War of words heats up at Dryden City Council

The battle between the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Dryden and council Ritch Noel is getting heated.

Noel has issued a challenge to Roger Nesbitt regarding his report to council that there were no severance costs accrued by the city in 2025.

“So, I put to you sir, that if I made an FOI (Freedom of Information) request and found out that there was something else paid out in 2025, and could prove it, without disclosing a name, would you resign for misleading council and the taxpayers of this city,” said Noel in his comments to Dryden city Council at the open meeting this week.

For his rebuttal, Nesbitt says part of his job is to make sure councillors are being kept accountable.

“I have worked for the better part of this term of council, to ensure that councillor Noel is accountable for his actions. And obviously now, I’m being targeted now for my due diligence.”

Nesbitt wrote a report for the council meeting which concluded, “As for the councillor’s attempts to publicly blame municipal staff for the extremely rare occasions of labour related litigation, it is a completely baseless insinuation and exposes the municipality to further liability and associated costs and can create a toxic work environment for municipal staff.