A proposal to streamline council sessions has been deferred pending clarification of what exactly is ‘routine’ for decisions of council.
Late last month, council deferred a recommendation from staff to authorize the mayor and clerk to execute a “Delegation of Authority Bylaw.” It would delegate routine decision-making authority to staff in order to streamline the process and allow council to focus on strategic issues and policies.
In her report, clerk Kerri O’Kane stated, “The efficient management of the municipal corporation and the need to respond to issues in a timely fashion, requires council to entrust certain powers and duties to staff while concurrently maintaining accountability, which can be effectively accomplished through the delegation of legislative and administrative functions.”
She noted the Municipal Act provides council with the authority to delegate its powers. Her report also noted that “over the years, council had already passed various resolutions and bylaws delegating authority such as approval of site plans, temporary road closing, entering into municipal access and service financing agreements, to name a few.”
This bylaw will consolidate those delegations and add other routine administrative functions considered to be minor in nature, she said.
She then explained the draft bylaw was prepared with the following principles in mind:
– all delegation of powers and duties will be set in the bylaw and reviewed regularly;
– unless expressly delegated by council through the bylaw, all powers and duties of council remain with council;
– all delegation of powers and duties may be revoked at any time without notice;
– every delegation of a power or duty of council shall be accompanied by a corresponding accountability and transparency mechanism, in Centre Wellington’s case, the delegate is to report to council annually;
– where a power is delegated it is subject to any limits on the power and to any procedural requirements;
– a decision or decision with conditions of a delegated authority may be appealed to council and the decision of council is final; and
– where matters are deemed not minor in nature (involving policy, difficult or controversial), the delegate will defer the decision to council.
Township staff is responsible for adhering to the parameters set out in the bylaw and for ensuring appropriate application of delegated authority.
The municipal clerk is responsible for receiving and placing before council any appeals and/or complaints.
In the case of delegated authority to enter into agreements, the department afforded the delegated authority will be responsible to classify and retain these records in accordance with records management policies and the records retention bylaw.
Councillor Don Fisher asked whether certain items, such as signing off on subdivision agreements should be with the mayor and clerk, rather than staff.
Managing director of planning and development Brett Salmon explained subdivision agreements currently do come before council. He believed the reason behind the proposed delegation of authority is that the agreements come either before him or the managing director of infrastructure who would be engaging Triton Engineering to review engineering drawings.
“Our agreement was a standard form for some time,” he said.
Fisher clarified “we don’t get that many subdivisions. And there is a political element to them.” He agreed many of those agreements don’t need to come before council; however because subdivisions can be contentious and things can change during negotiations, Fisher said he would feel more comfortable having something referred to council.
If the matter was delegated to the mayor and clerk, they could determine whether it needs to come before council.
Councillor Steven VanLeeuwen shared similar concern.
Salmon clarified that even if this delegation of authority were approved it would not be staff approving subdivision agreements but rather signing off on the execution of those agreements.
CAO Andy Goldie noted if anything unique about a subdivision came up during the approval process council could discuss it at that time.
Councillor Kirk McElwain said there are other aspects that also draw questions because the implications were not clear. He said council needs to have more discussion with staff “before giving blanket approval on this.”
McElwain said it is important for some things to come to council otherwise members of the public do not see certain issues being discussed.
“I think there are a lot of different things that need to be thought about in this proposal … and I don’t think we are there yet (for approval).”
He asked for a deferral so council could review this on a point-by-point basis, to which council agreed.
