Special Council Meeting: Strong Mayor Powers
By John Swartz
UPDATED: with Youtube link
Orillia council has a special meeting Thursday evening, June 26, at 6:30 p.m. There is only one subject to be discussed, strong mayor powers.
This is an issue for just about everyone, since it was learned the province extended the power to the city of Orillia. In a letter to the municipality from municipal affairs minister Robert Flack, he referred to a request for the power from Mayor Don McIsaac. McIsaac said at the time that was not true and he did not make a request.
Initially the province made the designation as a temporary measure related to the ice storm and it was to end June 30. However it was changed to a permanent designation on May 1. and at the same time extended the power to another 169 municipalities, which caused the same kind of backlash from those councils and those citizens all across Ontario.
The strong mayor idea is borrowed from the United States where American cities have mayors with powers much stronger than their councils. The province created this new power November 2022, but only Toronto and Ottawa gained the power at the time legislation was passed. No other city had asked for the power and it appears none of the 169 municipalities formally asked for the powers. Among the powers granted mayors have authority to:
- Direct work to be done immediately on municipal infrastructure in direct response to the emergency
- Overlook municipal purchasing policies to obtain equipment or services in response to the emergency
- Enact special authority under municipal by-laws, such as a delegation of authority by-law
- Restrict access to or close municipal buildings and offices
- Use volunteers and protect them under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
- Request federal support and resources, such as military support
- Request support through municipal mutual support agreements if they have them in place
- Could be a requirement for Provincial or Federal funding
- Veto power of budget provisions
Six councillors (Durnford, Fallis, Lauer, Campbell, Leatherdale and Czetwerzuk) petitioned for a special meeting on this subject and one was held April 15. The purpose was to have a public airing about how this happened and how to reverse it. That meeting was held in the late afternoon, was not livestreamed, and did not have provision for the public to comment, but it was attended by 96 people.
The meeting was derailed by the City’s new clerk, Dan Kirby, who brought up procedural complications that never seemed to have been a concern for previous special council meetings. Some councillors objected to the meeting being held in the daytime, not being live streamed and with no opportunity for the public to comment on the move. Council wanted the issues presented by the clerk to holding that meeting resolved and another public meeting scheduled for an evening, livestreamed, and the public forum.
Another one was scheduled for April 23 at 2 p.m. That meeting was live streamed but did not have a public forum. Part of that meeting was to be in closed session in order for council to hear from an independent attorney. As it turned out the closed portion was all that happened and there was no discussion by council in public, but council still wanted a public meeting and Thursday’s is the result.
This meeting has no closed session scheduled on the agenda. John Mascarin of Aird and Berlis LLP will be making a presentation with 42 PowerPoint slides. There will be an opportunity for public comment and as noted at the beginning of this article it’s happening in the evening.
More about the previous meetings can be found here, here and here. So far the only controversial action taken by the Mayor was to revoke the appointment of Trevor Lee by council as the city’s new chief administrative officer days before he was to start, and instead appoint Amanpreet Singh Sidhu who was deputy chief administrative officer/general manager of corporate services for the City.
At time of publication a link to livestream as not being published by the City and this article will be updated when one is. Anyone wishing to take advantage of the public forum, but who cannot attend the meeting, can do so by videoconference. You can register to do so online no later than 2:30 p.m. Thursday. There are only 15 slots for those who want to comment by videoconference.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
