Unaccountable

Democracy, it seems, has been suspended, at least temporarily, in Prince Edward County. A majority of council, it turns out, has decided it will not be bound by the will of the people as expressed by vote. They will, instead, set their own priorities and be accountable only to themselves. A handful of councillors have effectively staged a coup upon our local government.

Cast your memory back a few years—council was embroiled in yet another attempt to reduce the size of council. Sixteen representatives was and is a fulsome municipal body to manage the affairs of 25,000 folks. Some argued a smaller council might reduce costs and make for more efficient decision making. Inevitably, however, talk of council

size turned to a discussion of ward and boundary lines—the point at which many good plans collapse. Few councillors were eager to tinker with the towns, villages and townships that make up Prince Edward County to achieve the elusive and perhaps fleeting benefits of a smaller council.

But a discussion of wards led to a recognition that all votes are not cast equally in the County. Bloomfield with just 600 voters elects the same number of representatives as Wellington with three times greater population. Vote strength inequity exists across the County.

This disparity matters if councillors believe their duty to represent citizens ends at the ward boundary—but there has been little or no evidence of this extreme parochialism. Nevertheless this inequity became the basis of an OMB challenge in 2009.

Council had worked hard through a process led by Councillor Bev Campbell and Clerk Victoria Leskie to arrive a some consensus for many months of 2008 and 2009. But every path was a dead end. Council was hopelessly deadlocked.

A group of citizens led by Jim McPherson and the late Lyle McBurney rallied public support to push the council to make a decision. Instead, council chose to put the question to the people. After much deliberation over precise wording and meaning, council agreed to ask the following question of voters: “Are you in favour of Council commencing a public consultation process to review the size of Council for the County of Prince Edward?”

Unsatisified , McPherson and McBurney brought the matter to the Ontario Municipal Board hoping the quasi-judicial agency could impose a decision upon the deadlocked council.

OMB turne d down the appeal at least in part because the County had successfully argued that its process to determine a better representative model was ongoing—that the OMB couldn’t impose a new voting structure on this community while it was still working through the process to arrive at a new one.

Of course council had to show that its intentions were genuine and that it was truly interested in the outcome and would act upon the results.

It turns out that was a lie.

When County voters had their say—they voted overwhelmingly in favour of continuing the discussion. In fact nearly 81 per cent of those who answered the question said they were in favour of continuing the process. Eighty-eight per cent of those who voted in the 2010 election answered the ballot.

Yet this new council has decided it is not bound by these results. Late in September council decided that, despite the will as expressed by the voters, the issue was not a priority and voted among themselves to shelve it.

Led by Councillor Terry Shortt, the majority argued that notwithstanding the outcome of the vote, they knew better. Shortt argued that the issue of council size didn’t even make it into their own top 10 priorities and they shouldn’t be pushed into action by “two per cent of the population.”

Notwithstanding the math problems in his argument, Shortt and others are walking a very dangerous road. Readers know this newspaper argued strongly against redrawing County maps and reducing council size—the potential benefits seemed too few compared to the cost in terms of history, tradition and the divisiveness this process would provoke.

But, but, but…

County voters have a different view. They, at least, want the discussion to continue.

A majority of council has, however, overruled them. They have substituted their wisdom for the wishes expressed clearly and overwhelmingly by the people of this County.

Council has gone rogue. It can now do anything it pleases. It has shed its thin veneer of accountability. It has decided it doesn’t have to listen to the people it serves. Nine folks have launched a coup of Prince Edward County government—they have set their own priorities and will be guided by their own whims and values. It matters not what you or I or anyone else desires—they have embarked upon their own benevolent dictatorship.

Shortt says he won’t ignore the vote forever. He will, he says, work to put the issue back on the table in time for any change to be enacted before the next election. For now he and at least seven others have a to-do list they want to work through.

Meanwhile the people of Prince Edward County are formulating their own to-do list—at the top of which is taking back Shire Hall.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca