Communicating with City Hall and members of Council throttled for some people.

By Pepper Parr

August 14^th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

There was a time when a resident could send a note to their ward Councillor and get a response promptly.

This still happens – for some people – not all people.

Councillor Kelvin Galbraith.

Tom Muir

Tom Muir, an Aldershot resident was told by his ward Councillor that Muir would not get any service from ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith.

Tom Muir can be a handful at times.  Burlington prefers people that are polite and the current Council now takes the view that they can cut someone off if they don’t want to respond to them.  Mayor Meed Ward pointed out to citizens that Council members and Staff are not punching bags, something she appears to have forgotten or ignored when she revised a Council Agenda in order to pound away at Councillor Shawna Stolte.

Stolte is another Council member who has decided to be selective in who she responds to.

Marsden can also be a handful at times.  She was like a dog with a bone when the infections at the Joseph Brant Hospital resulted in the death of 98 people.  Marsden kept that situation in the public eye which resulted in a financial settlement; there has yet to be a public apology for the failure to ensure the hospital was kept clean.

Ann Marsden learned recently that the email she sends to anyone at City Hall does not get to the person it was addressed to – it instead gets routed to the Office of the City Clerk where it is reviewed and someone in that office determines what happens to it.

Marsden wanted to communicate with Councillor Stole on a matter that related to a Council meeting that was chaired by Stole in the Mayor’s absence.

Ann Marsden reading to City Council

Councillor Shawna Stolte serving as Deputy Mayor

Knowing that her email was being redirected she sent a Registered letter to Stole at her home address – expecting a response.  The letter was signed for – so Marsden knows it was received – the lack of a response is both troubling and disturbing.  This Council officially takes the position that they are both transparent and accountable.

The letter sent to Stole is set out below:

Deputy Mayor Shawn Stolte at Nomination Paper Address BY REGISTERED MAIL

c.c. Mr. Blake Hurley Mr. Tim Commisso

Care of Deputy Mayor Stolte August 8, 2023

Dear Deputy Mayor Stolte,

First of all our apologies for addressing you at your home by registered mail. However, as you will see from the attached Update Comment to an article that appeared in the Gazette regarding our delegation on July 11, 2023 Kevin Arjoon has confirmed that our emails to all staff and councillors, are, as suspected diverted and do not reach those intended. This happened in the past with the former Clerk, City Manager and Head of Legal but we thought such tactics to prevent our right of engagement with staff and council through email and the delegation process were a thing of the past with the retirement of the former Clerk, Head of Legal and departure of the last City Manager.

But obviously we were wrong to believe this was a thing of the past given City Clerk, Kevin Arjoon has verified that all the Marsden emails to Councillors and staff are diverted to the Clerk’s Office.  The reason, he claims, is so the emails can be properly actioned! Arjoon has failed to respond to:

Who in the Clerk’s Office is receiving the emails?

Who instructed the Marsden emails to staff/council members be diverted?

The Clerk also verified this diversion of the Gazette published Marsden emails from clerks@burlington.ca was responsible for the Public and Council being informed the Marsdens had not registered for two delegations at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting that led to you calling for a motion to waive the Procedural Bylaw.       Arjoon’s fix to address our delegation request not being addressed when

it should have been appears to us to be a deliberate act of deceit by the City Clerk to obtain an unnecessary vote of Council. The purpose of which was to divert attention from what was occurring with the Marsden’s timely email request of clerks@burlington.ca to delegate.

The result of the deceit, has led to two very important matters of huge public interest improperly remaining on the Consent Agenda at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting which you had the honour of chairing given the Mayor’s inability to do so. . The Marsdens were properly registered for a delegation on both these items which required their transfer to the Regular Agenda, which did not occur.

This results in a question of the legitimacy of the policy and new by-law, the first Trespass By-law the city has approved.        Both of which were put in place to protect clients of the City’s recreation programmes and were long overdue. The staff review of the policy was ordered by Council to occur December 2020.

This letter is to formally ask you to:

Correct the minutes to show Council were informed, noted by yourself, that the Marsdens had registered to delegate at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting and, therefore, the Motion to Waive the Procedural By-law was applicable to only one delegate, not three.

Put forward a Motion of Reconsideration to the August 24, 2023 if held and September Council meeting if not, that will place Public Conduct Policy and Trespass By-law (CL-08-23) and Civic Square and Brant Street renewal – project initiation (ES-27-23) on the Regular Agenda of the appropriate September/October Committees and the following Council meeting.

Put a motion before Committee that:

requests a report from Clerk Kevin Arjoon that explains the delay in complying with the Council review date of December 2020 on the Public Conduct policy and other Corporate Policy review dates.

 requests a report from the City Legal Director Blake Hurley as to why a Trespass By-law has not been in place to support the Public Conductcorporate policy since the policy was first introduced, given the apparent lack of authority to issue trespass notices without such a by-law.

 We believe all of these actions by yourself as the Chair of the July 11, 2023 Council meeting are in the best interests of the community all members of Council have voluntarily agreed to serve and demonstrate their willingness to abide by the Procedural Bylaws each of you have approved on several occasions and the various pieces of legislation pertinent to good governance including the Municipal Act.

 As our emails continue to be diverted despite our objections we would very much appreciate you sending a copy of this letter to Messrs. Hurley and Commisso and each member of council and then confirm having done so to anneandave@gmail.com.

Again we apologize for our method of communication with you and hope that it does not have to be repeated after Messrs Hurley and Commisso are made aware of the situation and do what they have to in order to restore our ability to communicate with staff and council the same as every other taxpayer expects to be able to do.

Thank you Deputy Mayor Stolte for doing what you can to restore democratic principles, earned by the sacrifice of so many, to prevail at Council and in the governance of the City of Burlington.

Anne and Dave Marsden

Pro Bono Community Health, Safety and Access Advocates 308-1425 Ghent Ave, Burlington, Ontario L7S 1X5

905-467-2860   anneandave@gmail.com

“Work for the well-being of the city to which I have sent you.“ Jeremiah 29 vs. 7 NIV Bible.

City Manager Tim Commisso appears to have delegated the Marsden problem to the City Clerk

City Clerk Kevin Arjoon

Efforts are going to have to be made by someone, ideally the City Manager, to bring to a head what is a vexing problem.

There has to be limits that are reasonable and easily understood by the average person.  The City Clerk appears to have put in place a procedure that is reasonable. The decision on the part of Councillor Stolte to ignore the registered letter would appear to be avoiding a problem.  That tends not to work with Ann Marsden.

This situation could be seen as a tempest in a tea pot – until it happens to you.

Related news stories:

Is City Council about to limit your rights

Has City Council become authoritarian?