By Pepper Parr
April 17th, 2029
BURLINGTON, ON
The relevant thing about a democracy is that citizens decide who is going to lead the government.
We do that by holding elections – some politicians take the position that you elected me and I can do the job as I see it.
Modern democracies have governments that listen to their constituents on a regular basis. In Burlington we have people delegating to their city council. For an unfortunate period of time there were very few delegations. The people who did the delegating began to feel they were not being heard
That has changed. Delegators know that they are not being heard and have decided that, nevertheless, they are going to speak and on Tuesday they did speak.
The Council Chamber was far from full. That smiling face at center right is former ward 3 Councillor John Taylor who was busy taking notes.
Two delegators: Ann Marsden and Lynn Crosby did a superb job of reminding Mayor Meed Ward of just what her job was and what it wasn’t.
There is little doubt that they had any impact on the Mayor. She is too committed to the Strong Mayor powers she has – the public is going to have to wait it out until October of 2026 – 30 months away – when they can elect a different Mayor. Who the other candidates for the Office of Mayor will be is unknown at this point – what was important today is what Marsden and Crosby had to say.
Read on – they were both right on.
Ward 2 resident Lynn Crosby delegating before Council. She was a significant part of Meed Ward’s election team.
Crosby was there to present the Petition for Restoration of Democracy at Burlington City Council and Opposing the Strong Mayor Powers.
“It is truly sad to find myself feeling the need to delegate to ask my own mayor and council to stand up for democracy and its basic tenet of majority rule and that I’m doing it for a second time because it seems the Mayor may need more convincing.
“I understand that in filing the petition last Friday, we were too late. We erred. As a result, we needed a 2/3’s majority vote today to allow the petition to be received. I thank you all for voting to approve the receipt of the petition. It is certainly ironic that our protocols could ever block a peoples’ petition, the sole subject of which is the return of democracy to council. I note that our rules require 2/3’s of you to bypass a procedural filing deadline but only one of you, the Mayor, can hire and fire the CAO or overrule the elected representatives of almost 200,000 people.
“The petition was started on March 26 and as of this morning there are over over 600 signatures. The petition is in support of the Motion by Councillors Nisan, Stolte and Galbraith in which they asked the Mayor to delegate to Council the powers and duties assigned to the head of council with respect to the City Manager, as well as asking her to delegate other powers and duties to council as outlined in that Motion. We intend to keep the petition active until such time as the Mayor agrees to all of council’s requests.
“We are both disappointed and surprised by the Mayor’s decision, as expressed late last week in her ‘open letter’, which some residents may have seen. When all her supporting verbiage is stripped away, what remains, the single end result, is the fact that she is willing to surrender only one of the Strong Mayor powers and this one only to the City Manager and CAO – an unelected official who reports only to her rather than to Council as a whole.
“Without conceding to the council request in its entirety, and instead cherry picking one power only, the Mayor has made things worse. One main intent of the Council motion was that our elected Councillors should have equal say in the hiring and firing of senior staff, including the City Manager. Allowing the Mayor alone to have this power, or her now giving it to the City Manager while the Mayor retains sole authority over he or she effectively concentrates all the power with the Mayor. There is no change. For all practical purposes, you have the Mayor and an unelected official selected by the Mayor running the organization.
As Councillor Nisan recently opined in the Hamilton Spectator, “whether used or sheathed, the mere presence of this weapon can wreak havoc on a municipal administration like Burlington’s. It not only undermines local democratic institutions, but potentially also creates a municipal administration rife with the opportunity for dysfunction as staff may be in constant fear of the strong mayor and being “next.””.
Speaking of the Mayor ward 2 resident Lynn Crosby said “she’s heard from us now.”
“This doesn’t change at all with the Mayor retaining her power to hire and fire the City Manager and then delegating to him the power to potentially do her bidding in regard to the hiring and firing of senior staff. I also suggest that council look at the current version of the petition – some of the most recent names may interest you when pondering Councillor Nisan’s words regarding staff, particularly recent exits.
“The Mayor has said in the past that she hadn’t heard directly from the public that they were opposed to the strong mayor powers. While I respectfully suggest that if that is what she thought, she wasn’t paying attention to the commentary that was circulating out in the community, the fact is, she’s heard from us now.
“I ask council to accept the petition today as valuable feedback received from hundreds of Burlington residents; read the comments on it and Mayor please return all powers that you can as requested by the majority of your council.”
Marsden:
Ann Marsden took a slightly different tack saying “The most important part of the request that Nisan, Galbraith and Stolte was that the Mayor delegate to Council the powers and duties assigned to the head of council under the Municipal Act, with respect to the City Manager.
Thursday April 11, 2024 Mayor Meed Ward publicly made it clear she was not going to give up that power.
What is even more troubling with the Burlington Mayor’s position is the statement she made to Grant Lafleche of the Hamilton Spectator published on April 11, 2024.
“She said (the Mayor) having these powers (to hire the CAO) protects the CAO from “undue pressure behind the scenes by any member of council.” According to Lafleche Mayor Meed Ward refused to say if she believed Councillors were manipulating City Manager Tim Commisso. .
“Further, Mayor Meed Ward claimed in the LaFleche article that it was important that the CAO and the Mayor, were compatible. Compatibility with the Mayor and indeed all members of Council is something that can never be decided until time proves it is so. More important than compatibility with the Mayor, however, is the ability of CAO to be free to take a stand at Council when the Mayor or indeed any member of council is promoting a path that will see them acting outside any legislation and thereby putting the City at immense risk.
“Besides raising the issue publicly that Mayor Meed Ward believes she needs to protect a very experienced and talented CAO from her fellow Councillors she has, in our minds, spoken publicly about fellow members of Council in a manner that our Code of Governance and “Respect in the Workplace Policy” prohibits.
We believe there is only one way Mayor Meed Ward can fix this. Publish a decision immediately after this Council meeting that reverses her decision and delegates the powers to hire the CAO to council with a majority rule and commit not to undelegate this power.
Sadly the chances of that happening are the same as Anne running a 20 yard dash.
“For the Mayor to make the changes four of the seven member Council asked her to do would mean she had listened to what constituents had to say.”
Yesterday I attended the Council Meeting where democracy was on the agenda and the Mayor was being asked by a majority of Councilors to delegate certain critical Strong Mayor Powers back to Council in two cases and to the City Manager in the other case. It promised to include some high drama because in some ways it was putting the Mayor herself on trial to defend why she alone needed these certain powers rather than all of the elected Council members.
The Motions by the majority of Councilors had been introduced a month ago in the March Council Meeting, waited to be heard a week later at the March 26th Special Council Meeting and were, but the Mayor asked for more time to consider her responses. She was given until yesterday. Instead, she responded early on April 12, 2024 with an Open Letter to Council in which in particular she disagreed that Council should hire and fire a City Manager and provided her logic as to why she alone should have this duty and responsibility (with counsel from Council she said) on the effective date of April 22, 2024, when the new City Manager starts his job.
I’m not sure her decision on this point was a use of a Strong Mayor Power or just a decision to leave things as is under the Strong Mayor Power (I’m not a lawyer but wondering if I should be in order to ever understand the machinations of running a City under all of the rules and regulations). Either way, she’d made her point in a letter before the Meeting occurred along with her reasonings.
Two excellent delegations by Lynn Crosby and Anne Marsden spoke to the need for the elected Council in a democracy to have the responsibility in order to share it and have the City Manager clearly beholden to Council, not to the Mayor alone.
This was backed up by a petition signed by over 600 citizens requesting just that, in the name of majority rule democratic practice plus over 70 letters in support of the motions. You can see and hear their delegations and questions by hitting the link below and fast forwarding to minute 49 through time 1:05 for Lynn and then time 1:14 through time 1:24 for Anne. Great jobs ladies!
Skip forward to time 2:38:50 through time 3:29 you can view Councilor Kearns and other Councilors discussing the petition and its purpose and voting to receive and file it. During this time all the four Councilors asking for the power to hire and fire the City Manager made their best attempts to justify why it was paramount for the Mayor to delegate the power to Council and why democracy was being challenged with the Strong Mayor Powers. All Councilors took part in the question and answer along with the Mayor. It became a very interesting debate, but you could see that the Mayor was not going to budge and she had two Councilors backing her. The Mayor needed her own vote and two others (at least one third of Council) to get her way if it ever came to vote. The rest of Council needed at least two thirds of Council or five votes to win for democracy. Alas, it was not to be democracy’s day in Burlington with just the original four Councilors in favour of the Hire/Fire City Manager in Council’s hands, a majority but not a the super majority required to beat back a Strong Mayor Power.
I and others realized that if the Mayor had been disallowed to vote on Motions that directly involved her use of her Super Powers, the vote of four supporting the Motions versus two not supporting, would have attained the two-thirds required to change the course of history in Burlington yesterday in a good way. In a democratic way. It was not to be. There was nothing to vote on. The Strong Mayor had spoken. Below is the Council Meeting video that you can watch at the above-mentioned times and judge yourself.
https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?ClientId=burlington&FileName=iSiLIVE%20Encoder%20763_Regular%20Meeting%20of%20Council_2024-04-16-09-10.mp4
It didn’t matter what the vote was. Council can’t force the Mayor to delegate her power to hire/fire the CAO. The Municipal Act gives the power to the Mayor.
Only a change to the Municipal Act can change that.
However it is important that the public understands the majority of council and over 600 members of public are on the record that she should give back to Council the power to hire and fire the CAO along with what is now delegated to CAO. Further her innuendos that by so doing she is protecting the CAO from actions of oconcillors that she refuses to confirm have or have not occurred. Until what she started through public statements is properly dealt with we have a huge confidence problem that all is well with those spending our money and reputedly acting in our best interests In all matters that affect 200 000 plus residents.
Those who tuned in to the April 16, 2024 Council meeting will remember Mayor Meed Ward correcting our misunderstanding that Steve Parrish was a current Mayor. He served on Ajax Council for 23 years the majority of which he was Mayor. He also lead finishing the work of the previous council and ensured ALL the town lake front property is PUBLICLY OWNED – that is our type of informed and productive Mayor. He also had a lot to do with the formation of the Green Belt and ensuring all the Ajax land that was classsified as Urban became a part of tit. . That in our books is a Mayor like Hazel McCallion whose opinion was valued right up until she passed away.
Therefore we reiterate the validity of former Ajax Mayor’s comment in July 2023 put forward in our delegation to support a majority decision of council and petition:
“”Granting the mayor sole authority to appoint the municipality’s chief administrative officer is particularly troubling.”
We have an elected Mayor who flatly refuses to listen to the voice of the people or the majority of her council. Her “on the record” voiced opinions/criticisms and inuendos directed to delegates and follow councillors, shows her disrespect for the recorded rules of doing business that strong mayor legislation or not she must comply with.
This is not the end of this matter.