Standing committee sends a tie vote to city council - on reducing delegation times to 5 minutes instead of 10.

By Pepper Parr

November 8th, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

City council spent a full four hours on Monday making changes to the way the public gets to interact with them.

Marianne Meed Ward delegating at city hall.

Vanessa Warren delegating at city hall.

One of the biggest changes is the amount of time you will get to delegate. It used to be 10 minutes – on a tie vote the Standing Committee voted to cut that back to five.

Councillor Blair Lancaster was not present at the meeting – so when the recommendation gets to council it might be different.

Monte Dennis delegating before city council,

The Gazette was not in the Council chamber on Monday and cannot tell you who voted for the reduction in delegation time and who voted against it.

We have noticed that the cameras that record the web cast did not pan to the members of Council as they voted which means those viewing the city’s business on the web cast don’t get to see how members of council sitting as a Standing Committee.

This city council has in the past voted against their votes at Standing Committee being recorded.

It looked as if this was deliberate.  If it was that is a very unhealthy sign.

If you value the time you used to have delegating – get on the telephone and let your elected member of Council know that you aren’t too happy with the recommendation.

This is what citizen involvement is all about and they are about to take away half of the time you used to get.

To be fair – a Standing Committee can extend the time a speaker has or a member of Council can engage the delegation and give them the chance to complete their point.

Things are being tightened up at city hall – a better word might be squeezed.