By Pepper Parr
March 9, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
We elect them to make decisions on how the city will be run, which includes everything from hiring a city manager who runs the administrative side of things to approving a budget that will determine how we are taxed.
They meet as both members of two Standing Committees and as a city council where they approve everything done at the Standing committee level.
The seven members of the Burlington city council are also members of the Halton Regional Council.
The seven members get paid something in the order of $60,000 for serving as members of city council. They get an additional amount for serving as members of the Regional Council.
Along with all the discussion and debate – these seven men and woman VOTE.
City Council during a recorded vote. Meed Ward votes against a motion. It is only on recorded votes that the results of a vote are known.
But you don’t know how they voted unless you are in the room or watch the proceedings on the web cast. And – even if you are in the room it is frequently difficult to see who has their hand up and who doesn’t.
The only time the public is certain as to how a member of council votes is when there is a recorded vote and they all have to stand up and actually be counted.
Recently the office of the city Clerk improved the quality of the minutes and the agenda so that we now know how a vote went – however all the document says is that the vote carried or lost – you don’t know who voted for or who voted against a motion.
In February of 2013 city council decided that recoding all the votes wasn’t necessary Here is the comment made at that time.
“With respect to recorded voting at standing committee meetings, members of Council on the review team expressed differing viewpoints. Acknowledging that recommendations from committee are intended to be a preliminary position on a matter, it was felt that recording a member’s vote at that stage of deliberation could inhibit a member from changing his or her position later at Council should new information become available.
It was also noted that recorded voting would slow the transaction of business at committee meetings. As the review team did not have consensus on the matter, a recommendation on recorded voting is not included within this report and would require direction from Council. Nonetheless, the sentiment of the review team was that if recorded votes were to be permitted at Committee, these would be restricted to the main motions (and main motions as amended) but would not be applied to amendments themselves or any secondary motions tabled.
The Halton District school Board has a system that records all votes. Why doesn’t Burlington have one of these?
Over at the Halton District School Board an automatic voting system was put in place. When a vote it to be taken the trustees press a key on a keypad and the results are flashed up on a screen.
The city of Burlington isn’t there – they don’t want to be there – many of them don’t want you to know how they voted on specific issues – because you can then hold them accountable.
Here is what the public now gets.
There is a report coming forward on the Air Park and the problems the city has been having getting the Air Park ownership to provide a site plan for the work they have done in the past and work they want to do in the future.
It took two court cases for Burlington to make clear that the city has the right to require a site plan.
The report is an important one – and it was to be brought forward in February but council decided to defer the report until the new city manager was in place.
James Ridge is due to report for duty March 23rd. Because this is a critically important report council wanted the new city manager at the table which meant deferring the report.
Here is how Council handled that matter:
REFERRAL OF REPORT PROVIDING AN UPDATE REGARDING THE BURLINGTON EXECUTIVE AIRPARK
The following amendment was moved by Councillor Taylor and seconded by Councillor Meed Ward:
Amend Item CW-6-15 of the Development & Infrastructure Committee Meeting No. 2-15, by making the following change:
“Refer the report providing an update regarding the Burlington Executive Airpark to the March 30, 2015 Development & Infrastructure Committee meeting.”
AMENDMENT CARRIED
Was the vote unanimous? If it wasn’t how did members of council actually vote? The public report doesn’t tell you that.
There is a lot at stake with the air park decisions. It is one of the issues that will define the shape of the northern rural part of the city.
There are a significant number of people in ward 6 who are not certain their member of council is hearing what they have to say about the direction the city should take on this issue and they would dearly love to know how Blair Lancaster voted.
The public record doesn’t tell you how she voted. It doesn’t tell you how any of them voted – just that they did.
Related article:
Council decision on recorded votes.
John Taylor is my councillor. I have voted for him on every municipal election for the past 21 years. I would hope that you, Mr. Taylor, and all of your colleagues would agree that you have an obligation to keep me informed on how YOU voted on all issues which affect me and all of your constituents. Please make the changes needed to start recording and reporting on all votes in council. Thanks in advance.
I agree, votes should be recorded. We the voting public have a right to know how our councillor and others voted on any given matter. It is uncomfortable not knowing who voted for or against any given item. At least one councillor has the guts to make public how she voted and why. One other councillor is a gentleman, the others, well, who knows, depends on how forth coming they are whith what they voted for and why.
Recently in the Ward 2 News Councillor Meed Ward posted a piece titled “Win Some Loose Some”. In that piece she made available several motions voted on during the budget and how each member of council and the mayor voted.
It’s a start and I can only hope she continues to post all votes until they are made available on the city web site.
Only then could we engage our councillors and understand their reasoning behind their vote.
Regardless of councils rational for not recording the vote it is public information and should be available.
You have made excellent points that I agree with completely. Those of us who vote faithfully deserve to know how our ward rep. is voting. Why are they afraid to provide us with this information? The answer is rather obvious and makes me very uncomfortable. I DO WANT TO KNOW HOW MY WARD REP IS VOTING ON ALL ISSUES. Shame on them for withholding that information. I want to be a more educated voter!