By Pepper Parr
December 8th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
Running of Council business in Burlington is done using a Standing Committee structure.
Burlington has three such committee with two additional committees: Budget and Audit
Ward 1 Councillor Kevin Galbraith chairing a Standing committee
The name of a Chair for each committee is put forward by the Mayor. Those nomination are put before Council where any council member can nominate someone else for the job.
The nominations are put to a vote. The results of that vote then go to a Council meeting where they are confirmed. The practice in Burlington has been to put a new committee chair in place each year.
The current council took its place for the first time in December of 2018; just two of the seven had any municipal council experience. The Mayor had to look at what she had and choose what she thought at the time was best for the city. Some worked out very well, others not so well.
Councillor Paul Sharman: Not a happy camper for much of the Monday Standing Committee meeting.
In that first year she did not put Councillor Sharman in a chairmanship role deciding to give the newbies a chance to learn. Sharman appears not to have accepted the Mayor’s wisdom or forgiven her for what he saw as a personal slight. Some of that came out at the Monday meeting.
The nominations for new Chairs/Vice-Chairs for 2021 are as follows:
EICS: Environment, Infrastructure & Community Services Committee
Chair: Councillor Paul Sharman Vice-Chair: Councillor Kelvin Galbraith
CPRM: Community Planning, Regulation & Mobility
Committee Chair: Councillor Kelvin Galbraith, Vice-Chair: Councillor Shawna Stolte
CSSRA: Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability
Committee Chair: Councillor Lisa Kearns, Vice-Chair: Councillor Rory Nisan
Council Workshop: Chair: Councillor Angelo Bentivegna, Vice-Chair: Councillor Paul Sharman
The role of Deputy Mayor was a different matter. Mayor Meed Ward decided to take a much different approach. Yesterday’s Standing Committee moved into a Workshop mode where there was considerable discussion on just what a Deputy Mayor is and how the role would be carried out.
There was some fascinating discussion which the Gazette will report on in a separate article. In order to cover the month of January next the Mayor appointed the Councillor for ward 1 as the Deputy and the Councillor for ward 3 as the Alternate.
