MAPLETON – A provision to allow citizens to address council in timely fashion regarding items on their meeting agenda could be part of a revised procedural bylaw in the works for the township.
A report from clerk Larry Wheeler presented to council on Oct. 26 outlined a list of proposed changes to the current bylaw, ranging from minor housekeeping items such as corrections and improved grammar to weightier matters such as proper notice for special meetings and procedures for cancelling or postponing a meeting.
Under current practice, delegations to address council must be scheduled a week in advance, to allow time to provide materials to council and be posted in the agenda for a given meeting. Currently meeting agendas are posted online the Thursday prior to a meeting (generally held on Tuesdays).
However, on occasion, citizens show up at meetings hoping to address matters on that evening’s agenda. In cases like this, a two-thirds majority vote of council is required to allow unscheduled citizens to speak at a meeting.
“The situation when concerned or disgruntled residents appear at a council meeting anticipating or hoping for the opportunity to address council has occurred more than once during this term of council,” the report notes.
“Admittedly, the opportunity to delegate is scarce during the summer months and December with only one regular council meeting. Therefore council could consider reducing this two-thirds requirement to a majority vote,” Wheeler suggested in the report.
Mayor Gregg Davidson suggested going even further and allowing citizens a window of time to sign up to address the meeting after having seen that week’s agenda.
“We’re asking people who want to be a delegation to have their notice of delegation in on the Tuesday prior to … the following Tuesday’s meeting … and if people are waiting to read (the agenda) on the weekend, they can’t come and delegate,” the mayor stated.
Davidson noted some municipal procedural bylaws allow people to sign up to delegate as late as Monday, or Tuesday morning for a meeting that Tuesday.
“That gives people the opportunity, that read the agenda on the weekend, to actually sign up to be a delegate to speak at our council meeting,” he said. “I know that’s been an issue with a number of members of the community in the past that have contacted us and said it’s not fair.”
Councillor Michael Martin suggested impromptu delegations can lead to council dealing with matters without the benefit of advance notice.
“I think the intent, if you sign up or wish to speak to council, or if you sign up as a delegation to council, is that you provide materials that council is familiar with, so it creates decorum – it’s not a free-for-all,” Martin said.
“I think, in the event of a colourful issue that people wish to speak to, there’s a process. And I’m not sure that … to sign up the day before necessarily accomplishes all the objectives I want to have for our meeting, beginning with decorum and respect.”
Davidson noted council has generally allowed people to speak unscheduled when an issue generates considerable concern and requiring advance sign up would offer council more control than simply opening it up with a two-thirds vote at a meeting.
Davidson said those situations are “a little more chaotic” because “there wasn’t a set list of people to speak.”
Advance sign up, even if only the day before, would mean “we don’t have 50 people that are waiting for us that might want to speak. We know that we have 10 that are going to speak,” said Davidson.
“That’s kind of what I’m looking at to keep the meeting running smoothly.”
“There’s two different issues here,” said councillor Marlene Ottens. “So, we have delegations with a new issue that they wish to bring to us, which I feel needs to have some advance time for them to register to provide the materials that we want, so we have time to read what they’re presenting. And then we have people who want to speak to an issue that’s on our agenda that we may not have decided on yet.”
Ottens suggested “two different deadlines” are needed for the two types of delegations.
Ottens said she is fine with a sign-up deadline the day before the meeting for “people who have signed up because they see something on our agenda and they wish to express their opinion on it.”
Martin said he felt existing provisions are adequate.
“If someone wants to come and speak to an item on the agenda, then council can make that call at the time,” he stated.
The clerk was directed to include the provision in the draft bylaw.
No jurisdiction
However, a provision prohibiting delegations from addressing council or committees on matters outside their jurisdiction won’t be included in the draft bylaw, council decided.
Under the proposal, the mayor and committee chairs, in consultation with the clerk, would determine if a matter is within the jurisdiction of the council or committee.
“I like that idea … that if someone wants to come and speak about vaccine mandates, that’s a provincial policy. That’s not ours. And this would alleviate anybody from coming and speaking, providing their normal platform, whatever it is that they’re trying to put forward, if it has nothing to do with council,” said Davidson.
“I’m a little hesitant on being so arbitrary about ‘absolutely don’t speak about certain things here’ because it can be very situational. So, I’m a little hesitant about saying no across the board to this,” said Ottens.
Wheeler suggested the provision would be handled judiciously.
“In my time here, we have said no to a delegation, never,” he pointed out.
A motion to include the provision in the draft bylaw resulted in a tie vote, meaning the motion was defeated, with Davidson and councillor Dennis Craven in favour and Martin and Ottens opposed. Councillor Paul Davidson was not present.
Council received the clerk’s report for information and directed the clerk to provide public notice of its intention to consider amendments to the procedural bylaw.
