Ted Haraldson – protesting Jan. 2011 lock out of electorate by UBID board. Now he pulls the same crap!
More Dunning-Kruger effect from UBID Chair
Ha ha. Looks like they think they can ignore Jason Gratl’s letter the same way they ignore all correspondence. Let’s see how that works out for them.
They just don’t get it… “it’s gone out on the website to all landowners”? How does that work? He doesn’t grasp anything to do with computers or the internet. I imagine the lot of them are challenged and the best they can muster is email and bloody Facebook!
It appears they are incapable of composing a letter in response to the one issued by Trustee Kaljur’s legal counsel, Jason Gratl. Why haven’t they retained a lawyer to represent them and respond properly? Look at the dog’s breakfast they created to inform Trustee Kaljur she was indefinitely suspended. They should be embarrassed.
Regarding the comments about the changing dates of the AGM and election see this post – another dog’s breakfast. Which mistake is Haraldson referring to as there are so many!!! https://allthingsunionbay.com/2019/01/29/why-is-ubid-screwing-around-with-the-election-date-wheres-the-motion-to-make-these-changes/
Union Bay Improvement District board apologizes to trustee; deadline remains for other demands
UBID board complies with one of the demands of a letter threatening legal action
- TERRY FARRELL
- Feb. 14, 2019 4:30 p.m.
- LOCAL NEWS
- NEWS
The Union Bay Improvement District board has complied with one of the demands of a letter sent by the lawyer of suspended trustee Susanna Kaljur.
On Jan. 10, UBID trustees Ted Haraldson, Rick Bitten, Glenn Loxam and Peter Jacques voted unanimously to suspend Kaljur from the board, for what they deemed as inappropriate behaviour.
RELATED: UBID board suspends trustee
Kaljur challenged the suspension, saying it had no legal standing.
The board received a letter from Kaljur’s legal counsel on Feb. 12, demanding a published apology signed by Haraldson, Bitten, Loxam and Jacques, with the threat of a lawsuit for non-compliance.
RELATED: Trustee threatens legal action against UBID board
There was a Feb. 15 deadline to meet the demands of the letter.
On Feb. 14, the UBID board posted a letter of apology on its website, signed by the four trustees who originally voted to suspend Kaljur.
“We have been advised by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing that there are no provisions under the Local Government Act allowing the Board to suspend an elected Trustee from office,” read the note, in part. “We acknowledge that the decision to suspend Trustee Kaljur is of no force or effect. We sincerely apologize to Trustee Kaljur for our actions in this manner and regret any inconvenience our decision may have caused her.
“We hope that as a Board, moving forward, we can work collectively and cooperatively to serve the interests of our residents.” (see end of article for pdf of letter)
A second portion of the Feb. 12 letter threatened legal action against Haroldson specifically, for what Kaljur’s counsel deemed as defamatory comments “published in the Comox Valley Now(sic) online newspaper.”
Kaljur pointed out that the publicly posted apology was only one of the demands in the letter.
“There are a number of issues which the board has not addressed adequately, which may result in further legal action,” she said.
“Both the apology for suspension letter and the apology letter from Ted Haraldson for defamation against myself (which has not yet been received) must be sent by mail to every landowner as Union Bay has a large number of seniors who do not use computers.”
Kaljur is also questioning the validity of any decisions that were made at UBID board meetings during her illegal suspension.
“The board meetings of January and February 2019 occurred without my knowledge or public notice, due to my being illegally suspended,” she said. “Now that the board has agreed this was illegal, this decision renders those meetings null and void which includes the highly irregular alteration of Union Bay’s election days and AGM.
“The simplest, fairest remedy is for the original election dates, open/close of nominations and the AGM revert back to the original dates voted on and passed at the 2018 AGM April 19, 2018.”
The Feb. 15 deadline remains in place for all other demands in the letter.
“Until all these conditions are met I will not be accepting any apology and I will have no other recourse but proceed with my lawsuit,” said Kaljur.
When contacted by The Record, Haraldson said the board has complied with all the demands it deems reasonable.
The publicly posted apology will not be sent to landowners by mail.
“The apology has gone out on our website, [which] goes to all the landowners,” said Haroldson. “It has not been mailed out – it’s gone out on the website to all the landowners.”
When asked how those without computers are to receive the apology, Haroldson was curt.
“That’s why there’s a newspaper.”
According to Haraldson, the change of dates for the election and nomination period was to rectify an error in the original posting and was strictly administerial, in order to comply with Elections BC.
“Those election dates were set wrong the previous election, and that’s why we are [changing them],” he said. The change didn’t [require] her to be there, or myself.”
The dates for the upcoming election and annual general meeting are as follows:
March 5 – Call for nominations
April 2 – Nomination window closes
April 9 – Advance poll
April 20 – Election
April 25 – Annual general meeting
As for a personal apology regarding the allegations of defamation of character, Haraldson sees no reason for an apology.
“There is no defamation of character,” he said.
Union Bay Improvement District Board of Trustees – the Dunning – Kruger effect
Everything they touch they screw up. When you receive correspondence from a lawyer on behalf of his client, you respond through the lawyer – not the client. Here’s a hint – it’s Jason Gratl.
Just add it to the list… Dunning – Kruger effect. Remember, at least 5 people were involved in the response and not one of them knew proper procedure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
UBID needs competent/qualified Admin to avoid stupid mistakes by trustees – like suspending an elected trustee!
History of the video bylaw. https://allthingsunionbay.com/2017/12/18/union-bay-improvement-district-bylaw-263-meeting-procedures-audio-video-recording-of-meetings-now-bylaw-270/
This is the first video UBID recorded after changing their bylaw preventing me or anyone from recording the meetings. I wouldn’t mind except the incompetence is mind boggling. My audio of the meeting is 1:28:06 and UBID’s video is 2:03:44 – how is that possible?
This video is a perfect example of the problems we have with these so called representatives. UBID bought a Go Pro camera to video record their own meetings claiming they wanted to retain copyright. Well that was all bullshit too. Their own bylaw states the videos will be only recorded by UBID and posted on their website. Because they are clueless and never research anything, they look like fools because they are uploading to Youtube which you automatically give up any copyright to the video.
The discussion regarding FOI requests is very telling. No matter what they are told they still think their bylaws trump Provincial and Federal legislation. That’s what you voted for – individuals who are clueless and refuse to allow any new information into their tiny brains.
The video below should have been 1 hour and 28 minutes. The reason UBID’s is 2 hours and 3 minutes is because at the 1:23.55.07 mark someone inserted the segment that starts at 1:06.03.16 and inserted at that mark again at 1:41.36.12. You can see the video frame suddenly change.
Then we have the Nov. 2017 meeting where Trustee Kaljur’s motion and the discussion which took 17 minutes was mysteriously erased and the minutes of the meeting do not contain any of the discussion. Below are 2 pages of the Nov. 2017 minutes with no mention of the discussion.
Here is the motion and the missing discussion which the board passed and then refused to follow through with the admin contacting the province and obtaining a letter telling them to get the Water Filtration System going. What a wimp.
Then at the December meeting the chair weaselled out of the approved motion from the Nov. 2017 meeting. They have refused to send a lousy letter. These clowns are not concerned about what the community wants.
Then the January 2018 meeting was not video recorded or audio recorded. The Administrator had to use my audio of the meeting to compose his minutes. The admin blamed the camera but didn’t offer any reason why he didn’t use the audio recorder used by UBID at every meeting!
The camera is returned and the Admin no longer is in charge of the recording and we are paying someone to come and turn the camera on and then off again at each meeting. How ridiculous.
This admin is not suitable for this position. He has zero government experience and has not attended any courses for him to learn the job. He’s learning FOI regulations one phone call at a time and appears to think this is acceptable.
If we had a qualified Admin we wouldn’t be having the problems with the board making stupid mistakes because they think if they vote on something – that makes it legal.
A competent Admin would be able to advise the trustees what their authority is and isn’t. There is no one who knows what they are doing at UBID and that’s why we have such a shitshow going on.
None of this shit would have happened when Kevin Douville was our Admin. He was a professional and knew his job. Always provided prompt answers to correspondence and if he didn’t know the answer he would find out and get back to the landowner.
We are scraping the bottom of the barrel hiring staff with no government experience – it’s mind boggling.
Comox Valley Record’s article on the ‘suspension’ of Trustee Susanna Kaljur and the legal action being taken
Suspended Union Bay trustee threatens legal action against UBID board
Legal counsel for Susanna Kaljur contends suspension is baseless; demands apology
- TERRY FARRELL
- Feb. 13, 2019 4:30 p.m.
- NEW
Suspended Union Bay Improvement District trustee Susanna Kaljur has threatened legal action against the other UBID trustees – Ted Haraldson, Rick Bitten, Glenn Loxam and Peter Jacques – claiming her suspension from the board has no legal standing.
She has also demanded a written apology from UBID chair Haraldson for “false and defamatory” statements published on the “Comox Valley Now” (sic) online newspaper.
A Feb. 12 letter to the trustees, sent by Jason Gratl, legal counsel for Kaljur, stated the Jan. 10 decision to suspend Kaljur indefinitely is baseless.
“There is no provision of the Local Government Act or regulations thereunder, or even a District Bylaw that allows for the removal of an elected trustee,” Gratl said in the letter.
The letter goes on to insist that each one of the aforementioned remaining trustees “publicly acknowledge that your purported removal is of no force and effect,” and demands that the acknowledgement be mailed to every elector in the Union Bay Improvement District. It offers a Feb. 15, 4 p.m. deadline for the acknowledgement, to avoid a lawsuit.
The second part of the letter deals with a quote Haraldson is alleged to have offered to the Comox Valley Now (sic) online publication.
The Feb. 12 letter addresses the following quotes: “As a trustee making these statements in a public blog about our employee is certainly cyber bullying” and that the “allegations can create … public safety concerns to UBID” and that “she’s endangering the public” by telling the public that a water turbidity threshold has been exceeded.
(See end of article for copy of the letter.)
According to the letter, “These statements are false and defamatory. Nothing Ms. Kaljur has said about any UBID employee amounts to cyber bullying. Trustee Kaljur has not created public safety issues. Trustee Kaljur has not endangered the public.”
Gratl then requests a written apology from Haraldson to Kaljur, with the same Feb. 15 (4 p.m.) deadline.
“Should you fail to make this apology, I am instructed to commence a lawsuit against you personally.”
Kaljur expects the board to comply with the demands listed within the letter.
“It is in the best interest of the landowners we serve, that the current Trustees; Ted Haraldson, Rick Bitten, Peter Jacques and Glenn Loxam, comply with these demands,” adding that she will follow through with a lawsuit should the contents of the letter be ignored. “I will be pursuing legal action against each trustee personally should they choose not to comply… My legal counsel Jason Gratl has made this very clear in the letter sent to the trustees.”
When Haraldson was contacted by The Record for comment, he said, in both instances, there has been no decision regarding any response to the requests.
“No decision at this time; that’s all I can really say right now.”
Kaljur is hopeful of a resolution, stating that, as an elected official, she has a responsibility to her constituents.
“I will continue to serve until April 2020 and to carry out my commitment to the electors,” she said. “I took an Oath of Office to be honest and uphold our bylaws, policies and the Local Government Act. I have done so and shall continue to do so.”
Trustee Kaljur retains Jason Gratl
I don’t want to steal Susanna’s thunder so I’ll wait a bit before posting the letter Jason Gratl sent on behalf of Trustee Susanna Kaljur – Nevertheless, she persisted!
Are you going to vote these idiots back in again when they are clueless about their powers and their limits?
I think the actions of these clowns should be added to my post about the underbelly of Union Bay. This tactic doesn’t get far in Canada.
I love how Minister Selena Robinson has been cc’d on the letter and also David Eby, the Attorney General. Robinson hasn’t shown any interest in the antics these clowns have pulled – maybe now she will pay attention to the clusterf_ _ _ created when the (Liberal) Ministry appointed a facilitator at the request of the VP of KIP and his spokesperson David Godfrey crying about UBID not extending an expired Water Infrastructure Agreement.
Time to clean house and get rid of these idiots who are not interested in learning what needs to be done. They never research, just make stupid statements off the top of their heads.
This is the article where Ted Haraldson defames Trustee Kaljur. I can hardly wait to read the grovelling apology. A lawsuit against him personally because his actions were not allowed as a trustee or Chair. https://www.mycomoxvalleynow.com/48594/union-bay-suspends-trustee-susanna-kaljur-indefinitely/
All four of them are looking at being sued personally because they did not have the authority to remove an elected official. Love this part of Jason’s letter: “It is integral to democracy that a majority of representatives on an elected body cannot remove from office another elected representative. Removing minority political opponents from office is the stuff of lesser systems of government for which no support can be found in our legal tradition.”
Tick tock – they only have until Feb. 15, 2019 at 4 pm.
Can’t say enough good things about Jason Gratl – he is a fantastic lawyer!
