Saint-Sévère, this village in Mauricie struggling with cows on the run last fall, must now find a mayor, his having resigned following complaints to the Quebec Municipal Commission.
“The council meeting is Wednesday the 1ster November and that is when I will announce to the members of the council when the elections will be,” indicated the general director and clerk-treasurer, Marie-Andrée Cadorette, by telephone on Wednesday.
Mayor Jean-Yves St-Arnaud resigned last week after being the subject of at least two complaints to the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ). These complaints allegedly referred to access to the email box and messaging of the DG’s Facebook account, without the DG’s knowledge, reported The Nouvelliste.
“Despite what may be communicated by people who have information regarding the file, we, at the Commission, neither confirm nor deny,” indicated a spokesperson, David Dusseault.
“I am not one of the complainants, I did not file a complaint,” stressed Mr.me Cadorette, who declined to comment.
The small municipality of Saint-Sévère, which has 340 inhabitants, acquired sudden notoriety last fall, when it found itself with around twenty young cows escaped from a farm in Saint-Barnabé, a neighboring village.
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The mayor and the general director appeared side by side on the set of the show Everybody talks about itwhere the latter had made a remarkable appearance.
“On a daily basis, the municipality is me all alone in my office […] in a dress and in stiletto heels: I’m not going cow hunting! », Exclaimed Mme Cadorette.
The current situation in Saint-Sévère is reminiscent of the events in Sorel-Tracy, where ex-mayor Serge Péloquin hid a recording device in the clerk’s office. The Superior Court declared Mr. Péloquin “disqualified from exercising the function of member of the council of any municipality” for one year, starting June 8, 2022.
Jean-Yves St-Arnaud became mayor of Saint-Sévère in 2017, after serving a first term as municipal councilor. He was re-elected without opposition in 2021, the year in which he was also elected prefect of the MRC of Maskinongé. The election of a new prefect is scheduled for the next MRC council, on November 8. The mayor of Louiseville serves as interim prefect.