Another Strong Mayor Power unveiled

File Photo.

By Cecilia Nasmith

It was during a marathon seven-hour meeting of Cobourg council Wednesday that a previously undiscussed Strong Mayor Power was unveiled.

The record-breaking seven-hour-plus council meeting began three hours early in light of an unusually heavy agenda, running from 3 to almost 10:30 p.m.

When council went to the committee format more than a year ago, the hope had been to streamline and expedite regular council meetings by farming out some of the work to the appropriate committee, which would deliberate and forward a recommendation to council – presumably to save time at council. For whatever reasons, this hope has not been realized. From a 6 p.m. start, meetings continued to go well past 10 and even 11 p.m.

Councillor Miriam Mutton, no fan of the format, put forth a motion during their consideration of a pay raise for the new council contingent to be elected in the fall. Mutton's motion did not pass, but in the body of the motion, she mentioned re-examining the committee format with an eye to a possible return to its former committee-of-the-whole format.

Municipal Clerk Brent Larmer told her that, under provincial Strong Mayor Powers legislation, that is no longer possible – council-meeting formats are now at the call of the mayor.

Mutton had cited Port Hope (which retains the committee-of-the-whole format) as an example. Though Port Hope Mayor Olena Hankivsky was also given Strong Mayor Powers by the province, she has not changed the council format.