By Pepper Parr
April 17th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
We don’t think the Mayor expects those Councillors who are opposed to her grasp on the Strong Mayor powers to go away quietly.
Lisa Kearns has made it clear she has more to say – for example:
It is true, Council did unanimously accept a petition with 633 signatures and growing, 71+ correspondence supporting the petition and heard three delegations in support of the petition “Restoration of Democracy at Burlington City Council.”
Councillor Kearns goes after the Mayor.
BUT…despite that, the mayor doubled down on her ‘rationale’ for retaining arguably the most crushing power – full decision-making regarding the City Manager/CAO stays with the Mayor. That means the highest corporate position in the City can be hired or fired by the highest elected position. Power is centralized in the city between two positions – shedding the governance board (Council by majority vote), through to the corporate lead (City Manager/CAO), and then duly through to Staff.
A new and concerning element has been introduced via Strong Mayor Legislation – influence. The introduction of an invisible threat is confusing to staff and harmful to elected officials. Strong Mayor powers create an element of influence which democracy should be free of. The question is raised, when a CAO owns a decision, is it free of influence in the absence of a council decision? The majority of council holds that all decisions and directions of council should be grounded in majority decision.
The majority of Council is not okay with this. Yet, the mayor has “had many discussions with residents, community leaders, staff and other mayors and heard a wide diversity of views.” A recent post states, “it is truly unfortunate that our discussions have been marred by misinformation and misunderstanding of the legislation.”
Maybe we should question where the misinformation is coming from? Let’s see some receipts. Nothing shared with Council, nothing in the public record (save one correspondence drawn on heavily in remarks), no counter petition, no supportive delegations…so where then does this justification come from if not from Council or Constituency?
It is even more deceptive that the mayor’s account posted that “Burlington Council Unanimously Approves Receiving Petition Related to Democracy”, as if to signal that the case is closed and all is well. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Misinformation.
The ‘Open Letter’ by the mayor, viewed by 1700 people doesn’t hold water. A recent interview that purports two of the powers have been shed, with silence on the remaining power is misinformation by omission. Lofty accusations that “for the most part” Councillors haven’t violated the Code of Good Governance regarding the roles of “Council to Govern” (the irony) is accusatory and unfounded – the reader assumes that ‘for the other part’ they have. Now the reader is misled into believing that there is a Council in violation of Good Governance afoot – how convenient, despite being false. This then supports that the retention of this remaining super power in the hands of the mayor is the only way to save the incoming CAO from any unadjudicated violations between management and governance.
I am certain that if there was a chance to launch an integrity complaint against any Councillor for breaching the Code of Good Governance that it would be on blast already – in fact – I invite an investigation just to prove this accusation wrong.
After council yesterday, all that the community, majority of council, delegates, engaged citizens and perhaps the media are left with is more peddling of weak rationale and a strong signal that any strong mayor that cannot listen continues to be a danger to our democracy. Hiding behind compliance with terrible provincial legislation does not dismiss the informed voice of the community. Posting decisions after they are made is not transparency. Telling those who challenge that they “might not understand it yet” is not accountability. And, holding a minority position on a critical matter is not democracy.
Keep pushing folks, if you want a Better Burlington, looks like you are going to have to demand it.
Mayor Meed Ward is using every communications tool she has to get her story out on the decisions she has made on how she will use her Strong Mayor powers. Meed Ward once said that she has 17 platforms on which she can communicate. She also has a Communication specialist on staff.
It takes time to put all the pieces together in relation to the several rants of the Mayor that we believe included inappropriate comments that in our opinion should have rendered different judgments when responding to points of privilege. As we said earlier today, this is not over yet.
We encourage our Ward 2 councillor, and the three others on the right side of this major democracy issue to keep the objections to the Mayor’s accusatory rants whenever they appear; front and centre of the public eye. Putting together accurate accounts of her several episodes of mis-speaking the facts on the record takes time but it can and will be done. She has gone far too far to defend the indefensible when we know the cost of democracy.
Kudos to Councillor Stolte who has stepped away from the mayors ” speaker series”.
Councillor Stolte will go ahead with her original plans on informing residents the issues around housing with ward to ward interactive meetings.
Councillor Nisan has been very vocal in regard to the demise of democracy in Burlington with the strong mayor powers. He has had articles published in the Hamilton Spectator and Social Media.
Councillor Galbraith has been MIA. He was one of the three councillors who put forward the motion asking that the Mayor delegate back to council what the legislation allowed. At the April 16th council meeting he came out strongly with regard to this issue.
He then failed to support Councillor Kearns, Nisan and Stolte on two motions asking that the mayor rescind some of the statements she made in an article in the Hamilton Spectator which left some council members feeling that they could not be trusted not to ask favours from the new City Manager. The other had to do with a comment made by a resident who signed the petition asking that the mayor delegate back to council what she was able to do. WHY!!!
Councillor Kearns thankfully has continued to inform residents what is happening concerning this issue.
Unfortunately we have a mayor who” Never acknowledges, never explains, never apologizes”
Galbraith is not going to turn on MMW in the autocracy vote. She used that power to commit and allow Code of Good Governance violations, and I foresee she will be called upon to do it again.
So he owes her, and cares more, it appears, about being part of the Mayor’s for power crew than his fellow Council mates when it comes down to the truth of where he really stood on the Motion in the first place – interim faker y of authenticity.
This is all there is to the man in my opinion.
As I understand it the “nuclear option” occurs when a majority of councillors are not present such that the city cannot hold meetings resulting in the province having to step in and possibly call a new election. It may be “Go Nuclear” or go home time.
This post the Mayor sent out yesterday shortly after the meeting, touting the fact that council “Unanimously Approves Receiving Petition Related to Democracy” – ergo, “yes, I will take the thing and file it and hear a couple of delegates and then get to speak myself on my reasons why I’ll ignore the petition and those delegates and keep the powers anyway” was a new low in a long serious of lows.
I love that Councillor Kearns made her own identically formatted version, with hard-hitting language, rebutting the Mayor’s ridiculous and misleading post.
There’s really something wrong when the Mayor can put out things like this. Whoever thought we’d sink to the point of having Mayor Meed Ward, Councillor Sharman and Councillor Bentivegna all making excuses about why they want to end democratic governance in Burlington. Councillor Sharman’s comments at the meeting equating the need for Strong Mayor Powers with the ability solve homelessness was equally ridiculous. One has zero to do with the other, just as the powers have zero to do with getting homes built.
I urge everyone to watch the meeting video of yesterday’s meeting. Thank you to Councillors Kearns, Nisan, Stolte and Galbraith for standing up and speaking up in support of democracy. How terrible it was to hear the Mayor’s and Sharman’s responses.
Bravo Councilor Kearns. You have concisely and clearly described the dilemma we citizens and you and your fellow Councilors now face in Burlington. Even with a petition of over 600 citizen signatures supporting democracy in City governance, along with over 70 letters of support and four Councilors also on board, together we have no power thus far to restore the hiring and firing of the City Manager to our elected Council. As you say, we need to keep up the good fight for democracy.