Alberta villagers cough up cash after refusing to pay utilities in dispute with council

The Canadian Press Posted: 08/4/2011 DONALDA, Alta. -
Residents of a central Alberta hamlet are finally having to cough up the cash after their turn at civil disobedience against the tiny town's former administration.  About one-third of the people living in Donalda, population 230, had refused to pay a flat utilities fee to protest how their community was being run. Residents hadn't receive bills for water, sewer and garbage collection for seven years.  They demanded a government review of Donalda's financial practices two years ago. A scathing inspection report by Alberta Municipal Affairs concluded officials had failed to manage the hamlet efficiently for a decade.  The inspection found administrators failed to issue utility bills on a regular basis, failed to collect some other municipal revenues, failed to properly collect property taxes and failed to ensure that decision-making be transparent. The report said the lack of management led to "much discontent in the community." But things are changing since a new mayor and council were lected last fall. The new council's first order of business was to arrange for monthly utility bills. "There was a large percentage of the population who chose not to pay because they didn't receive bills, and a lot of people did it out of resentment against the chief administrative officer as well," new Mayor Bruce Gartside said Thursday. "Their attitude was, 'I'm not going to pay him while he is still here' or 'I'm not going to pay until I get a bill.'"

Former chief administrator, Peter Simons, resigned the evening the new council was sworn in. The amount of utilities owing was $57,000 when Gartside took office.  "That's substantial considering it's a population of 230," he said.  "The bills just kept growing. Some of those people hadn't paid in four years and some of the accounts were up around $2,400. Basically we asked everybody to arrange a payment schedule." The protest appears to be over. As of April, the outstanding amount owing was down to $35,000. Gartside, 62, and his wife moved to Donalda three years ago from Winnipeg to be closer to family. He said the village's mismanagement was a hot topic of conversation. "That's all anyone talked about. It was a daily topic like the weather."