Marlene Werry resigned this week after having been an interim board member of the FarmTech Growers Co-op since last fall. Ms. Werry said she served in an advisory capacity while the co-op was being set up and has come under fire for her role.

"She was on the interim board to establish it, and now it's established she should not be on the board," said Durham's Economic Development Commissioner Pat Olive on Wednesday.

Mr. Olive said his department sought legal counsel before she took the position and that Ms. Werry does not stand to gain financially from her involvement.

"This lady does not have any fiscal arrangement or fiscal investment with this board of directors. She has, point blank, no conflict of interest," he said.

"My department and myself do not perceive it as a conflict of interest because of my experience working with co-ops, because it's an advisory capacity and because it's interim," said Ms. Werry.

The share offering for the co-op closed at the end of March and a new board will be elected from among the members.

But, Ms. Werry's role has been criticized by those who feel it's inappropriate for her to serve on the board, including Oshawa Mayor John Gray, who called Ms. Werry's involvement "absolutely wrong.

"I still think it needs to be more up front than that. There's something in this day and age called transparency and accountability," he said.

Michael Maynard, an ethanol plant opponent, agrees with the mayor. He's a member of the Oshawa Liberal riding association, but said he speaks on the issue as an Oshawa resident.

"I think the department could be providing information and support as the Region of Durham, but not as an insider on the board of directors," he said. "In my opinion, it's not appropriate for someone to be involved in the board of directors, if only because of the perception that something could be going wrong."

But, FarmTech Energy Corporation president Dan O'Connor thinks Ms. Werry was simply doing her job.

"Marlene Werry is a rural economic development officer and this plant will be the biggest single contributor to rural economic development in the area that we've seen in a long time," he said, adding that, once operational, the plant would purchase $60 million of corn from the local community.

The other members of the co-op board are Sunderland Co-op general manager Clare Hayes and Mr. O'Connor's brother, Sean O'Connor. They all participated on a voluntary basis.

Dan O'Connor estimated there would eventually be roughly 800 co-op members and the co-op would own a portion of the plant based on how much equity it raised.

Criticism of Ms. Werry's position on the board flared up in light of a report submitted by economic development to David Crombie -- who is assessing the future of Oshawa's harbour -- after Mr. Crombie met with Regional Chairman Roger Anderson on Feb. 22.

Mayor Gray is upset the report was never floated by council or its committees and was surprised with part of the vision for the port being industrial. He said he doesn't think industrialization is the best use of the port.

"I don't ever want to face another surprise like this. It's not hard to pick up the phone; it's not hard to consult us," said Mayor Gray.

Mr. Olive said the report, which he calls more of a response than a report, was generated because of questions Mr. Crombie had after meeting with the Regional chairman and was pulled together from pieces of other reports.

"We gave some statistics and some ideas... on what was happening in marine transportation and what we believe should happen to the port," said Mr. Olive. "The point was it had to be in David Crombie's hands within a day so it was a quick turnaround."

Mayor Gray doesn't buy that explanation.

"Amazing how quickly a report can be generated; isn't it quite a miracle," he said.

Although Mr. Olive declined to say whether Ms. Werry worked on the report, saying that it was an effort by the whole department, an attached letter on the issue of the harbour's future was a result of Ms. Werry calling for submissions.

"We got a number of other ones, but we didn't include them," she said.

As it stands, Mr. O'Connor is asking the City of Oshawa to rezone the land for the plant, which would be leased from the Oshawa Harbour Commission. If the rezoning is successful, Mr. O'Connor said the $185-million plant can be completed in 16 months.