{"id":36074,"date":"2025-04-03T11:30:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36074"},"modified":"2025-04-03T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:30:09","slug":"meetings-with-mayor-issue-sparks-councillors-walk-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/meetings-with-mayor-issue-sparks-councillors-walk-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Meetings with Mayor issue sparks Councillors\u2019 walk-out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two Council members walked out of last week\u2019s meeting after debate erupted on how local lawmakers are kept informed on matters in their wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue at the March 25 Council meeting were efforts to accommodate the cars of residents at the condo building at 180 Civic Square Gate that will be displaced due to construction work in their underground parking garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

180 Civic Square Gate, a stone\u2019s throw from Town Hall, is in Ward 5 which is represented by Councillor John Gallo. Gallo brought forward a motion to find parking around the complex, including spaces at Town Hall at certain hours, only to be informed that municipal staff have already started work on the file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaff have been working on this with the residents and the condo board as well,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas following Councillor Gallo\u2019s motion. \u201cI thank Councillor Gallo for putting this in writing and we can solidify it as a direction from Council as well. I am also having a conversation with the management team over at the Canadian Tire plaza (an entrance for which is off nearby Hollidge Boulevard) to see if there is any ability for them to alleviate parking for the condo as well and they can help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at all avenues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo said while the initial request was brought forward in December of 2024, he was \u201conly made aware last week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should really try to expedite these things as quickly as possible,\u201d said the Councillor. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t take December, January, February, to the end of March to come up with something and I know staff have been working on it and there is lots of back and forth. I would also like to request, not just for me but for other members of Council and their wards, if items like this come up, I think it would be beneficial to us, as representing the wards, they\u2019re made aware of these issues right at the beginning and involved in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our job, it\u2019s what we\u2019re here for, I only found out last week\u2026 luckily it\u2019s in time and we\u2019re able to support this and it worked out. Just a note in the future [for] staff to bring us into the loop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mayor\u2019s response was short, \u201cWe do hold one-on-ones so we can have these discussions on a monthly basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comment prompted Councillor Gallo to call a Point of Personal Privilege, stating, \u201cYour accusations that I don\u2019t get involved in ward issues as a result of me not having meetings with you. Would you like to explain what that has to do with staff bringing me into the loop in terms of what\u2019s happening in the ward?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll I said is we have these discussions one-on-one,\u201d the Mayor replied. \u201cIf you want to take it a certain way\u2026that\u2019s your prerogative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallo subsequently asked the Mayor to apologize, with Mayor Mrakas declining as \u201cthere is no apology for something I did not do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar back-and-forth continued and, as just before the meeting was formally brought to a close, both Councillor Gallo and Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner packed up their things and left the Council Chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Council members walked out of last week\u2019s meeting after debate erupted on how local lawmakers are kept informed on matters in their wards. At issue at the March 25 Council meeting were efforts to accommodate the cars of residents at the condo building at 180 Civic Square Gate that will be displaced due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9nQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 14:33:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36075,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36074\/revisions\/36075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}