Major changes ahead for county system of government

By Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe April 10 2012
Today, members of Simcoe County’s governance committee met to consider how to proceed on changes that would completely remake the county system of government. First order of business was to elect a chair and vice-chair. Bradford West-Gwillimbury Mayor Doug White and Collingwood Deputy Mayor Rick Lloyd vice-chair were unopposed for the two positions.
White, who chaired the committee in the last term of council, said he wants to address two key issues – the first being the position of the warden, including how that person would be selected, for how long a term and whether he or she would be a member of a lower-tier municipality.
Presently the warden is a mayor or deputy mayor, elected by fellow county councillors for a two-year term. The Berkeley report that was presented to the last council in 2010 recommended a full-time warden, serving for the full four-year term.
Various alternatives were proposed for selection of the warden from among county councillors. The consultant did not recommend direct election by the public at large.
“ While there are benefits to direct election, we feel that such a change at this time would lead to greater focus on politics rather than on the constructive and collaborative leadership that is needed, and it would be a logistical and cost challenge in such a large county.”
White said the second key issue is to look at the size and composition of county council, presently made up of mayors and deputy mayors – 32 people altogether. Berkeley recommended dropping the deputy mayors and having mayors only, with seven county councillors directly elected on the basis of population.
White and Lloyd will be conducting one-on-one interviews with all their fellow county councillors to ascertain what the positions are on these issues.
A triple majority is required to make a number of changes envisioned by the governance committee, including changes to the way the warden and councillors are elected and changes to the number of councillors.
A triple majority involvees a majority of county council; a majority of the councils of the lower-tier municipality; and that those lower-tier municipalities represent the majority of the county’s population.
A direct vote by the public to approve any new arrangements is not required.
Other members of the governance committee are Warden Cal Patterson (Wasaga Beach), Deputy Warden Harry Hughes (Oro-Medonte), David Foster (Wasaga Beach), Ken Ferguson (Clearview), Alicia Savage (Clearview) and Basil Clarke (Ramara).
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AWARE Simcoe
Berkeley Report