County council chooses not to study its structure

County council chooses not to study its structure

News

By: Laurie Watt

Simcoe County council needs to enter the 21st century and change the way it does business, Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Doug White said.

County council opted not to spend $30,000 to study the composition of council.

 The study would have examined the possibility of reducing the number of county councillors from 32 to 16 and whether council should be made up of mayors and deputy mayors, as is currently the case, or whether county councillors should be directly elected, as is the case on adjacent regional councils.

“Before we enter the 21st century, we have to enter the 20th century. Simcoe County (council) is in the era of Queen Victoria,” Mr. White, who is chairperson of the county’s governance committee, said.

The county has discussed other issues surrounding a possible restructuring of council, including whether or not to keep the title of warden for the head of council. The historical moniker dates back to the creation of the county in 1843 and some say it conjures up images of a park warden or a jail supervisor.

While the historical title will endure, county councillors have also been reconsidering the term of service for the warden, with the possibility of making it two or four years.

Any changes, however, must be made a year before the next election, which is in November 2010.

County council meets once a month and three standing committees — human services, corporate services and performance management — deal with more specific issues, ranging from ambulance and social services to road repair and museum acquisitions.

They make recommendations, many of which are approved at council.

However, county council disagreed with the governance committee and its parent committee, the performance management committee, on spending $30,000 for a consultant.

“Maybe it’s money that should be spent. We need to discuss the fact we need to determine our destiny. This issue has been coming up again, twice in one term.

 It’s an issue we need to deal with now,” Severn Township Mayor Phil Sled said.
Oro-Medonte Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough said the price is too steep.

“I cannot support spending another $30,000 on a study on something that has been studied to death by the past council and defeated by this council,” he said.

He added he supports the current structure and the 2003-2006 council spent time and money on that and ultimately made no change.

Ramara Township Deputy Mayor Basil Clarke, however, said the $30,000 would be money well spent, as the study would be conducted by someone with expertise and no vested interest.

“I see this as an efficiency study,” he said. “It’s about who needs to be here to make the ship sail more smoothly.”

Clearview Township Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage took that one step further, although she failed to convince enough politicians to jump aboard.

“We all have a vested interest, whether we want to admit it or not,” she said.

 “We all have a responsibility to our residents to go outside and get an independent view and not judge ourselves.”

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