Stuck. Again.

Councillors fan out across the County in advance of October 9 vote

Council appears headed toward yet another deadlock over the size of council. In a special committee meeting last Thursday, council agreed to adopt the recommendation of the Citizens’ Assembly to reduce the number of councillors from 15 to 10.

However, two councillors have yet to cast their votes. Brian Marisett and Terry Shortt, councillors for Picton and Sophiasburgh respectively, were absent when the vote was taken last week. Both have opposed efforts toward a smaller council in the past and the matter must come before council at a special meeting on October 9. If both reject the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendation, the issue would die on a tie vote. Yet again.

At least one councillor was willing to predict how Councillors Marisett and Shortt might vote when the matter comes to council. Athol councillor Jamie Forrester cautioned his colleagues to forget about the Citizens’ Assembly recommendation and begin negotiating with the holdouts toward a compromise.

“We are going to an 8-8 split vote,” predicted Forrester. “We all did the numbers in our head. It is time we started negotiating.”

Some councillors objected to the Athol councillor’s assumption of how the absent members might vote, but they too could see where the issue is likely headed.

By then, very few of the folks who had populated the gallery in the morning were present to see how this debate would end. This is perhaps because, for some, it doesn’t seem to have an end.

OVERLOOKED
The committee meeting was called to consider the Citizens’ Assembly recommendation on the size of council—an issue that has defied a solution for over two terms of council. After more than a year of intense and often acrimonious debate the previous term of council became irreconcilably deadlocked over the issue. Then-mayor Leo Finnegan and council opted to put the question to the people in the form of a question on the ballot in the 2010 municipal election.

Surprisingly, an overwhelming majority (81 per cent) said they wanted a public process to review the size of council. But fewer than 50 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, relieving council of the obligation to act upon the result.

For some councillors, former councillors and others, this meant the issue was dead—or at least wasn’t a priority. So nearly three years have passed since electorate pronounced its desire to see a review.

Earlier this year, with time running out, council agreed to appoint Jonathon Rose, a teacher at Queen’s University to assemble a Citizens’ Assembly (CA) comprising 24 County residents, chosen at random, to consider the issue. The CA met over three Saturdays this past summer. When it completed its deliberations they recommended reducing council size to 10 council members plus the mayor. The CA also recommended against choosing an ‘at large’ voting system, cautioning that this would transfer too much power in the urban centres of Picton, Wellington and Bloomfield. Further the CA worried such an arrangement would force candidates to campaign across the County and thus eliminate all but the most financially committed.

The CA also urged council to reorganize electoral districts to ensure a better balance of population and that each district feature a mix of urbn and rural voters.

In presenting the CA’s recommendations to the council committee last week Rose praised the municipality for using this innovative approach to gather public feedback.

Rose told the committee that the 365 positive responses he received from 5,000 invitations mailed out was far beyond what his experience had taught him to expect. From those responses, 24 names were selected and screened for age, ward and gender.

Half the CA were women, half were men. They had every voting age, demographic and ward represented until the day before the first session was set to begin.

But at the last minute a prospective CA member from Athol backed out. This individual was also the only one the cohort under 30. It was a double blow to the CA.

Councillors would later point to this individual’s inability to participate as a fatal weakness in the process, disqualifying its findings and legitimacy.

But Rose defended the process saying all other members “worked diligently and did their homework”.

“They carefully considered a complex issue in a transparent and open process,” said Rose. “They used principles-based reasoning to arrive at their recommendation. The recommendation reflects their values, balance and fairness; urban and rural representation; effectiveness; forward thinking; adaptive to change and the greater good.”

TOO HASTY?
In order for any change to the size of council or electoral districts to take effect in the next municipal election in 2014, council must approve and enact a bylaw before November 15 this year. (An appeal of council’s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board will, however, effectively kill such a change from being implemented in time for next fall’s election). With this looming deadline fast approaching, Mayor Peter Mertens presented a five-ward proposal to the special committee for consideration.

He might have hoped to kickstart a discussion, but instead he armed opponents with a new set of reasons why the issue should be left alone.

Several councillors complained Mertens was attempting to ram his solution through without enough public consultation. Many are the same councillors who argued for putting off this debate for the past two years.

“I will not be forced to meet a November deadline with a gun to my head,” said Forrester defiantly.

Ameliasburgh Councillor Janice Maynard wants much more public consultation.

“It’s a complex issue,” said Maynard. “I’m concerned by the rush to pass the finish line. It behooves us to get it right. If it takes to next term to get boundaries—so be it.”

Picton councillor Bev Campbell has put in hundreds of hours over the past two terms of council hearing from experts, lawyers and citizens and making recommendations on this issue. It was with barely masked weariness that she appealed to her fellow councillors to consider the vast amount of work and study that has informed the debate these past seven years.

“I can’t imagine what more information is left to be uncovered,” said Campbell. “In 2008 we participated in a year-long exercise that produced 13 options. There was a lot of work and research done. We put the question on the ballot and received input from 8,000 voters. They told us to go to the next step. Our choice was the Citizens’ Assembly. Now some are talking about the development of more options and public consultations.

“Personally, I believe we have enough information. If we go to the public we must go with our position. We should make a statement.”

But the opponents were unmoved.

Councillor Marisett proclaimed that “haste is our enemy” before proposing to send the issue onto yet another ballot question.

Councillor Forrester repeated his assertion that Mayor Mertens had hijacked the process.

“We will be forced to make the most important decision of this term of council in a short time frame,” said Forrester.

Dr. Rose interjected at this point to note that when council hired him in April he was aware of the tight time frame.

“The timelines were evident to me and the assembly members,” said Rose.

Hallowell councillor Heather Campbell urged her colleagues to “put some teeth into the matter.

“It is unfair to the public and the County if we don’t do something today,” said Campbell.

The committee eventually approved by an eight – six vote to the Citizens Assembly recommendation of 10 councillors.

It also approved a motion that no matter how the County’s electoral map is carved up the historical townships, villages and town will remain intact, and will function as they have for every purpose but choosing council representatives.

Mayor Mertens pushed council’s decision to a special meeting set for October 9. In this way he seeks to give all councillors the opportunity to hear from their constituents.

Public meetings will be held in Wellington and Picton next week for public i