Richmond Hill council eyes switching from evening to afternoon meetings
The final decision is scheduled for the council meeting on Feb. 25

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 26, 2019
Sheila Wang

You may have to move your schedules around if you plan to attend future council meetings.

Richmond Hill council voted Feb. 19 to change council and committee of the whole meeting time to 1 p.m. on alternate Tuesdays from 7:30 p.m. on alternate Mondays from April to September on a trial basis.

“I do want people to understand that for the most part, the reason we’re meeting in the evening is to accommodate the part-time councillors that need to work during the day,” said Regional Councillor Joe DiPaola, who put forward the motion at the committee of the whole meeting.

In his original motion, DiPaola proposed to make a permanent change to the time for council meetings and committee of the whole meetings.

After receiving a number of comments from the public, DiPaola said he’d like to modify the motion to make the meeting time for the period from April to September on a trial basis so that council will be able to re-evaluate the change afterwards.

DiPaola’s motion garnered the supports from Regional Councillor Carmine Perrelli, Mayor Dave Barrow, Ward 3 Coun. Castro Liu, and Ward 6 Coun. Godwin Chan after two amendments were raised and failed during the extensive discussion among council members.

Ward 5 Coun. Karen Cilevitz who said holding council meetings during the day would be “a road block to public participation,” proposed to amend the motion to move council meetings from 7:30 p.m. on alternate Mondays to the same time on alternate Tuesdays.

Cilevitz's amendment failed on tie vote.

Regional Councillor Perrelli spoke in support of DiPaola’s motion on the grounds that holding meetings in the evening would take town staff away from their family time.

“To make the statement that changing it to 1 o’clock means that people that work can’t make it is not factually correct. That means people who work during the day can’t make it,” Perrelli said. “At some point, somebody have to make a sacrifice because we cannot appeal to all people.”

Coun. Liu proposed to refer the motion to the clerk’s office for feedback before making a decision. Ward 2 Coun. Tom Muench who supported the referral said he would also like to have public consultations on the change to the meeting time.

The amendment did not win support from the rest of the council.

Council is expected make a final decision on the temporary change to the time of council meetings and committee of the whole meetings on the council meeting on Feb. 25.