Pat Septon said he resigned Aug. 28 as councillor-at-large for the rural municipality southwest of Fredericton because the series of events that has been difficult for him.

"It's been taxing, especially for me and I'm sure others," said Septon.

"I don't want to take away from the other councillors at all, including the ones perpetrating this. It's tough on everybody and frankly, maybe somebody else is going to have a better chance at succeeding than, than I have."

According to Mayor Dave Morrison, conflict that had been brewing between Septon and other councillors and municipal staff since last fall came to a head in December.

Twenty-six allegations were made that Septon violated the councillors' code of conduct, and an investigation by the municipal clerk deemed 19 to be founded.

That led to Septon being sanctioned, which included a reprimand, his remuneration being suspended for six months and a requirement he apologize to the clerk and assistant clerk.

Despite the sanctions, Morrison said, Septon continued breaching the code of conduct, prompting the community to solicit an independent investigator. Rollie King, a senior adviser with MC Advisory, affiliated with the McInness Cooper law firm, also found Septon breached the code of conduct.

Some of those breaches centred around statements Septon made on social media regarding the construction of a trail and crosswalk along Route 640 to accommodate students at the recently built Hanwell Park Academy school.

"He made unsubstantiated claims such as the RCMP did not want the trail installed," wrote the independent investigator, in his report.

"He asserted claims that were misleading and could harm the professional reputation of Staff including a statement to the effect that the [chief administrative officer] and another member of Council had no compassion for a child who was struck by a vehicle."

This summer, Hanwell councillors voted to amend their code of conduct bylaw to give them powers to suspend a councillor for breaching it, and at a later meeting on July 19, councillors voted 4-2 to suspend Septon for three months.

"Pat, I don't think really understood his role as councillor," Morrison said.

"He kind of [saw] himself as the overseer of council and you know, in Hanwell we've got 7,500 overseers of council, we certainly didn't need another one."

Controversy prompts another resignation

Septon isn't the only councillor resigning from his seat.

Deborah Peck also quit, as of last month, as councillor for Ward 5, over concerns she had that the ongoing conflict was preventing staff from effectively doing their jobs.

It comes less than a year after she was sworn in after winning a byelection for the new seat that represents a ward covering the annexed Kingsclear local service district.

Peck said her decision isn't in any way in support of Septon, adding that she filed her letter of resignation before learning he was doing the same.

She said the reason she resigned was that she didn't see any end to the conflict on council.

"I found that the stress the staff was going through definitely impacted the way councillors could do their work in a timely fashion," she said.

She said a big challenge to staff was having to process a flurry of requests under the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which poured in in recent months.

"There are so many requests for information ... being submitted to Hanwell. They take a tremendous amount of time."

Morrison said the municipality has fielded at least 15 right to information requests in recent months, some of which have come from Septon, and others from members of the public who he encouraged to do the same.

"They're just frivolous and people are just doing it to, you know, tie up time for whatever reasons," he said.

"It's too bad because, I mean, it hurts the community, it keeps council from moving forward, getting stuff done that we'd like to get done."

3 seats open for byelection

On top of the two recent resignations, the council seat for Ward 4 has remained vacant since an earlier resignation last fall.

That means three seats will be on the ballot for the Oct. 23 municipal byelection.

"I encourage people to put their name out there and and and run for office," Morrison said.

"But I certainly don't encourage anybody out there that has their own personal agenda."