The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has overruled a decision by Kings County council to change electoral boundaries and seat distribution in time for the municipal election this fall.

The board took issue with the way the boundaries were redrawn by the municipality's CAO, and one councillor says the plan protected the seats of two councillors.

The UARB ruled that the council ignored recommendations from Stantec Consultants — the company hired by council to look at the issue — instead going with a plan crafted by CAO Tom MacEwan, dubbed the Alternate 8 proposal.

The board found the proposal "seriously offends" important requirements in the Municipal Government Act concerning the reflection of communities of interest when re-drawing district boundaries.

Debate over where to draw boundaries

The board rejected MacEwan's proposal of combining of communities along Highway 359 — including Centreville, Meadowview and Aldershot — with Coldbrook on the opposite side of the Cornwallis River.

Stantec followed a very traditional way of drawing districts, using rivers and highways as boundaries, MacEwan said, defending the move.

He argued he wanted the municipality to move away from this historic method to create more of a mix of urban and rural areas within individual seats.

The scenario approved by the UARB also splits a well-defined community of interest — the village of Greenwood, he added.

He's confused why his proposal was rejected, and the other one stands.

Reducing council size

Last fall, Kings County Council hired the consulting company to research the public's appetite for switching from a warden system to a mayoral system, and whether to reduce the number of council seats.

The draft report listed four possible scenarios and Stantec indicated its preference of going with a nine-seat council, plus a mayor.

After seeing the preliminary report, MacEwan emailed the consultants to say he wanted to suggest a different scenario.

He says he created his Alternate 8 proposal using the raw data Stantec used to develop its analysis and recommendations to council.

Proposal was a 'surprise'

Coun. Peter Muttart says MacEwan's proposal came as surprise when a Stantec consultant listed it among the options at three public meetings in late November 2015.

"I had not seen it before and therefore never had a chance to consider its merits," Muttart said.

On Dec.15, council held a special meeting to settle the matter of electoral district boundaries.

'Smacked of gerrymandering'

Muttart says he found MacEwan's proposal problematic because it largely protects the seats of two sitting councillors — Deputy Warden Brian Hirtle and Coun. Wayne Atwater — while Stantec's proposals did not.

"One of those two councillors was left without a district to run in, unless they were to compete with one another," said Muttart, who's also running for mayor of the municipality in the fall.

But in MacEwan's proposal, those two districts were reinstated as separate districts.

"Their eight-district scenario also created a distinct disadvantage for some of the councillors in the east, which happened to be the councillors with whom they had the most conflict," Muttart said.

"It smacked of gerrymandering."

MacEwan also says there was no input from councillors between the time the draft report came in and when council voted on the final proposal.

Council not appealing decision

By a narrow vote, Kings County Council adopted the Alternate 8 proposal and approved the switch to a mayoral system.

Deputy Warden Brian Hirtle told CBC News that he did not give instructions to MacEwan on how to craft Alternate 8 — only that he had previously expressed interest in re-aligning districts for a more rural and urban mix.

"It's unfortunate that it was earmarked around election time so that it talks about the individual districts people happen to hold at this moment in time," Hirtle said.

MacEwan says he came up with the Alternate 8 scenario in consultation with Stantec, but the UARB rejected that argument. The board ruled the evidence shows the proposal was created entirely by MacEwan, and that Stantec only provided minor technical adjustments.

Kings County Council voted on Aug. 2 not to appeal the UARB's decision.