Getting bogged down in procedural issues seemed par for the course at county council on Sept. 24 – given the issue at hand.
The administration, finance, and personnel committee sent a recommendation to council to consider two-year terms for warden. That would commence after the 2010 elections.
Committee chairman John Green said there was no intent to hold the debate that day, but to give notice the issue would be coming up.
Green said the province dictates terms for a warden will be either one or four years. Anything else is permitted – if council passes a bylaw first.
Some wondered if a bylaw would have to be in place by Dec. 1, because change would require specific legislation. Chief Administrative Officer Scott Wilson explained that is unnecessary, because only council would have to approve the proposal.
Councillor Carl Hall said if there is no deadline to discuss a two year warden’s term, council should hold an open debate on that issue alone. He suggested it go back to committee for such a proposal.
But Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj said there will be a full report and council can discuss the issue when it is ready – in the near future.
Councillor Jean Innes said the same time as that debate takes place, council should consider a full time, elected at-large warden.
Ross-Zuj said that can be added to the discussion.
Councillor Bob Wilson asked if that proposal would be for the coming municipal election in 2010, or the one in 2014.
Green reminded council if a warden is elected at-large (by all of Wellington County voters instead of just county council), the proposal must be in place by Jan. 1 for the 2010 elections.
Innes agreed to place her proposal in a separate motion. Later, Ross-Zuj suggested she make it during the notices of motion section of the meeting. Ross-Zuj warned that deadlines for that proposal are looming.
To elect the warden at-large, the provincial government would have to give the county permission to add an extra seat, since there would be candidates for all council seats. Further, such a move would require a triple majority: at county council, at municipal councils and those would have to have a population majority.
The only other way to force council to change is by a petition to the Ontario Municipal Board over ward boundaries and representation. Centre Wellington has nearly one-third of the county population, but only 3.5 representatives. Votes are weighted heavily in the north of the county, which has about one-third of the population, and about 6.5 county council votes.
When council heard notices of motion, Innes made her proposal the county move to a full time, elected at-large warden.
However, Ross-Zuj said Wilson and Clerk Donna Van Wyck had been searching provincial regulations about such a proposal. They determined in order to have such a debate in time for the 2010 election, the issue would have to be debated in October. For that to happen, the procedural bylaw required an immediate vote with two-thirds of council (ten members) in favour. When Ross-Zuj called that vote, only five councillors were in favour, and the motion was lost. Innes said later she would drop the idea of a the motion for now.
The issue of the warden’s election has been ongoing since amalgamation in 1999.
The authors of a report at that time, Doug Kitchen and Harry Armstrong, were firm in their view about the warden’s job. They said it was best for democracy that the warden be elected at large, and said that was the firmest and most important recommendation in the report.
Instead, county councillors accepted everything else and rejected that proposal. In those days, the idea of every county councillor having a turn at the top job was part of the culture at county council.
However, since then councillors have been whittling away at that culture. First, councillor Brad Whitcome won a second term, the first councillor ever to do so, and then he won a third term. After him, councillor John Green, who had also already been warden, won two consecutive terms.
Last year, councillor Joanne Ross-Zuj became warden. She was the first councillor to win that post without ever holding a committee chairmanship.
Now council will consider a two-year term – a further break from tradition.
