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Restore democracy

Posted: May 21, 2020 at 9:40 am   /   by   /   comments (6)

More than two weeks have passed since a new case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the Hastings-Prince Edward Health Unit region. Good news. This, of course, might yet change. Some folks predict fresh new cases will have arrived with visiting folks on the Victoria Day weekend. (Although, if the horde indeed descended, they largely avoided Wellington’s deserted streets.) In any event, we must remain vigilant and mindful for the time being.

We can, however, begin to consider unwinding some of the more troubling perversions of democratic norms and civil liberties. Council took a few tentative steps last week toward ending the municipal state of emergency that has largely sidelined elected folks from decision- making at Shire Hall.

On March 26 council members chose to relinquish their authority, handing wide swaths of decision-making to the mayor and chief administrative officer.

The world was reeling. It was an emergency. It was necessary, according to Mayor Steve Ferguson, to support the province’s declaration of a state of emergency, to support the continuity of municipal operations and to manage potential flooding.

In hindsight, it is hard to square sidelining 13 elected council members to achieve these objectives, but decisive action was demanded, and besides, some—though not all—other municipalities were doing the same thing. There is no value in secondguessing this decision and the circumstances under which it was made, but is certainly time to ask if it still makes sense.

Now it must be inserted here, most emphatically, that the case for restoring decision-making to council members does not, nor should not, suggest that municipal matters have run afoul. By any honest assessment, the CAO has executed her authority thoughtfully, professionally and in a measured way—consistent with the expectations of council and faithful to precedent. And at those intersections when a decision was felt to be beyond her delegated authority, she re-assembled council virtually—via a Zoom meeting. Moreover, Marcia Wallace has meticulously documented each decision made under this authority and reported it to council and residents. It must also be noted that there are a great many quotidian matters that, frankly, don’t belong at the council table—they are more administrative in nature and thus should have been transferred to the aegis of the CAO and Shire Hall staff long before now.

Mayor Ferguson, too, has largely comported himself well during this crisis—visible, calm and clearheaded.

That said, simply because the mayor and the CAO have managed largely without council, does not constitute a terrific argument for sidelining council indefinitely.

So, it was against this backdrop that Councillor Andreas Bolik proffered a resolution last week seeking to put guardrails on the emergency powers ceded to Mayor Ferguson as head of council. He had hoped to have an answer by June 23.

Some argued that while a broad-based review was desirable, it was premature in the midst of the event. Others were wary of distracting the CAO and her staff from more pressing business. Mayor Ferguson, reflexively, perhaps understandably, defended the original decision and the exercise of his authority since then.

And thus, enthusiasm for what was now framed as second-guessing largely dissipated. Council eventually agreed to put off such a report until July. And, so the Zoom meeting ended. Councillors retreated to the sidelines. To await being summoned again.

But likely not for much longer. It is clear that many no longer see the necessity of the emergency powers.

Several council members observed that the urgency of action required in March had now been displaced by a “new normal”, and that council ought to be transitioning back to collective decision-making.

Their instincts are sound. After some initial clunkiness, council meetings are running reasonably well via Zoom. (Though some councillors need to work on lighting, and staying in the frame.)

And the challenges mount. As with so many other organizations, the County will emerge from this crisis deeply weakened financially. It will be necessary to make some tough choices. Better to get on with it— than to languish until some undetermined future.

Mustering some of the urgency with which they ceded their authority in March, council should reassert it now. If ever there was a good argument for suspending representative government in Prince Edward County, that time has since lapsed.

The emergency is over. Now comes the cleanup.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca

 

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  • May 28, 2020 at 10:14 am ANDRE GRATTON

    Wow!!! there were things in the article that i wanted to address, but none more than the last statement “The emergency is over. Now comes the cleanup”. OK unless I have missed something in the general media, and through information provided by the provincial and federal governments, the “emergency” is far from over. Cases continue to rise in the two major provinces, and in Ontario in particular, we have pushed the emergency date back to June 9th….for now. And even when the “emergency ban” is lifted, we are still smack in the middle of the pandemic, with the very high risk of going ” back into emergency mode” at any given time given numbers of cases. So not sure that was the wisest statement to make at the end of this article. Personal vigilence, community safety, taking necessary pre-cautions etc., will continue quite literally be with us “for years”, not weeks or months. Then there are the observations about “Councils” involvement or activity (Mayor and CAO) versus Council. Not sure about you, but my Councillor and others that i’ve interacted with have NOT in my opinion been sidelined. And in fact have and continued be involved. I think making statements like that are not helpful to either them or the Community. Collectively, they and us, have done a great job. And the real work actually begins when we start to open up….not so much the during….The during was easy….go home and stay home. The opening includes, step outside, start mingling, do so safely and with politeness and care; and start living very very differently because what you had and how you did it, no longer exists and no longer will. And changing behaviour is not going to be an easy task. Those actions are significantly more challenging to manage for the general population, and this is where I personally expect my Mayor and my Councillors to be extremely active for many many months. I have said this before on social media. NO ONE on this planet with the exception of a few, have ever gone through either a pandemic of this size, with the economic and social impacts that we have witnessed. To criticize our government leaders (all levels), is unfair..unless they were seriously not doing a good job. I personally cannot say that anywhere in this Country have we seen any ill will by anyone in trying to make this work for everyone. Is it perfect…not on your best day. However we need look no further than south of us to see “what bad leadership ” does in managing these kinds of situations.

    Reply
  • May 27, 2020 at 10:27 pm Susan

    The County had an opportunity to relieve the burden on the taxpayer. They chose to keep non essential workers employed with full pay, pension and benefits. Why this happenned will require review prior to another tax increase.

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    • May 28, 2020 at 10:56 am Andre Gratton

      are there examples of other municipalities that have “laid off” non essential workers during the pandemic????

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      • May 28, 2020 at 1:58 pm Chuck

        There are many, just google covid 19 municipal layoffs.

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  • May 27, 2020 at 9:59 pm Chuck

    Why would the County not have layed off non eessential workers to save the tax base?

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  • May 22, 2020 at 10:12 am Gary

    Of concern during this state of emergency, is that at no time at least publicly known was there a review of the County employees in regards to who was an essential worker and those that were not. Shire Hall and all facilities closed. All workers continue on full pay, pension and benefits funded by the struggling taxpayer. No one is wishing for layoffs however accountable government needs to look at the unpleasnt tasks in order to be accountable to the tax base. Further there were many supports for workers provided by the Federal and Provincial levels. One is left to assume that every single worker was deemed essential and fully carried out their duties or alternate duties. One has to wonder what the Economic Development Dep’t has been doing for 9 weeks. Certainly not promoting tourism. Any recoveries and savings from staff costs could have been directed to local pandemic costs and lessened the burden on the taxpayer. This issue deserves transparency.

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