By Pepper Parr
October 24th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The Gazette is driven by the mantra – Informed people can make informed decisions.
Add to the task of holding those who were elected or appointed to work for the betterment of the wider community the holding these people accountable and transparent.
A Gazette reader sent the following along to us – it was published on May 14th, 2019 and sent out by the Mayor’s Communications specialist John Bkila, who actually is a journalist who earned his stripes at the Burlington Post.
Marianne Meed Ward was never a journalist, she was an editor and a panellist on both radio and television.
In the article that the Gazette did publish Meed Ward said:
Hi – I’m your Mayor
“As many of you know, before I entered politics, I spent 22 years as a journalist. I worked with employers and clients including the Toronto Sun, Vision TV, CBC, CHCH News, Chatelaine, Ryerson University and more — committed to keeping people informed about the issues that impact their lives. It helped me prepare for my role as Mayor in many meaningful ways and provided me with a deep appreciation for the value of transparency and communication from our public officials in upholding democracy and being accountable.
“This blog is one of my favourite ways to keep you informed and ensure you know where I stand on the issues that matter to you and our city. It started out as “A Better Burlington” (abetterburlington.com) before I was a City Councillor. I was looking for a free and accessible way to share important news and issues with my fellow citizens. Over time, as my career changed, it evolved into what it is today: mariannemeedward.ca — a place where I can share information with you as often as possible, and always let you know “My Take” so you are clear on where I stand. It’s also a place for you to share your thoughts with me.
“Of course, that’s not the only way you can stay informed or connect with me. I am active on social media, and you can connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. I often share information on events I am attending, local causes of interest, and newsworthy information about timely topics like road closures, living with coyotes and more. My goal there is to keep you informed on the channels you are already using so that you can be connected and engaged to City Hall and our community as easily as possible.
Big on providing services earlier in her political career which started as a Councillor. She first ran in ward 1 where Rick Craven trounced her.
“You can reach me via email or telephone if you have a specific question or idea that you feel is relevant to the Office of the Mayor. I am not always in the office as I’m often in meetings, at events or travelling, so my team does an amazing job of reviewing these emails and will frequently loop in other staff or departments at the City of Burlington to get you an answer as quickly as possible. I am updated by my team on a regular basis on those questions, issues and resolutions — and I get directly involved when necessary. My email is mayor@cityofburlington.ca and my telephone number is 905-335-7607.
“I also still get letters from the community, and you’re always welcome to send me something through good old-fashioned mail as well, at 426 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 3Z6.
“I have a Mayor’s page on the City of Burlington website where you can find information on initiatives I am leading, your City Council, events and more at Burlington.ca/mayor.
“I also work with local media and have a great appreciation for their role in asking the tough questions to keep you informed through traditional journalism and other channels. I was, after all, on that side of the table for many years.”
A little transparency here Your Worship. You have never held a “traditional” media event where you were open to questions from media. You do programs on radio and television where you are never challenged. In the media work we call those puff ball events.
When you were running for the office of Mayor we did do an interview with you. It went well and if memory serves me correctly, you called to amplify on a comment you had made.
To say that you work with media is just plain dishonest.
Your full time job seems to be to get your picture taken as often as possible and hope that “being seen” will be enough to keep voters believing you are doing a great job.
“You can read a monthly column I submit in the Burlington Post (online at insidehalton.com), watch my regular TV segments on our local cable station YourTV (Cogeco), and call in to Global News Radio’s AM 900 CHML each month and ask your own tough questions when I am a guest on the Bill Kelly Show (the call-in number is 905-645-3221 and you can find out more information at bit.ly/billkellyshow).
“Since becoming Mayor in December 2018, I have done interviews with the Burlington Post, WEST of the City magazine, CBC Radio, snapd, The Globe and Mail, and CHCH News, just to name a few. I do my best to respond to media inquiries as much as my schedule permits to further share my views and connect with you in addition to all the other ways I’ve listed above.
“I share press releases with the media on a regular basis and participate in press conferences (You do indeed — but these are not events where media can ask questions) and they, (media) in turn, often share those with you in their stories.
That she does but she is never available for follow up questions.
“My team and I work in close partnership with the broader communications team here at the City of Burlington. We really are a team and I’m thrilled at how we collaborate and find ways to leverage all of our channels to keep you better informed. From the Burlington.cawebsite to their own media releases and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, they do an amazing job and find truly creative (and often funny) ways to get important messages out there for you.
Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward made her presence known to Council well before her election to office.
“And, of course, you can often find me at community events and local shops on the street for even more ways to ask your questions and hear my points of view. I have more conversations than I can count when I’m joining our community at a charitable event, festival or celebratory occasion.
“As both a councillor, and since becoming Mayor, I have received so many positive comments from the public about how much you appreciate and enjoy my monthly newsletters, social media posts, and other communications. It’s a busy job being Mayor and it’s good to know that the time and effort put into these initiatives by myself, my team, and our colleagues at City Hall is worth it for our community. Keep your feedback and questions coming. Hearing from you — the people of Burlington — is the most important part of my job.”
Just in case of more fiddling and multiple issues with the City’s Corporate policy on transparency and accountability, that is supposed to be part of our Procedural By-laws, as legislated by the Municipal Act,I had a quick look at the City Code of Good Governance.
CODE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE
The Council of the City of Burlington is committed to achieving excellence in
governance, and doing so in a way that maintains and ensures public trust and
confidence in the City’s decision making.
The elements of this code that are subject to a formal complaint are intended to act as a Code of Conduct as required under the Municipal Act.
It is useful to consider the PURPOSEs closely:
The City of Burlington’s Council Code of Good Governance serves four main purposes:
• To set out, in manner that is aspirational and proactive, clear expectations of the
governance behaviour of members of Council;
• To provide clarity to the public as to the behaviour they can expect from
members of Council, and the governance responsibilities that go beyond those in
the Municipal Act;
• To provide guidance to members of Council in the conduct of their duties as
elected officials; and
• To provide a mechanism for responding to alleged breaches of elements of the
Code.
This Code applies to all members of the Council of the City of Burlington.
It is the responsibility of all members to be aware of and comply with the Code.
I was looking for the procedures governing the Integrity Commissioner. When I previously used these in my conflict complaint concerning Councilor Galbraith, the pertinent procedural information was on pages 7 to 9.
When I looked today, the text of the Code only went to page 3. nothing else, no IC procedures. I searched and could not find anything else. Who is responsible for this deletion- the Clerk?
When I first looked in January/23 it was all there. Later in time, all pages were still there. Today, only to page 3 was found at the Burlington link.
The full text I first abstracted on page 7 – 9 stated;
I wrote (1),
The following Investigation procedure contained in the City Code of Good Governance page 7 of 9, stated as follows, but it was not followed.
“If the Integrity Commissioner determines that a formal investigation is required he or she shall proceed in the following manner, subject to the Integrity Commissioner’s ability to elect to exercise the powers of a commissioner under Parts I and II of the Public Inquiries Act:
• The Integrity Commissioner shall provide a copy of the complaint and any
supporting materials to the member whose conduct is in question with a request
that a written response to the allegation be provided to the Integrity Commissioner within ten days
• The Integrity Commissioner shall provide a copy of the response provided by the
member to the complainant with a request for a written reply within ten days.
I did not receive the response of the Councillor. I think this a serious contravention of the Code, and not keeping with the tenets of procedural fairness that IC cited for providing the Councillor with my evidence.
With respect to me it amounts to the withholding of evidence that the procedural order specified as required.
I have to ask what is happening here? With all the comments and issues about procedural things just being changed with no explanation and no apparent reasoning – to me it’s an act of hiding the rules.
I have previously informed the IC, the Mayor, the Clerk , Tim Commisso and all of Council, and other Senior City Staff about this previous occurrence. I received absolutely no response or explanation.
Just by coincidence today, I looked at the Code of Good Governance again just because I have observed and experienced that I can have no trust or faith in any of the Council, Mayor, IC, with documented interference.
This loss of trust also goes to silence of Tim Commisso, and the the Clerk, or any of the Senior staff contacted that shall go unnamed
None of them display any concern at all for any Code of Conduct, Governance, Transparency, Accountability, the legislating Municipal Act, behaviours, duties, conduct, and governance.
The comments and issues around here lately show this behaviour continues.
Who or what is running this show? There is no truth or transparency evident in any of this.
God help us when these kind of people revise the Burlington Community Engagement Charter.
Holy delusions of grandeur, Batman. These self-congratulatory posts are embarrassing. And the photos! Even posts on rainbow crosswalks have to contain the mayor’s photo. (I note a recent post on the crosswalks didn’t have a photo of the one at Drury and Fairview which is again all ripped up and looks awful and has for months or years despite it being done twice now).
It’s all roses when the social media posts have the critical comments hidden or deleted, when the newsletters, the silly letters to the editor and website have only a one-sided take and there is never any real accountability as the only media the mayor talks to are ones who lob softballs and question nothing. How much time, at our expense, is spent on all this nonsense? The silence of the rest of council is possibly the worst thing of all. Where is their integrity?
The things we see happening are gobsmacking; I never imagined any of this was possible. I think I should have listened better to those who tried to warn us. I and many others who worked on campaigns have a very hard time accepting that we helped create this situation.
Lynn check out the City’s Corporate policy on transparency and accountability that used to be part of our Procedural By-laws. It was removed without explanation and later turned into a corporate policy. Kevin Arjoon is named as the one responsible for its timely review. It expired in Q2 2022! It references a section in the city Procedural Bylaw that was removed years ago. Transparency and Accountability are legislated requirements of the Municipal Act for our Council and, therefore our CEO and Head of Council’s with her strong powers responsibility to ensure are solidly supported by by-laws and corporate policies.
She has clearly abandoned these aspects of democratic and good Governance for a dictatorial role. Until that changes as it must we are on a very slippery downward slope. Hang on, the impact when we hit rock bottom is going to hurt very, very much.
Just appalling! And this from someone who regularly shouted “Democracy!” whenever she railed against the pre-2018 council members and mayor.
It seems that the whole “proponent of democracy, protector of historic buildings and the downtown, opponent of overdevelopment, champion of the peoples’ voice” persona that she had before becoming mayor was nothing but play-acting for votes, or she’s done a complete 180 since winning and is addicted to her own power. Either way, it’s shockingly horrible. And I agree very much with your thoughts on the rest of council just sitting there going along with it. I can only hope that Tim Commisso decided to not renew his contract out of disgust with it all. And our Clerk – don’t get me started.
In Zen ethics, Transparency is truth.
When a truth is modified, even slightly, it no longer is a truth. Living with lies is an ordeal because a lie requires a lot of efforts to “survive” and keep its semblance of truth. Because one lie brings another, one deception leads to another.
Truth lives independently, and when in the end truth erases lies, which happens one day or another, sooner than later, when Accountability comes, it will change people for better or worse.
People cannot change the truth. The truth changes people. The so-called results of deception and lies are only temporary.
So choose truth, and travel with a lighter heart – the truth does nor fear questions.
What is concerning is that we have a Mayor who is delusional about what she represents as Mayor and CEO and is removing at a very high speed every aspect of corporate policy and changing our procedural by-laws rhat the world’s ďictators would never have tolerated.
She does what she does and without a murmur from six councillors elected to serve the best interests of taxpayers or the Clerk and City Manager. Both of whom know her Governance style is punitive to taxpayers who are so busy trying to survive they don ‘t have a clue as to what has happened that affects their survival.
John Boich prophesied what we now have , refusing to apologize for his well thought out position,if we did not move to correct the situation. This was back before Sharman was elected by hanging on to the coat tails of Boich and Mulkewich, both passed and likely shaking their heads in despair at the fulfillment of Boich’s words and Sharman’s role of silence.