A Rossland businessman who recently settled a lawsuit against several current and former members of city council wants mayor Andy Morel to resign.
Warren Hamm told council Monday evening they were “set up to fail from the start,” having inherited “substantial issues” from the previous council, whom he accuses of “demonstrable bias in decision-making processes, overt favoritism, non-compliance with applicable laws, and repeated encroachments upon legal and ethical standards and acts of bad faith.”
Hamm is the principal of three companies that started a lawsuit in 2023 against Morel, former mayor Kathy Moore, current councillor Stewart Spooner, and former councillors Dirk Lewis and Terry Miller.
All five objected to granting permits to Hamm to log properties he owns. Hamm subsequently sued the City of Rossland and a judge found council acted in bad faith by denying the permits and immediately adopting a beefed-up tree management bylaw.
Hamm then filed another suit naming the five council members, alleging they intended to hurt him financially and breached their duty to act fairly. While the City of Rossland wasn’t named as a co-defendant, it’s never been clear if the city picked up part or all of the legal bill. Vista Radio has filed a Freedom of Information request seeking that information.
In his statement to council Monday, Hamm alleged a “manifest dereliction of duty in leadership and governance has precipitated the financial crisis now confronting Rossland with urgency, the repercussions of which shall burden all Rossland residents for an extended period, presuming remediation remains viable.”
He asked Morel, who has a year remaining in his term, to resign. Failing that, he asked council to pass a motion calling for his resignation. Hamm said the requests are unrelated to his lawsuit, and instead area about his concerns as a citizen about the city’s financial position.
Morel said he’s not going to quit. While he didn’t address Hamm’s allegations directly, he said agreeing to settle the lawsuit wasn’t easy.
“It meant setting aside the opportunity to fully clear my name in court, and accepting that I may never receive a definitive legal answer on the issues that mattered to members of council — such as how it could be unlawful to vote against clearcutting on residential lands where the zoning bylaw prohibited forestry uses,” Morel said. “But settlement often requires compromise, and this case was no exception.”
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