Shawn Stolte will be the Chair for all the Standing Committee meetings until the end of this term of office

By Pepper Parr

July 16th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Edited lightly for length and clarity

Every meeting city council has is chaired by a member of Council.  The practice is for the job of serving as chair to be rotated between Council members.  Bentivegna was supposed to be Chair of the July 6^th meeting but he was not in the Chair when the meeting started.  Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman was doing the job.   Something was up.

Sharman started the meeting saying:

“At this point, a Motion requiring two-thirds support is being sought to appoint Councillor Shawna Stolte as Chair for the remainder of the current term of office – which will be up to October 26^th, when the municipal election takes place.

This surprised both Councillors Kearns and Nisan. The motion to put Stolte in the Chair required support from two thirds of the Council members.

Sharman who was serving as Chair said: “We need a mover for this motion.

Mayor Meed Ward had her hand up and said I support this and will move the motion.  I think Councillor Stolte did an outstanding job of chairing our last committee cycle. I think it’s extremely helpful to have somebody in the chair who is not running for re-election. She’s the only one, and so can help to ensure that our proceedings are focused on the business of the city and not campaigning or politicking in council chambers. So, I just want to take this opportunity to say what a great job you did, and I’m sure that you will do a great job in July.

Stolte:  I’m not the least bit interested in participating in a meeting like the one we had in June. That meeting was multiple members of committee, who were purposely argumentative, combative, and disruptive. I believe that many questions and commentary were used less for clarification on city business at hand and more geared to political posturing meant to impress, influence and potentially deceive the media and the public during the election period.

There have been many public statements and commentary around bullying in council chambers and shutting down of debate. I want to clarify that if I am to chair, there needs to be a decorum around respecting a procedural bylaw, respecting the expertise of our clerk and the authority of the chair and council chambers. Debate was procedurally ended, and votes were called to purposely curtail any kind of grandstanding or attention seeking. This type of behavior is not professional., On behalf of the community, I implore us all to have more respect for ourselves, have more respect for each other, the staff, and the public, and to do better. So, I’ll be chairing this meeting as mutually, as professionally, and efficiently as possible. I will not tolerate any disrespect towards the chair or any disrespect towards each other around this council chamber. If you agree to this, then vote in favor of this motion. If you’re not in agreement to act professionally and respectfully. Then do not vote in favor of this motion.

Councillor Nisan: Well, first of all, I think there’s a few things going on here. Our report says that CouncillorBentivegna would be chairing the meeting today, so just want to get clarity: why is Councillor Sharman currently in the seat.

Sharman:  The rotation of chairs report was amended earlier this year because, I believe, Councillor Stolty was absent Councillor Nissan chaired two in a row. That is why Councillor Sherman was supposed to be the chair, and then Councillor Bentivegna will be the chair in September.

Nisan: Okay, I guess my question is to Councillor Bentivegnia: Is he aware of this and was he willing to give up his role to chair.  He asks Bentivegnia – were you, were you aware of this change, or is this new to you?

Bentivegna: responds:  No Comment.

Councillor Kearns: Through the chair of the moment, I’m just wondering. I don’t think it’s a requirement to have a council member chair any of the committee meetings, because we do have other chairs in other standing committees of council, and I’m just wondering if there’s an option for staff to chair these meetings going forward. If the situation is as dire as expressed. We don’t yet know who is running for re-election and will not be certain until August when nominations close and there can be some significant changes.  So, my question to staff is, Can you please advise us if it’s possible to explore appointing a staff member to chair for the balance of the term?

City Clerk Michael De Rond: Generally it’s a member of the committee or a member of the council who would be the chair. I believe the Procedural by-law is silent on that; it would be very unorthodox for a member of staff to chair a meeting of elected officials,

Kearns: My question is; would that be possible with a motion?  If the rationale is that the chair that is being put forward because she is not running for reelection, that’s not a solid fact, because that fact can’t be proven until August 27^th.

City Clerk: I’d have to look into it and get back to you. I don’t believe it is possible.

My second question is this: Is there a way to appoint a member of public to chair until the balance of the term?

City Clerk:  I’d have to get back to you about that.

Sharman: In any event, we do have a motion on the floor.

Nisan:  I want to ask a question of Councillor Bentivegna: Would you agree to then pass the baton ( means the gavel) to Councillor Stolte in September?

Bentivegna:  Absolutely,

Councillor Nissan: I appreciate that no names were used moments ago with the apparently incoming chair’s prepared remarks, but I do want to note that the procedure by law was in fact broken twice last month at committee; once was to improperly close debate, the second time was when Councillor Sharman being allowed to then close that debate. I’m concerned about bias, I’m concerned about this being a railroading of this of this committee by a majority to put in someone in the chair.  I don’t even understand it, , but I can see the see the writing on the wall. It’s not that Councillor Kearns or me was going to be chairing it anyway, so I’m not sure what the problem is here. It’s, clear there’s plans that were not shared in advance. I think everyone should tell us if they, if they were part of this decision ahead of time.

The comments made by Councillor Stolte just showed that she has very strong opinions on one side of the procedural debate and one side of the question of what occurred last month. She didn’t say names, but as far as I’m concerned, my conduct was entirely focused on the issues that occurred, and I’m certainly allowed to give my opinion about what occurred in those committee meetings around bullying and other matters. These are matters of opinion, and I have a right to free expression in this chamber and outside of it.

Sharman: Everybody will express their opinions quite clearly when we take the vote.

Councillor Stolte:  There are no opinions around the procedure by law. It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of fact that we’ve all agreed to. I can assure you that I will be relying not on council members to interpret their opinion on the procedure by law. I’ll be relying on our clerk. I met with the City Clerk last week who has agreed to be in council chambers today to be the ultimate authority on our procedure by law. It’s not my authority, it’s not my opinion, it’s not any council’s opinion on the procedure by law that will be followed as it is written on paper.

Kearns: So, Councillor Stolte, my question in proving your capabilities of chairing will sound a little bit like this. What, mechanisms will you be using to stop any type of posturing comments? And I’m reflective of one of the comments made by the current mayor who said that “if I’m so lucky to be re elected again” , and it continued on – yet there was no pause in the dialog, and so I’m wondering, when you’re using your own determination around what is political posturing, how will you make the determination, and how will you correct the record in that situation if you were to be chair for the next balance of the committees?

Stolte: I certainly appreciate that question, Councillor Kearns. If any member of council feels as though there is any kind of election posturing going on, I welcome you to put out a point of order to say that that’s not in regard to the business at hand. If  anyone around the horseshoe, feels as though I have missed a comment that needs to be addressed and stopped, then please bring it to my attention through a point of order.

Kearns: A follow up question. So, I was absent last council meeting, and I believe I observed after the fact, a point of order that was not able to be heard. Will you plan to hear people’s point of orders before making a ruling?

Stolte: I thought about this, and what I intend to do, after talking with the City Clerk is asking some very direct questions for the member to clarify what their point of order or any perceived point of privilege is. It’s not going to be a matter of allowing an open dialog or an open speech to go on and on because that’s actually not our procedure by law to allow speaking time, especially two or three minutes worth. So I’ll be doing is asking some very direct questions, and if I declare a point of order or point of privilege to not be held, it absolutely within our procedure by law for that member to appeal it, and it will go to a decision of two thirds vote of council, and if the majority of council of two thirds believes that there should be more discussion about the point of order, point of privilege, that will happen.

Kearns: Are you aware that your opening comments felt like they would be eligible to trigger a point of order?

Stolte: My opening comments were to establish some decorum, to be professional and act in a way that we could be respected, and we could feel proud of how we are conducting ourselves in this council chamber. If council does not wish for me to chair under these rules, I’m absolutely fine with that. I don’t have a burning need to chair. If there are decisions made for me to not chair this meeting, I’m happy to excuse myself. So vote for it or don’t vote for it, that’s fine.

Sharman: I think I’d like to have the vote taken, because I think we had enough conversation. We are turning this into a political debate again, which is not helpful. We have the motion on the floor, and Councillor Kerns, if you would like to continue this dialog, go ahead, but all we’re doing is avoiding the fact that we have a motion on the floor.

Kearns: Not sure if I’m invited to speak or if you’ve just looked to close debate. Question of staff, given that it seems that there’s a bit of a heightened temperature, is it possible that we could request that the City Clerk, clerk the balance of the meetings to ensure the strictest compliance with the procedure by law.

I’ll table the motion at the appropriate time.

Nisan: We don’t need to be doing this right now, we could get along just fine without it. I don’t appreciate the gaslighting and politics we are bringing into this chamber. There is only one side bringing politics into this chamber by bringing this motion without giving any notice. We we could be halfway through our agenda right now. This is obviously politics.

Sharman: Thank you very much. I’m seeing no further… Sharman realizes the Mayor has something to say:

Meed Ward: Thank you, Chair. I understand these are challenging times and difficult times, and it is, it is really incumbent upon the council and the committee members to ensure that the debate is focused on city business, on doing the work of what the community expects us to do, and I will simply say that opinions are not fact, there was a statement made that that committee improperly closed debate, that is an opinion, but that was we followed the procedure by law to do that. There was a democratically taken vote, we make our decisions by majority vote, and when necessary by two thirds vote around this table, we all know that, as Councillor Stolte  has mentioned, there are options within a meeting to raise a point of order or a point of privilege. The chair rules on that matter, and there’s an opportunity to challenge the ruling of the chair, and that in fact happened, and the council member was outvoted on that. This is our democratic process, the tools that I understand people find uncomfortable, perhaps when they wish to continue a dialog, that the tools are there to refocus us all professionally, respectfully, on the business of the city and the community that we serve. We haven’t had to use them very much at all, but we’re using them a lot right now as we head into an election.  I can tell you, I have had incredible feedback from many people in community about the job that Councillor Stolte did to refocus us on the business, to try to take the temperature down and not make improper or false allegations of bullying. We are following our procedure by law, we are using the tools and the democratic process to focus us on serving our community, which is our only job here today, and I hope we can stay focused on that.

Sharman: Thank you very much. Before we take the vote, I will make the following comments. I believe Councillor Stolte did a stunningly good job at the last meeting, that was very helpful. It brought us back to order, and it made us efficient and effective. I’m strongly supportive of this. I believe we need to move on with this instead of continuing, which is what we’ve seen constantly in previous meetings, where people just kept on putting their hands up and asking questions and making comments and spending hours and hours in this room that we don’t need to be spending time on, making false accusations about bullying and things like that. We don’t need it, it’s not correct, we want everything to be done in accordance with the regular bylaws.

Councillor Kerns. Is this a question or a comment?

Kearns: When’s the appropriate time to add an amendment around having the City Clerk, clerk the balance with probably additional support from the committee clerk.

Sharman. We do the vote on this motion first. I’m going to call the motion. I’m calling the motion to vote.

I’m thinking we should take the vote on the motion as it is, and then next check and to hear the motion, not do that.

Kearns: Maybe we could see the motion, and then I could add the amendment to the motion, and the amendment will be to direct the City Clerk to clerk the balance of committee meetings through to the end of the term. I think we need to be honest, and so that would be the motion.

Sharman: I see Curt’s hand up. (The Chair is referring to City CAO Curt Benson)

Curt Benson:  I just want to offer staff’s comments. We actually stand behind our professional staff and clerks. We feel strongly that there is no change necessary here. Ms. Gillies does a fantastic job as the Committee chair; her patience and thoughtfulness should be commended. I don’t recommend moving forward.

Meed Ward:  I was going to say that myself. I find this motion extraordinarily disrespectful and offensive. I have every confidence in Suzanne, (who is the Committee Clerk), who has been with the city for many years. There is additional support in the room if needed. We have a team Burlington approach, we have a professional approach.

Kearns: Let me be more explicitly clear. This is absolutely not personal, so I would like my committee members to remove personal comments.

This is about the chaos that is happening here, which just almost happened again with Councillor Sherman looking to go to the vote. I would like to see the person who is accountable for all clerking, which is the City Clerk at the front of the room for the balance of the committee meetings, because what’s happening is that we’re getting lost between comments, questions, timers referencing back to procedure by law, who spoke, what’s in order, what’s out of order.  If we’re changing around who is the chair to address the boogeyman in the room.

Nisan: Point of privilege.  This is exactly why we need to take the politics out. I would like the councillor to apologize for that last comment and retract it. Thank you.

Kearns: I will not apologize. I made no names. I made no references. The mayor brought the names into it. I’m not apologizing. I’m asking for two clerks for the balance to keep us aligned with the procedure by law. That is it.

Sharman: Well, thank you very much. So the mayor has a point of privilege. We’ve had a response; we’re going to move on.

Nisan:  I think the problem is working towards a solution.  Nobody needs to apologize on an adversary’s behalf. Like, come on, let’s get it together, folks.

Stolte: I agree with Councillor Nissan. This is ridiculous. This motion is about who’s going to chair this meeting? My God, it’s not about opinion, it’s about who is going to chair the meeting as per the procedure by law. That is what this conversation is about. This is getting so ridiculous, I am this close to excusing myself from this meeting, because I so don’t want to be part of this anymore.

Sharman: Councillor Kerns, what are you planning at this point? Your second comment?

Kearns:  And I’m about as close from walking out. Well, I mean, if you had two clerks, you’d know you’re asking for a change based on the chairing side. I am asking for a balance on the clerking side, if this concern is the way that it is, and it’s so humongous that we have to waive the procedure by law to allow someone to chair who can still change their mind and run for election by August.

Why would we not have the same balance of flanks on the clerk side? So that’s all I’m asking for. I’m happy to amend my amendment to direct the city clerk to clerk with another clerk the remainder of the committee meetings in the 2026 term of council.

This will allow a stronger adherence to the procedure by law, it will allow for extra checking of comments, times, and it will assure the strictest adherence to the procedure by law, as we’ve already had debate and conflicting opinions about it in the last couple cycles. So that’s all I’m asking for.  I will not let that be construed in that manner, because we have different clerks for different things. I want to be very clear:  I want extra bench strength, and that’s as simple as it is.

Sharman: I’d like to call the vote on both the amendment and the main motion.

I can call the vote.  I see no more hands up. So, let’s kind of call the vote right now. Just be clear, I’m calling the vote. So, this is relative to the amendment. All those in favor, one in favor, all opposed. That does not carry.

I’m now going to move on to the initial item, which is to waive Section 10 of the procedure by law to appoint Councillor Stolte as chair of the committee meetings for the balance of the term.

All those in favor, all against that passes.

So we’ll now proceed to move from me to Councillor Stolte as Chair.

Council now has a Chair who is going to be compliant.