By Staff
March 22nd, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The Mayor isn’t the only person responsible for the farce taking place in the Council Chamber.
A Gazette reader commented as follows:
“I believe that the comments of several people are accurate, timely and fair. I will not belabour the point but, given the very limited engagement conducted with citizens before Council unanimously accepted Strong Mayor powers for Burlington, it is ironic that there are those who believe that more time and public interaction is needed before they are returned to Council. Equally puzzling is the need for clarification on what the Strong Mayor powers are and what it would mean to return them to Council.
Mayor Meed Ward
“If Councillors clearly understood what was being surrendered to the sole aegis (potentially) of the Mayor when they unanimously ceded those powers, then why the need for further consultation now? Did they not understand what they were voting on initially. In this light, the somewhat petulant pronouncement of Paul Sharman that he was not “prepared for this conversation” is tantamount to “I just don’t wanna”.
“If anyone watched the procedural wranglings of last Tuesday, they must shake their head at the amount of time truly wasted on empty protocol deliberations and tedious queries to the Clerk.
“Councillors – you have been sitting around the ‘horse shoe table’ for over five years and you still don’t know how things should proceed? Just do your job ladies and gentlemen and, in this case, it is to respectfully ask the Queen to return her realm from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.”
How We Got Here:
February 28, 2023 – (Pl-24-23)
https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=fb6efde2-4f8f-4754-8cb3-69a33034836a&Agenda=Merged&Item=25&Tab=attachments
The Pledge:
Excerpt:
“That the City not be penalized financially or otherwise, for failing to meet the identified housing target; and…
(We have been, J.G.
https://bayobserver.ca/burlington-misses-out-on-ontario-building-faster-fund-money-for-2023/ )
That the housing target be recognized as an aspirational target and that the City be permitted to continue to utilize the applicable population and employment forecasts from the Growth Plan, 2020 and/or municipal growth allocations assigned to and/or developed by the City, for the purposes of creating development related studies, plans, and by-laws; and….”
(“Aspirational target” ,Aspirations are dreams, hopes, or ambitions to achieve a goal and can be thought of as overarching life goal that can help provide a sense of purpose and direction.)
https://mariannemeedward.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PL-24-23-Burlington-Housing-Pledge.pdf
As they say ” the devils in the details”.
At the last Council meeting Councillor Bentevegna was under the impression that the Mayor needed a 2/3 majority vote from council before doing anything. Blake Hurley corrected him and indicated that this was not the case.
If some of the councillors don’t understand the powers given to a “strong mayor” designation how are the residents to wrap their heads around this?
A suggestion would be to have a detailed description outlining all the power given in the strong mayor designation. This to be done in layman’s language and in bulletin form – Short and Sweet.
Is this what your looking for?
https://www.burlington.ca/en/council-and-city-administration/mayoral-decisions.aspx
Blake Hurley’s “opinion” demands plain language fully referenced submissions on Process issues ahead of the Special Meeting with a signature of our Clerk for the requirements she is responsible for. We all need to fully understand the rules ahead of the game. This is our democratic decision making process that is at stake. One does not play a board game without such an understanding. This is our democratic democratic decision making process that has been removed and we need a complete understanding of what has to be done to get it back.
The Mayor giggles while citizens burn and the councillors squabble while citizens burn; those double-digit property tax increases are getting closer by the year.
Our thoughts exactly no due diligence of any of our Council members, when they removed unanimously what we believed we had elected, a democratic decision making process.
Truly shocking anyone on Council would invoke “I need to know more about the Strong Mayor powers” after the horse is out of the barn. Where were the staff reports on the Act? Looks like foot dragging or possibly incompetence is at play.