{"id":4402,"date":"2013-10-30T16:49:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T20:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2013-11-06T13:42:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T18:42:09","slug":"council-splits-on-motion-calling-for-mayor-to-define-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-splits-on-motion-calling-for-mayor-to-define-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Council splits on motion calling for Mayor to define role"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora Councillors split down the middle last week in a motion calling on Mayor Geoffrey Dawe to define his own role in maintaining \u201caccountability\u201d at Town Hall. <\/p>\n

The motion was brought forward by Councillor Evelyn Buck objecting to what she said was an inability to \u201cseek accounting\u201d from municipal departments, lest it is seen as \u201cmicromanaging.\u201d To clarify things, she asked the Mayor to draft a report to Council on where he saw his role fitting into this. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an attack on yourself, Mr. Mayor; this is a serious concern I have that Council cannot be accountable to the public for how this administration functions, if this administration is not accountable to Council,\u201d said Councillor Buck.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, a Councillor is not only responsible to the whole community with how the corporation functions \u2013 they are responsible for the people who function within the community. It disturbs me greatly to be told I cannot ask a question, I cannot determine whether a matter brought to my attention has any validity without being able to ask a question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her concerns, she said, stemmed from a closed session meeting. Going into the meeting, she told Council in open session that she had concerns about an \u201cidentifiable individual\u201d and wanted some answers. She added last week she understood the \u201csensitivity\u201d about individual privacy but when she brought forward her concerns, Mayor Dawe told he could not make any enquiries \u201cbecause you perceive that not to be your role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would like to receive from you is how you perceive your role,\u201d said Councillor Buck. \u201cHow can you persuade me that [the way] you perceive your role helps me fulfil my role? The Mayor is Councillors\u2019 man. If there is a subject of extreme delicacy that can\u2019t be brooded about and needs to be handled sensitively, then it should always be the Mayor that enquires into it and reports back to Council with complete privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she added she respected the Mayor\u2019s right to \u201chave his own sense\u201d of what his role is, she said she wanted to make sure there wasn\u2019t a \u201cBerlin Wall\u201d between Council and administration. Mayor Dawe, on the other hand, vehemently disagreed with Councillor Buck\u2019s motion, rejecting the idea her motion was not an attack on himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first saw this, my first thought was there must be an election in the offing because silly season has started,\u201d said Mayor Dawe. \u201cI said [during the 2010 election] I will not micromanage. I will depend on [Aurora CAO Neil] Garbe and all the senior directors here to manage the corporation. That is their job. That is what they are paid to do. Our job is to set policy and procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming prepared to the Council meetings with three guidebooks he said he has used to formulate his own idea on the Mayor\u2019s role, he said he had talked to counterparts in other municipalities, as well as those who have walked in his shoes to formulate his opinion. <\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to what you feel, I find your motion to be condescending,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is absolutely critical. I have no problem indicating what I think my job is, but I will not support this motion because I do not believe this is Council\u2019s job and I do not believe this is a good use of Council time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debate, nevertheless, ensued not just between Mayor Dawe and Councillor Buck, but also among Councillors on the merits of the motion. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile you might feel everything is being done properly and everything that could be done is being done, I do not share your confidence,\u201d continued Councillor Buck. \u201cI have tried to be respectful and not critical, but it is a question of a difference of perspective. You are too sensitive by far for the office of Mayor. My experience doesn\u2019t come from books. It comes from harsh, harsh lessons \u2013 what people expect of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Buck\u2019s motion was supported by Councillors Chris Ballard, Wendy Gaertner and John Gallo. For them, it was a matter of dissecting the four part motion, including the initial disagreement that spawned it, in favour of simply getting this report from the Mayor on \u201caccountability to the administration\u201d to Council. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an education perspective, I see nothing wrong with this motion,\u201d said Councillor Ballard. \u201cI think any time citizens are reminded about the functioning of democracy at Town Hall is a good thing. I am not attaching this to any particular event.\u201d <\/p>\n

Councillor Gallo said he agreed and it would \u201ceducate\u201d him and provide a \u201cbetter understanding\u201d for the public as a whole. <\/p>\n

\u201cI share some of the concerns that Councillor Buck has expressed and this may help me better understand my concerns and how things are dealt with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Added Councillor Gaertner: \u201cWe all know there is a separation between the administration and the elected body, but at the end of the day it is this Council that is responsible, certainly, to some degree, and is held accountable for the actions of this administration. [The Mayor] is our CEO. It is a fair ask not only to make it clear to us, but also to make it clear to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining the mayor in voting against the motion were Councillors John Abel, Sandra Humfryes, Paul Pirri and Michael Thompson. For them, it was a matter of not sharing the concerns of the others, as well as them viewing the report as something other than the most productive way to spend time. <\/p>\n

Councillor Thompson, for instance, argued it was Councillor Buck\u2019s concern and not a concern he shared. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have had meetings with every director here and raised my own questions to satisfy my own concerns and questions,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily believe it has to go through the Mayor. We are a democracy. If the Mayor disagrees and all eight of us vote for anything, it doesn\u2019t mean it is vetoed. It is the majority decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Councillor Pirri: \u201cI know what my responsibilities towards accountability are. Those are my feelings that are guided by the Municipal act and the way it is written out and the interpretation I have. If you would like the Mayor to write out his interpretation of the Municipal Act, I have to wonder why just the mayor? If we\u2019re all going to write our own interpretations of the municipal act and put them out so everyone can see them, that is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora Councillors split down the middle last week in a motion calling on Mayor Geoffrey Dawe to define his own role in maintaining \u201caccountability\u201d at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-190","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 03:17:21","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\/4402","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=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}