Rocky View County councillors (RVC) Crystal Kissel, Kevin Hanson and Samanntha Wright are annoyed County Reeve says they are suing the county.

"We aren't suing them, we are going to court to fight our sanctions," said Kissel, following their fourth and final night in a series on information meetings to share their plight with Rocky View residents.

"Our interest is to have somebody look at this fairly and make a decision," she elaborates. "If I was suing the county there would be a dollar value. The only dollar value is the fact that we have to pay for this and the county gets the luxury of defending themselves with the taxpayers' dollars."

By the end of the Sept.19 meeting at the Pinebrook Golf Club, the trio had attracted nearly 300 residents to their series of meetings.

Besides the councillors' take on the events leading up to the sanctions, those in attendance also heard how efforts to seek mediation on the sanctions and to have a municipal inspection conducted by Alberta Municipal Affairs were both defeated by 6-3 votes.

On June 11, the councillors authority to represent the residents in their three divisions was drastically reduced for breaching the county council's code of conduct.  Until at least October 2020, they have been removed from all county boards and committees and cannot represent their divisions at county conferences, meetings, events and activities. Their wages have been reduced by 30 per cent to reflect their diminished duties.

In addition, they have been restricted from communicating with the CAO or county staff except during twice-monthly council meetings. There is no end date on this sanction.

Councillors Kissel (Cochrane North), Wright (Bearspaw) and Hanson (Elbow Valley/Springbank) have filed two motions in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench to fight the sanctions. The hearing has recently been postponed until Jan. 22, 2020.

The sanctions largely centre over concerns the councillors expressed about how Hoggan was hired and why RVC didn't have a CAO hiring policy. The county announced the CAO's hiring in October. The necessary resolution to approve his contract did not occur until-mid December. Reeve Greg Boehlke did sign a contract with Hoggan before it went to the council. Later on, the CAO's hiring was formalized by a 5-4 vote of council.

The three sanctioned councillors and fellow councillor Jerry Gautreau questioned the process used. They sought legal advice and made contact with Municipal Affairs to discuss their concerns. Both recommended RVC should develop a CAO hiring policy.

A motion to create a CAO hiring policy was tossed out by the council before it hit the floor. 

That lead to Wright, Kissel and Hanson collectively writing a letter to the editor voicing their displeasure that appeared in some area publications on May 7. They called the measure to remove their notice of motion an "attack completely unprecedented hijacking of process." 

The letter concludes, "We completely recognize in a democracy, majority rules. However, when that majority places its own interests above the people as a whole, it becomes the ‘tyranny of the majority.’ Good governance requires a respect for the spirit of democracy and healthy debate, not censorship and manipulated discussion."

The county determined the comments in the letter were made "without courtesy" and were sanctioned for violating sections of the Code of Conduct that deal with fair and respectful communication.

Kissel was also sanctioned on another offence resulting from comments she made in a voice mail. She has since apologized for the comments, but the sanction remains.

Kissel says the matter is being followed closely by other municipal councillors. 

"I've had people from as far away as Bonnyville and Athabasca and all over calling me," says Kissel. "A lot of them are telling their stories and a lot of them are watching our story."

"'I've talked to Municipal Affairs and the Code of Conduct is a problem. What they are saying is it's a problem all over Alberta. So I think everybody's watching to see what's going to happen with this."

In Oct. 2017, amendments to the Municipal Government Act came into effect that required municipalities to adopt codes of conduct. Many already had these in place, but it now required more details and regulations.

The councillors believe the information nights were valuable.

"Even the people who don't necessarily understand it or buy-in or are even opposed to it, any information and feedback is positive," says Wright.

She says by far the most common questions were how to sign the petition and where to send money to support the councillors in their fight.

Several former RVC councillors attended the information sessions, including former county reeve and division 3 councillor Margaret Bahcheli.

Bahcheli has launched a fundraising page to help the councillors with legal fees which are already hovering around the $30,000 mark. In seven days it has raised $6,040 towards its $100,000 goal.

She believes it's unfair for the councillors to have been sanctioned for basically writing a letter to the editor and calling out the reeve on how the hiring was conducted.

"My motivation is I don't want to see these guys getting crushed because I have seen RVC tell taxpayers residents 'we're going to delay your lawsuit until you can't financially support it anymore'," she told the crowd.

Signatures continue to be collected for a petition launched by a group called Stop Our Sanctions (SOS) is calling for the inspection of the management, administration and operations of the county by Alberta Municipal Affairs. They collected over 250 signatures at the meetings.

Reeve Boehlke says he's unable to comment extensively on the legal action being taken by the three councillors because it's going to court.

"They have that right," he said previously. "As far as my thoughts on it, I have plenty but I shouldn't say them."

Meanwhile, further complaints of violations of the county's code of conduct have been taking time on the council's agenda. A complaint filed against Kissel by Reeve Boehkle will be discussed in an in-camera on Sept. 24. It was tabled from the Sept. 10 meeting to allow Kissel's lawyer to be present.

Kissel also filed a complaint against the reeve for an undisclosed matter that was dealt with at the Sept. 10. It was dismissed.