ELORA – A Fergus woman spoke passionately at the committee of the whole meeting on June 14, asking councillors to include language in its procedural bylaw to extend respect and civility toward staff and delegations as well as to each other.
“It’s important that citizen engagement is encouraged,” said Terry Gregg. “I have witnessed things on council I consider toxic.
“I delegated on an item before and it was a terrible experience.”
Gregg said her professional background is with the federal government, a union and human resources, and while she hasn’t witnessed anything that would constitute harassment at council meetings, she has seen councillor behaviour that comes very close to the line.
“Civility goes a long way to fostering diversity and I’ve witnessed behaviour by councillors that contribute to a toxic environment,” she said. “It’s so important that you call these things out. It’s very disconcerting.”
Centre Wellington is reviewing its procedural bylaw and struck an ad hoc committee to work with two subject experts, Debi Wilcox and John Mascarin.
It also invited public comment on the proposed procedural bylaw.
The June 14 meeting was council’s opportunity to provide comment on progress made so far and to vote on any changes to the draft bylaw.
Council did agree to change the wording in the section on council comportment to include Gregg’s suggestion.
“I was moved by the words of Terry Gregg,” said councillor Neil Dunsmore before council agreed to the change.
Councillor Bob Foster thought the chair should be neutral in all matters and that the bylaw “centralizes the power of the chair.” He wanted that reflected in the bylaw as well.
The subject experts said the chair – at council meetings, that’s the mayor – is allowed to express an opinion and is entitled to a vote.
“There’s nothing that requires the chair to be neutral,” Mascarin said. “The chair has to run a fair meeting. Case law is very clear that the chair can express their views.”
Foster won a small victory when council approved his motion to include the words: “each member is entitled to ask three questions” as opposed to questions being “at the discretion of the chair.”
There was lengthy discussion on when council and committee of the whole agendas should be distributed.
Councillor Stephan Kitras said he’d like to get the agenda earlier. The draft bylaw states that council agendas will be distributed on the Thursday before a Monday meeting.
“I think more time would be beneficial to us,” Kitras said, although he softened his request to seven days ahead of a meeting after staff explained it would require more addendums and likely more staff to meet a 10-day deadline.
“These are not staff meetings, they are council and public meetings,” he said. “This is for the benefit of elected representatives and the public.”
“All of us understand it’s council’s meeting,” countered Mayor Kelly Linton. “Staff is telling us it is going to be difficult to do their jobs. We’ve been told this will be a staffing issue.”
That motion was defeated in a 4-3 vote, with Kitras, Foster and councillor Kirk McElwain voting in favour and Linton, and councillors Neil Dunsmore, Ian MacRae and Steven VanLeeuwen voting against.
The ad hoc committee has two more meetings before the procedural bylaw returns to council June 28 for approval.
The public is able to comment on the draft bylaw on CWConnect until noon on June 23.
