By Pepper Parr
March 16th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns made her position on the Motion to strip the Mayor of the Strong Mayor powers she holds and uses.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns: Her vote will be for the Motion to strip Mayor Meed Ward of some of her Strong Mayor powers.
In a note to the Gazette she said:
“Only three elected officials can advance the same item outside of Council business – after that it is considered quorum and requires a Clerk.
“It is not customary to see three movers on a single motion – this certainly sends a message that the will of Council to move the matter is strong. It would likely require only one vote to pass.
“My colleagues have done an excellent job of setting out the rationale to delegate the Strong Mayors powers back to Council and Staff.
“I will be registering my vote in support at Council on March 19th.”
Mayor Meed Ward checking her monitor to determine who the next speaker should be.
With the Kearns vote – the Mayor is toast.
It will be interesting to see how the Mayor handles this one. It is a Council meeting – which she Chairs
Power corrupts. We live in a democracy not a dictatorship.
I sure hope these 4 City Councilors are successful with disarming our Mayor, Marianne Meed Ward.
She should never have excepted the Strong Mayor’s powers in the first place, just like the numerous other Mayors who turned this down.
She wants you to think it was mandated, but it was not.
This move should bring more civility and democracy back to our Burlington City Council and to the Residents of Burlington.
I was a big fan of the mayor when she first started to run. Came across as a refreshing change at that time from our previous council. Eventually it became the same old same old! Now, I can not wait to see her gone. I am far from alone. I can also include my circle of friends. She has turned out to be a big disappointment this term. I hope Kearns and the others succeed in their quest to curtail her powers. That will be a start.
It absolutely is undemocratic to have the strong mayor powers and I’ve always felt that our mayor should have refused them at the time, as some other mayors did. The fact that she always talked about her strong belief in democracy prior to becoming mayor, and that I can’t imagine how she’d have supported these powers had they been given to Goldring back in about 2016, made it seem particularly hypocritical that she took them.
Good for Councillors Galbraith, Nisan and Stolte – and Kearns for supporting this. It’s VERY interesting that this has happened. Makes for a very large hmmmmmmmm
I am no big fan of Kearns, but her stock should go up a few points on news of this, if true.