{"id":37337,"date":"2025-12-11T14:50:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37337"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:14:26","slug":"councillors-question-bringing-procedural-bylaw-in-line-with-strong-mayor-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/councillors-question-bringing-procedural-bylaw-in-line-with-strong-mayor-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillors question bringing Procedural Bylaw in line with Strong Mayor Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recommendation for Council to adopt an updated Procedural Bylaw governing how meetings are run, bringing it in line with Strong Mayor powers, sparked a debate at last week\u2019s Committee of the Whole meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters of the recommended changes before lawmakers last week stated Council does not currently have a Procedural Bylaw in line with the most recent changes to Ontario\u2019s Municipal Act, including the introduction of Strong Mayor powers. Those opposing the changes, however, argued that next year\u2019s municipal elections might bring a change in how these powers are used locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recommendations in front of Council \u2013 and rejected by the majority of members at the Committee level \u2013 outline the Mayor\u2019s ability to create and dissolve committees comprised only of Council members, the Mayor\u2019s responsibility to appoint Chairs to Council-comprised committees, processes related to the Mayor\u2019s veto power and how it relates to specific bylaws, and how the Mayor can introduce an item for Council\u2019s consideration without needing another member to move and second the motion in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of changes related to Strong Mayor powers, recommendations include fleshing out the role of the Deputy Mayor when the Mayor is absent, meeting schedules, and other \u201chousekeeping\u201d items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe proposed revisions ensure the Procedure Bylaw is clear and easily accessible for staff, the public, and Council,\u201d said Staff in their report. \u201cIt presents relevant information in a concise format and ensures accurate information is presented publicly. Guided by the principles of openness, transparency, and accountability to the public, the proposed revisions to the Procedure Bylaw provide clarity in the decision-making process, provide access to information and opportunities for input by the public, and exercises and respects individual and collective roles and responsibilities provided for in the Procedure Bylaw and applicable legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few of the \u201chousekeeping\u201d items generated discussion at last week\u2019s meeting; instead, focus remained squarely on Strong Mayor powers and whether they should be enshrined into the Bylaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to be very clear why I cannot support making changes to our Procedural Bylaw at this time,\u201d said Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo. \u201cThe governance environment is unstable and could change completely next year. Procedural Bylaws are meant to provide long-term stability for how a Council functions. Right now, Aurora is operating under a governance structure that was not chosen by Council and may not exist after the next election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Council voted against accepting Strong Mayor powers. Despite that, the majority decision, the current Mayor unilaterally accepted those powers. In less than a year, Aurora will have a new Mayor and we have no idea whether the next Mayor will accept or decline those powers. It makes no sense to rewrite the rules of procedure based on a system that may disappear in a matter of months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the recommended changes at this point, he continued, \u201crisks locking in\u201d rules tied to Strong Mayor powers which may conflict if these powers are off the table in the years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is irresponsible to reshape our long-term procedural framework based on a temporary and contested governance model,\u201d said Gallo. \u201cThe majority of council opposed strong mayor powers from the beginning. That matters. This Council, democratically elected, voted not to adopt Strong Mayor powers because members believed it undermines majority rule, collaboration, transparency, and balanced decision-making. Those concerns haven’t changed, and until the people of Aurora choose their next mayor, we cannot assume these powers will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking major changes to how Council works, when we know the governance structure is likely to change, does not build trust. It creates confusion, instability, and unnecessary political tension\u2026. Good governance requires predictability, majority rule, and clear, stable rules. We do not have that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas said he agreed there was confusion, but it was not for the above reasons \u2013 instead, he said, residents were \u201cconfused about the fact that our procedural bylaw does not align with legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will agree with, yeah, some people sitting at this table won\u2019t be here next term, but I can guarantee you one thing: until the Provincial government changes Strong Mayor powers, Strong Mayor powers are here to stay, they are permanent. We can’t decide whether we want to change that or not. You can decide whether you want to use them as a tool, but they’re here. I’ll remind everyone, as I\u2019ve reminded the last two times we’ve dealt with this, for over two years, we’ve had a Procedural Bylaw that is in conflict with legislation by the Provincial government and within the Municipal Act. By not changing it, you’re just saying is, \u2018well, I’m going to ignore the Municipal Act, and I don’t care what the Municipal Act says, because we’re just going to do it this way\u2026.\u2019 That’s not transparent. That leads to confusion. And that leads to unstable rules. If we want to have stable rules, we make the rules that follow the Municipal Act and the legislation that’s put forward and enacted by the provincial government that we need to adhere to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next Municipal Election is slated for October 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A recommendation for Council to adopt an updated Procedural Bylaw governing how meetings are run, bringing it in line with Strong Mayor powers, sparked a debate at last week\u2019s Committee of the Whole meeting. Supporters of the recommended changes before lawmakers last week stated Council does not currently have a Procedural Bylaw in line with […]<\/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-37337","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\/p3D2k4-9Id","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 21:38:47","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\/37337","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=37337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37338,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337\/revisions\/37338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}