Council shuns call to review vacancy appointments
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
A former Oshawa councillor is calling on current members of civic leadership to reconsider the decisions made to fill the empty seats left behind by the death of Nancy Diamond.
Former regional councillor Diamond passed away suddenly in February of this year, following which her fellow councillors appointed city councillor Doug Sanders to her position as regional councillor and appointed Gale Bates to fill Sanders’ former city seat.
Those appointments were made during a meeting in March, during which former councillor David Conway says councillors violated the Municipal Act.
“I think in your own hearts…you know it was wrong,” Conway told council during its meeting on Sept. 25. “It was an error in judgement and an error against the Municipal Act.”
According to Conway, the March meeting was advertised only to declare Diamond’s seat vacant and then to consider options for moving forward. However, he says the public wasn’t prepared for council to immediately make decisions on filling the vacancy, something which he says is not allowed under the Municipal Act.
To further his concerns, Conway informed council that he’d already reached out to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Ontario Ombudsman, both of which informed him to try and resolve his issue at the municipal level first. For that reason, Conway called on council to rescind the appointments and once again declare the seat vacant.
“The appointment process at the March 20, 2017 council meeting lacked accountability and transparency in that it seems the decision had been made prior to the meeting even starting,” Conway states. “Delegations had been heard, but were virtually ignored. Members of the public who were in attendance were expecting to hear a debate on the benefits of the two options, by-election or an appointment. That did not take place.”
However, speaking to the concerns raised, Councillor John Aker disagreed with the accusations.
“I believe this council did absolutely the right thing,” he said. “I have not heard one complaint from any citizen about the performance of Councillor Doug Sanders or Councillor Gale Bates. We did the absolutely correct thing.”
The view was shared by the city’s solicitor David Potts, who backed council’s actions, stating that they followed the Municipal Act precisely. He also said that council had no jurisdiction to do what Conway was asking as the Municipal Act states that once an appointment is made, the councillor must serve through the remainder of the term.
Council was unanimous in receiving Conway’s request as information and not moving forward with his request.
The decisions made by council at that March 20 meeting were the topic of heated debate, as many residents called for a by-election to fill Diamond’s seat, while others called for the appointment of the next top vote-getting on the 2014 regional councillor ballot, that being former councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri.
The situation was exacerbated by the fact that council currently has no policy in place to guide decision-making when seats become vacant.
City staff are currently in the midst of forming policy options for council to consider. Those options will be the topic of discussion during a special meeting of council on Nov. 15. A public information centre is scheduled to be set up ahead of that meeting to inform residents and gather feedback on any potential options. A date has not yet been set for this public information session.
However, city clerk Andrew Brouwer informed council, and those in attendance at the meeting that revisiting the decisions made on March 20 are not part of that discussion.