Municipal councils defend reduced summer workloads

Yorkregion.com
July 23, 2015
By Chris Simon

Depending in which York Region municipality you live, it may be difficult to catch your council in action over the next while.

Many municipal governments have reduced schedules during the mid-summer months of July and August, often reducing the number of committee of the whole and regular council meetings on their plates when compared to other times of the year.

Elected officials often insist the breaks make sense, given the number of staff and residents on vacation at the time - though critics sometimes relate fewer sitting days in a council chamber to a lack of productivity.

However, it appears every local jurisdiction sets different standards. The City of Markham and regional council, for example, will not meet again until September.

‘Work doesn’t stop; it still has to get done. No one’s lounging about.’

“We delegate a lot to senior management on the issues, so once we set our budget, the projects...proceed on,” regional chairman and CEO Wayne Emmerson said.

“Residents get pretty upset when we have meetings in the summer because they’re not able to attend. But I can call members of council in at any time, if there’s a need. I won’t bring them in unnecessarily...we won’t bring stuff (forward) just to say we put it through in the summertime. If there was a major tender...union negotiations or any other major issues, we’d bring them in. I’ve sat at the table for 17 years and I (cannot) recall ever having to come in the summertime.”

Emmerson does plan to discuss with staff whether there’s a need for mid-summer meetings, prior to council’s adoption of the 2016 schedule.

Newmarket Regional Councillor John Taylor said formal council meetings only represent about 25 per cent of the schedules for most mayors and regional councillors.

So, elected officials and staff are still working diligently, even if they’re not debating policy and passing bylaws in a public setting.

“There are pluses and minuses to both,” Taylor said of a reduced meeting schedule.

“Work doesn’t stop; it still has to get done. No one’s lounging about. Just because we’re having a reduced schedule for council meetings and committee of the whole does not mean we’re not working.”

In Newmarket, politicians will gather three times - there is one regular council meeting, plus “special” committee and council dates planned.

Taylor said councillors also attend planning and sub-committee meetings and deal with several constituency matters.

Aurora and Newmarket’s joint council committee, which oversees Central York Fire Services, also meets mid-summer, and municipal staff often use the time to shift focus on to large planning or infrastructure projects, rather than preparing reports and documents for council meetings.

And since many residents vacation out of town, municipal governments usually shy away from making major decisions during the summer.

“We continue to meet internally with staff,” Taylor said. “There’s still a fairly robust work week. It’s not ideal to hold meetings where you have a major decision that impacts an area or townwide. The public likes to know they can be a part of it and they’ll receive proper notification. It allows you to make sure the meetings are taking place at a time when they’re most accessible to the public. It allows us to clear some of the backlog, catch up on some of the bigger files, do some strategic work...and move some issues along that are more resident-focused.”

East Gwillimbury and King council members will meet the more often in July and August, when compared to some of their neighbouring municipalities. They’ll each hold four meetings (two committee of the whole and two council). Georgina, Aurora and Whitchurch-Stouffville will host three council meetings and Richmond Hill runs two (one committee, one regular council). Meanwhile, Vaughan held two (special council and committee meetings) July 16.

“We’ve got a lot going; we have a lot of growth and need to be on top of things,” East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson said. “People need to take holidays and we’re well aware some staff may not be there at particular times. We’re building a team, too, so it sometimes gives people an opportunity to step up. If the department head isn’t there, we’re assured the assistant will be available to answer questions. It also allows our residents who are on holidays to find us. We’re able to do it in the summer, as opposed to putting it off until the fall. To be honest, we’re paid for 12 months of the year.”

Since East Gwillimbury only has five council members and a fairly small town staff contingent, it’s relatively easy to co-ordinate holiday schedules around meeting dates, she said.

King Mayor Steve Pellegrini believes his municipality has found a good balance, which gives staff time off but assures residents with urgent issues do not have to wait two months to be addressed by council.

For Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe, decreasing the number of meetings held is mostly about logistics.

“We’ll wait to see, as we get closer to the second meeting in August, whether we need it; if we apply ourselves and ask the questions we should of staff before we come to the meeting and come prepared to debate the issue, I would think two meetings would be good enough,” he said, of his town’s mid-summer council schedule.

“It’s about being as efficient as possible. We all want to take some vacation, most want to in the summer. You need to make sure you’ve got people around to generate the reports and carry out the actions. Much of what comes to council in the summer is routine; we receive reports for information for acts later in the year. It’s setting the deck for the fall.”

In the region’s case, there are often heavier meeting agendas during other parts of the year, to balance out council’s absence in July and August, Dawe said.

“We meet fewer times, but for longer,” he said. “We have longer meetings at the region than we do at local council.”

Summer meetings

Aurora - three council
East Gwillimbury - two council, two committee
Georgina - three council, though a fourth meeting date has been scheduled if required
King Township - two council, two committee
Markham - zero
Newmarket - one regular council, special council meeting, special committee meeting
Richmond Hill - one committee, one regular council
Vaughan - two special council meetings
Whitchurch-Stouffville - three council
York Region - zero