The complete report from the District of Lantzville’s recent legal opinion on current members of council will not be made public.
On Wednesday (Oct. 12), Lantzville council voted 4-3 against releasing the legal opinion on whether councillors were in a conflict of interest on the water agreement with Nanaimo.
Earlier this year, the district’s legal counsel determined that no councillor was found be in conflict. The full report has never been released.
Coun. Denise Haime, who made the motion at the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting, said the findings from the legal opinion should be released, especially given that councillors identified transparency as an area for improvement.
“The reason I am making the motion is because it’s all over social media and it has been in the paper and residents would like to know what the legal opinion had to say, so why not let them know?” Haime said.
She also noted that the 2011-14 Lantzville council released a legal opinion regarding the same conflict of interest issue to the public.
“I just think we need to release legal opinion in its entirety and let the residents read it and make their own decisions on their content,” Haime said.