By Mark Squibb/October 28, 2022
The revolving staff door at Witless Bay keeps on spinning.
Council voted — though not unanimously — to officially terminate its contract with former Town Manger Sean Kavanagh during last week’s public meeting.
Councillor Ralph Carey put forward a motion that Kavanagh be dismissed, without cause, as of June 9, with pay in lieu of notice.
Carey explained that as per the Municipalities Act, the matter had to be put to a vote first in a privileged meeting, before being voted on again in a public meeting.
Carey did not signify how many weeks pay Kavanagh would be provided.
Councillor Nancy Burke alone was opposed to the motion.
“I just want to say that I wasn’t here when all of these things went down,” said Burke, who had recently returned from a lengthy leave of absence. “I was still on my leave of absence. And I feel, because there weren’t things in writing for me to review, that I’ve just seen one side of things. So, for that reason, I’ll be voting against the motion, and I just wanted to make that known. I don’t want to make an uninformed vote.”
Apart from Burke, the other four council members present – Mayor Trevor Croft, Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard, councillor Carey, and councillor Gerard Dunne – voted in favour of the motion. Councillors Alex Troake and Jacob Hayden were not present at the meeting.
The motion passed without any further discussion.
The Town hired Kavanagh in February 2021, after Kevin Kelley, whom the town had hired in September, resigned in October.
At the time of Kavanaugh’s hiring, Yard boasted that council had saved taxpayers thousands of dollars by overseeing the hiring process themselves, rather than paying a consultant to do so, as is the typical protocol.
Upon hearing rumors of Kavanagh’s dismissal back in June, the Irish Loop Post reached out to the town hall, Mayor Croft, Deputy Mayor Yard, and Kavanagh himself.
Yard declined comment, saying the mayor was the official town spokesperson. Croft said Kavanagh was on a leave of absence. Kavanagh himself confirmed that he was technically on a leave of absence, but that he wasn’t at liberty to discuss it at that moment.
Mayor Croft said Monday he is unable to comment regarding the issue as of now. He added that he will gladly comment when able to.
The Irish Loop Post phoned the Witless Bay Town Hall during business hours on Monday, Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, and each call went to voice mail. Three voice messages were left asking town staff to return the call, but by deadline on Thursday, staff had not returned the calls.
Kavanagh too could not be reached.
During the February meeting in which council approved Kavanagh’s hiring, council also approved the hiring of fire chief Jack Gatherall. He was hired to replace former fire chief Maria Churchill, who was hired by the Town in May and then tendered her resignation in October.
Prior to that, longstanding assistant town clerk Barb Harrigan resigned in the summer of 2021, but then returned to the office for a brief stint before retiring in March.
Former Town Clerk Geraldine Caul, who herself had been on leave since well before the 2021 election, was called in to act as acting Town Manager during Kavanagh’s absence.
