Editor:
Re: Councillor receives apology over censures, Feb. 19.
I was dumbfounded to read the recent article about Coun. David Chesney receiving an apology from our council for some of his past misadventures – and getting paid in arrears to boot.
His first censuring was given because Chesney took responsibility for (a possibly defamatory remark about) another member of council in his online newspaper. He admitted to this and later apologized to the councillor.
His second censuring came as the result of committing a breach of trust and sharing of confidential information with another party (the Semiahmoo First Nation) during the course of negotiations. In this instance, during a break, Chesney left a closed council meeting, where the matter was being addressed, and met for a lengthy period of time off-site with one of the Semiahmoo councillors to discuss the negotiations.
He did so without the knowledge or approval of council. He admits to this, subsequently apologized for it, and says, “If I could do it over I would have handled things differently.”
So what is this council apologizing for? Chesney, yes, but council?
Then, to add insult to injury, Chesney will be reimbursed over $10,000 plus legal costs for doing nothing because of his censuring. Everyone else has to work for what they get – this freebie is unprecedented.
What is going on? There are alarming parallels to what Trump is doing with his pardons here. We should be disturbed by this – this is coming from our taxes and our taxes are not intended to be spent to make a ‘guilty as charged’ councillor feel good or be enriched with an unearned windfall.
Wayne Baldwin, White Rock
Editor’s note: Wayne Baldwin was mayor of White Rock at the time Coun. Chesney was censured.