Openness and transparency at county council

By Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe January 24 2011

It was a little too reminiscent of the Guergis days when Simcoe County councillors were chastized like childrren and thwarted by unpredictable procedural rulings.

Today, after a show of hands, Warden Cal Patterson declared defeated a motion by Midland Deputy Mayor Stephan Kramp on the county’s closed meetings investigator.

Kramp said the vote was so close, he would have to ask for a recorded vote.

Patterson ruled that Kramp was too late with his request, and there could be no recorded vote. 

His ruling was challenged, sending County Clerk Brenda Clark under her desk to retrieve the procedure bylaw. After a lengthy whispered confabulation, Patterson moved on – without explanation – to the next item.

Midland Mayor Gord McKay interrupted to ask what had happened to Kramp’s request.

“It was not allowed,” Patterson replied curtly. “It was after the fact.”

Patterson attempted again to proceed with the agenda, but this time Innisfil Mayor Barb Baguley rose to read out from the County’s procedure bylaw.

It says that a request for a recorded vote may be made “immediately prior to or immediately subsequent to the taking of a vote,” and, Baguley added, “we have done so historically as well.”

After further inaudible consultation with Clark, Patterson insisted that a call for a recorded vote can only be made before or during the process of the vote. 

“The interpretation that we have here is that once the decision has been made and it’s been announced, that that’s it,” Patterson said.

Otherwise, “this would give the opportunity for people to change their vote,” he said.

Baguley “very respectfully” said she disagreed. “It says subsequently, and subsequently is after.”

“We’ll move on,” Patterson said regally. And they moved on.

Later in the meeting, Penetanguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall gave notice of a motion to revisit the issue of the closed meetings investigator. So the matter will be before council again at its next meeting March 1.

While the handling of today’s procedural issue raises questions about the warden and the clerk, as well as councillors’ willingness to accept dubious rulings, it was the substance of Kramp’s motion that points to hidden dynamics within county politics.

Kramp referred to a letter from the Simcoe County Clerks and Treasurers Association and said he believed that the letter may have influenced council’s decision at its last meeting in November to select a private closed meetings investigator in preference to the Ontario Ombudsman. 

“The letter may have contained inaccuracies with regard to the Ombudsman’s office and decisions which have been made by the Ombudsman’s office in the past,” said Kramp, who then moved that the Ombudsman be invited to address council on the SCCTA letter and the services provided by his office. 

Clark said the November 18 SCCTA letter was received too late to be presented to council on November 27. “I don’t believe there was any influence of this letter in the decision-making process,” she said, adding however that the letter was circulated to municipal councils through their municipal clerks. 

Kramp pointed out that a number of councillors spoke to the issue at the November meeting and were referring to a “letter or a document or an opinion” from the association.

But other councillors had not seen the letter, prompting McKay to ask at that time whether there was information to which not all of council was privy. 

“The response was there is no correspondence,” Kramp recalled – but the problem is that some based their vote at county council on information received through their own clerk that may be inaccurate. 

AWARE Simcoe flagged the issue in a January 3, 2012 letter to county council in which chair Don Morgan noted that it is usually on the advice of a clerk or CAO that a council or committee goes behind closed doors.

“We question whether it is appropriate for the Simcoe County clerks and treasurers association to be lobbying on the issue of who will provide oversight with regard to decisions in which their members play such a pivotal role,” Morgan wrote.

Council voted November 27 (its last meeting, none were held in December) to retain John Maddox of JGM Consulting in London. Clark told council today that 12 municipalities in Simcoe County have also retained JGM, while four have retained the Ombudsman.

AWARE Simcoe suggests another look   

London firm preferred