The decision council made on this development is not a particularly good one and I suspect it is not one the city planner is all that proud of either.
Council has approved it – it is now up to the residents to decide if they want to take the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board. On this one they should.
Meed Ward doesn’t always get it right but she seldom quits. On this evening she was prattling away making her point. Councillors Lancaster and Sharman sit on the opposite side of the horseshoe and they go into a slight slumber when Meed Ward is speaking.
For the Mayor to intercede the way he did last night he had to have had a conversation with the Clerk at some point and said to the Clerk – we need to bring this to an end. So they agreed to keep an eye on their watches and when that 15 minutes speaking allocation was reached – the Mayor nodded to the Clerk, the Clerk nodded back and the Mayor interceded.
The Clerk had her copy of the Procedural Handbook opened to the page with the specific part of the bylaw the Mayor was about to invoke. Meed Ward had been set up.
That can only be described as collusion between the Mayor and his Clerk to shut down a member of the city Council. Meed Ward does go on – that is her right. I do not believe the Municipal Act permits the Mayor and the Clerk to collude the way they did Monday evening to shut down Councillor Meed Ward. It might.
Mayor Goldring prides himself on running a smooth collegial council – that myth got shattered Monday evening – the innocence is gone, Goldring has shown he can be as nasty as any previous Mayor.
Bad city. Bad bad city. Sit in the corner!
I respectfully disagree with Rob.
We are in the unfortunate situation that mistakes are always determined by history. In this situation if Councillor Meed Ward didn’t press so hard to make her point, and things go wrong in the future, the Councillors who were against her would have said we all agreed and it seemed like a good idea at the time. If for significant issues impassioned articulated arguments are not made if someone is opposed to the issue everyone will get off the hook.
It’s people like Councillor Meed Ward that allow us to hold people’s feet to the fire when it is necessary.
When I go to Council to speak, I know how much time I have.
The time limits are there for a reason. Being 2 years into the current term, all Councillors are aware of how much time they have to speak.
I am sure the Chair wanted to keep the session moving along. The Councilors all perform yeoman’s service and are in Council meetings well into the late evening.
Apply the same rules to everyone. Keep the discussion relevant and keep it moving so all speakers can have their say. Fifteen minutes is a long time to make your point.
Honestly – thank you for bringing this to light. Its not the type of thing you would read in another paper. You would only see this type of underhandedness if you attended the meeting so thank you for telling us who dont attend.