Cornwallis council appoints Ross acting reeve

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This article was published 09/04/2025 (429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RM of Cornwallis council has formally accepted the resignation of embattled reeve Sam Hofer and appointed deputy reeve Terry Ross to the position of acting reeve.

Hofer stepped down on Monday after 23 years on council, citing a lack of support from fellow council members and “fundamental differences in values, priorities and approaches to governance.” He announced his immediate resignation in a letter to residents, saying he could no longer effectively serve the community.

Council met Monday evening to address the matter following Hofer’s resignation, which was submitted in writing, Ross told the Sun on Tuesday.

“We accepted his letter of resignation,” Ross said. “And as for a path forward, we still have to figure that out with Municipal Affairs. There will have to be a byelection at some point to elect a new reeve.”

As to the date of the byelection, Ross said the ink “isn’t even dry” on Hofer’s letter of resignation, adding there is still a significant amount of work to be done at the municipal office. He acknowledged that organizing the byelection is a priority but said the timing would be determined by the CAO.

Ross said there is no change in governance following Hofer’s resignation, and assured ratepayers that municipal operations will continue without disruption.

“Everything will proceed as normal,” he said. “The ratepayers of the municipality need not worry. All the bills are being paid, and everything is moving forward as it should.”

Asked how council received Hofer’s resignation, Ross said no one took pleasure in the decision.

“Reeve Hofer was a member of the team,” he said. “I can’t speak for the others, so I won’t, but nobody took any great joy in what was done. There was no malice, there was no conspiracy — it’s just how it played out.”

Ross described the former reeve as a valued contributor to the municipality.

“It’s unfortunate that things had to turn out the way they did,” he said. “Reeve Hofer had a lot of really great, fantastic ideas. I’m not going to speculate as to how anybody else feels about him, but he was a valuable member of the team.”

When asked whether Hofer would be missed, Ross responded without hesitation: “Oh yeah, of course, he’ll be missed.”

In his resignation letter to the community, Hofer claimed that the 2022 and 2023 year-end audited financial statements had not been produced, “leaving a gap in our understanding of the municipality’s financial health.”

On Tuesday, Ross confirmed the audit for 2022 is still underway.

“The reeve knows that the audit is almost finished,” he said. “When you have such a turnover of employees, documents get misplaced, receipts get lost, and filing doesn’t get done — or people file things differently. That’s why the audit is taking longer, because they’ve had to spend more time locating these documents.”

Responding to Hofer’s stated concerns about meeting notifications and municipal processes, Ross said the municipality’s actions have been in “full compliance with the Municipal Act.”

Hofer said he was unavailable for an interview Tuesday but asked the reporter to call back the next day.

“The network fluctuates here, so please call me back tomorrow,” he said.

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