By Pepper Parr
November 30th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Each term the Mayor sets out who she wants to serve as Chair of the various Standing Committees.
The choices have to be approved by Council with each Council member being asked by the Clerk if they will accept the appointment.
The time around the structure of the Standing Committees have been changed. The new committee names and the recommended appointments are shown below. There are some surprises.
In her recommendations Mayor Meed Ward said: “After careful consideration of skills, experience, priorities and exposure, as well as seeking input from each Councillor, the recommended new Chairs/Vice Chairs for the new committees is as follows:
EICS: Environment, Infrastructure & Community Services Committee
Chair: Kelvin Galbraith Vice Chair: Lisa Kearns
CPRM: Community Planning, Regulation & Mobility Committee; AND CPM: Statutory Public Meeting
Chair: Shawna Stolte Vice Chair: Rory Nisan
CSSRA: Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee (includes Budget special meetings)
Chair: Rory Nisan, Vice Chair: Paul Sharman
Council Workshop:
Chair: Angelo Bentivegna Vice Chair: Lisa Kearns
Audit:
Chair: To be determined by Audit
Vice-Chair: To be determined by Audit
Mayor Meed Ward has put forward the Committee chairs she would like to see in place.
Mayor Meed Ward said: “The Deputy Mayor rotation will undergo some changes; the Procedural Bylaw has to be amended to permit chairs to serve in the Deputy Mayor rotation.
“The chair and vice chair of council standing committees rotates annually according to calendar year. Typically, the vice chair of the committee moves into the chair role, and the chair rotates off; however, with the recent reorganization, an additional standing committee has been added. This will mean that all members of council are either a chair or vice chair, and some will have more than one role.
“Chairs can’t be a deputy mayor, according to our current procedure bylaw. We will need to modify that part of our procedure to better distribute the deputy mayor role among more council members.
“Currently the deputy mayor role is on a one-month rotation, which can lead to confusion as to who’s on deck. During this term, I will be bringing forward a report providing better definition of, and outlining an enhanced role for, the deputy mayor. In the short term, I am recommending the role rotate quarterly, and that two deputy mayors serve each quarter, to provide additional backup for the mayor and opportunity to Councillors.
Q1:
Kelvin Galbraith and Angelo Bentivegna
Q2:
Lisa Kearns and Shawna Stolte
Q3:
Rory Nisan and Paul Sharman
Q4:
Angelo Bentivegna and Kelvin Galbraith
Lisa Kearns – vice chair
Paul Sharman
Lisa Kearns who handled a very full and complex series of meetings did particularly well; it seems odd that she is not the Chair of any of the Standing Committee – she is the Vice Chair of one. Same applies to Paul Sharman. Both he and Kearns were strong chairs able to handle complex situations.
The Mayor may have decided to give the other Councillors some needed exposure at being fully responsible.
Kelvin Galbraith, Shawna Stolte and Rory Nisan are to be appointed chairs.
The City is going into a very difficult phase with an Official Plan that has to be finalized, an Interim Control Bylaw that as to be lifted and a budget that is going to require more from the taxpayer than last year. Add to that some very controversial developments that are going to come before them.
The role of Deputy Mayor has been a wasted opportunity in the past. Expect the Mayor to take some bold steps and put others out on the streets and at major events. Kudos for Meed Ward taking that step.
We can’t wait to see Angelo Bentivegna serving as the Deputy Mayor.
