorie Turner, the chief administrative officer for Sunbury-York South, was scheduled to appear in Fredericton provincial court on Wednesday on two charges of violating the Local Governance Act, which police officials called "extremely rare."

Turner was not present, but CBC News made a request for an interview through her lawyer, who was in court for the proceeding, which was adjourned without plea until May 28. Turner has not yet responded to the interview request. 

Created under the province's 2023 municipal amalgamations, Sunbury-York South includes Nasonworth, Rusagonis, Waasis and Charters Settlement. 

Mac Burns, who's lived in the community for 50 years, first took an interest in the new council after it proposed building an $8 million municipal complex last fall. Council later backed down after a public outcry.

"We were saying, if they're going to spend $8 million on a municipal building, where else are they spending the money?" he said in an interview earlier this week.

Burns started looking into how much the municipality had paid for land on Chaparral Road in Waasis for the proposed building and how much it was paying to rent a temporary office in neighbouring Oromocto. 

Burns went to the municipal office on Dec. 19 to ask for records that would explain why certain matters had been discussed in closed session. Under the Local Governance Act, a council must record "the type of matter" discussed in closed session in their meeting minutes.

The act also states that most council documents "shall be available for examination by members of the public" in the clerk's office.

But the clerk told Burns several times it was not available. He said Turner then appeared and asked him to leave while she was on the phone to the RCMP. Burns recorded the audio of the interaction on his phone, which he shared with CBC News. 

By that time, Turner had already called the RCMP on another resident, Melissa Gillis, who had also been seeking public records. 

Gillis confirmed with CBC News that she was given a trespass notice on Nov. 27.

She also shared an April 11 email from Mayor David Hayward, who apologized for the notice and said it had been lifted. 

When asked if he was concerned with what happened, Hayward said in an interview that he wanted to make clear that it was Turner as an individual facing charges, not the entire municipal government.