By Pepper Parr
February 27th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Council has been in a Workshop mode all morning – this is something that people who used to read the Yellow Pages liked.
However – they did do something that should have been done a long long time ago and that is record how Councillors vote when they are meeting is as a Standing Committee.
All the minutes show is that an item carried – not what the actual vote was. A 6-1 vote does not carry the same weight as a 4-3 or a 3-4 vote.
It was a time when Marianne Meed Ward would force Council to vote on matters she felt needed to be recorded.
In her first term is as a member of Council Meed Ward would call for recorded votes regularly – in one meeting she called for 8 recorded vote which in those days called for members of Council to stand to vote.
In those days former Councillor John Taylor used to sit beside Councillor Meed Ward and rolled his eyes when Meed Ward got to the 7th recorded vote.
Knowing how Council members voted at the Standing Committee stage is important – it gives the public an opportunity to know just what their council member is doing and time to contact them before the Council meeting at which a recommendation is made final.
At this stage all Council members are doing id discussing changes in the Procedural Bylaw – it will be a month or so before this is cast in stone – but it certainly looks like it will be the way business is done.
Good on them – finally.
Councillor Kearns sent her regrets and did not attend – Councillor Nisan chose to take part virtually which at times made it difficult for him to keep up with what was taking place.
