The smell at Pickering’s city hall just got worse and it’s called secrecy, a group of 30 protesters complained at a rally Saturday over the York-Durham sewage system expansion project.

Bad enough they’ll have York Region’s raw waste flowing through their community, worse that council changed its mind three weeks ago about fighting the region in court, said protesters carrying “stop the stink” signs and pictures of toilets.

But worse still, the decision was made behind closed doors, leaving them without a voice and in the dark about why legal action was dropped.

“As a Pickering taxpayer I want to know why we had three legal opinions and the mayor saying a few months ago that we had a winnable case,” said Dan Murphy, who’s lived in the city for 28 years. “They owe it to us to explain the reasons. There’s too much secrecy.”

At a public council meeting on July 12, Mayor Dave Ryan announced that during a closed meeting a week earlier, council voted to stop legal action because they had little chance of winning. They agreed to negotiate a settlement with York instead.

The lawsuit alleged that York failed to treat Pickering residents fairly or consult them on all aspects of the so-called Big Pipe expansion. More than $400,000 had been set aside to cover legal costs.

“I want them to tell us what they’re doing but they hid and ran,” demanded Michael Borie, who lives 300 metres from a proposed odour control facility on the route York’s sewage will take to a treatment plant on Lake Ontario.

“I want leadership, I don’t want dictatorship,” he said to cheers from the small crowd, which did a quick tour through Pickering Town Centre with a security guard in pursuit.

Councillor Jennifer O’Connell, a vocal opponent of the sewage expansion project, repeated her accusations of a “gag order” placed on councillors about details of the July 5 closed meeting and vote.

“Behind closed doors they stabbed us all in the back,” she said. “Coming here today shows them we’re not going to give up.”

The city clerk’s reminder to councillors to keep quiet “is just wrong,” O’Connell said. “I don’t believe you can tell a member of council they can’t share with the community how they voted, and I’m furious at the lack of transparency.”

But Ryan denied there was a gag order, saying little information could be released because of the pending settlement with York. Details will be made public at the end of the process, he said in an interview.

That’s little comfort to Marie Thomas, a runner and Pickering resident who lives close to the existing sewage system.

“My real concern is the smell and the waste going through a once-pristine area,” she said. “In the heat of summer, I’ve gotten a whiff of it from the old sewage pipe.”

Marion Thomas added a lone voice of dissent as the protesters gathered on the street.

“I’m dead against the pipe but I’m dead against continuing with the lawsuit. There’s no hope in hell of winning.”

Thomas said she already pays more than $5,000 in taxes for a two-bedroom house and homeowners like her can’t afford more.

“It’s unfair for Pickering residents to bear the costs of this lawsuit,” she said. “But having made the deal (to drop it), councillors should come clean on how they voted.”