ELORA – The technical became dramatic at the Oct. 28 meeting of Centre Wellington council, when discussion of councillor Bronwynne Wilton’s notice of motion came up on the agenda.
Wilton wanted council to rescind its Oct. 15 decision to install a refrigerated multi-use pad at Bissell Park and consider an option that had not been presented: a non-refrigerated pad with a roof.
With staff input, she calculated that would cost about $2.3 million. The refrigerated pad option without a roof rang in around $4 million.
And as with the Oct. 15 decision, her proposal would be contingent on getting a Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure grant from the province.
To get to that discussion required a few procedural steps that councilors would first have to agree to – and that led them straight into the weeds of the procedural bylaw.
Mayor Shawn Watters declared a conflict on the matter and left the meeting. Councillor Barb Evoy took the chair’s seat as deputy mayor.
The first part of Wilton’s motion was to waive the requirement of giving notice for a notice of motion, to rescind the Oct. 15 decision and to consider a new option.
Councillor Jennifer Adams called a point of order on that piece.
“I contest the validity of the motion,” she said, noting the motion is asking council to reconsider, rescind and amend, which she believes is not allowed under the procedural bylaw.
Evoy called a recess to discuss matters with staff and returned with her ruling, as chair, that the motion was in order. She said she was willing to separate the three parts of the motion and have council vote on them separately, but the motion could move forward.
In an unusual move, Adams then made an appeal to council on the chair’s decision, meaning council had to decide if it agreed with Evoy’s call that the motion was in order.
Councillors Wilton, Denis Craddock, Kim Jefferson and Evoy voted in favour of the chair’s ruling so that carried.
BRONWYNNE WILTON
When Evoy called the vote on the original motion, Adams again noted her issue with the way the notice of motion came forward. Under the bylaw, a councillor has to file their notice of motion and then wait for the next meeting to discuss it.
“I had to wait 30 days for my notice of motion on a bridge,” councillor Lisa MacDonald agreed, adding the Bissell Park multi-use pad is not an emergency decision that would warrant side-stepping the rules.
Craddock noted he was absent from the Oct. 15 meeting but would have voted for option three – the staff-recommended option for a refrigerated base and a roof.
MacDonald also wanted option three, but when that was voted down, she voted for the refrigerated pad, “and a roof could come later,” she said.
Evoy pulled discussion back to the vote at hand, which was Wilton’s motion to rescind council’s previous decision.
A vote to rescind a decision requires two-thirds support from council. With six members present, that meant four councillors had to vote in favour of the motion.
It wound up a 3-3 tie with Jefferson, Wilton and Evoy in favour of rescinding and Craddock, Adams and MacDonald opposed.
With a tie vote, according to the procedural bylaw, the motion was defeated.
So there was no consideration of Wilton’s suggestion and the previous decision of installing a refrigerated pad with no roof will move forward, contingent on receiving the provincial grant.
