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Council opts to keep decision-making process intact

Councillors said they would like to continue doing their jobs as elected representatives.
2020-04-01-Jill-St.Amant
Councillor Jill St.Amant pictured at a regular council meeting. Mehreen Shahid/MidlandToday

Penetanguishene councillors weren't ready to delegate authority to the chief administrative officer and mayor since an emergency has not yet been declared.

"The emergency management control group certainly with their expertise appear to have been making all the right decisions," said Coun. Jill St.Amant. "Now with the (electronic) set up (through which) we can meet and be called in in the event something comes up very quickly, I have a discomfort with going as far as turning over all authorizations to the CAO delegate and the mayor."

This came out of a 45-minute debate council had Tuesday evening while meeting electronically. The meeting was aired online and is available on the town's YouTube channel.

The motion requesting authority be delegated to CAO, Jeff Lees with decisions made in consultation with Mayor Doug Leroux was defeated seven to one.

"I think so far staff have done an excellent job," said Coun. Dan LaRose. "I have some discomfort with the fact that if you were going to approve a contract, I wonder why with a set up we have now, and it seems to be working well, a quick call to council wouldn't be done? We don't want to give away council's authority to two people. I would be a little more comfortable if council were included."

But Lees said the motion's intent wasn't to take away council's powers.

"The intent was more to formalize some of the decisions we've made to-date," he added. "Some of which we would have engaged council, to be very frank, but we haven't had the ability to.

"If there were decisions that could be held off, we would do that, but to continue with the theme of timely decision-making which has been required and to send the message that the town is ready and prepared to respond."

The purpose of the motion was to give council an update of exactly what has transpired and developed over the last couple of weeks with the help of the emergency control group, said Leroux, who moved the recommendation.

"We've been working as a committee for the last few weeks," he said. Things, as far as we know, have been going extremely well in keeping things going in the municipality. Members of council didn't want too many decisions being made without their consent, which is their prerogative." 

Coun. Brian Cummings said he wasn't comfortable relinquishing his rights as an elected official, especially after the decision to offer free transit was made last week by the emergency control group in response to Midland's move in the same vein.

"In the case of transit, it was kind of in phase one and the decision had to be made," said Lees. "From a PR perspetive, our hands were tied and we had to proceed. I hope council has felt that communication has been articulated and provided."

Paul Ryan, director of fire and emergency services and fire chief, who is also a member of the emergency group, said he would support this recommendation from an emergency management perspetive.

"I fully appreciate council's postion, but I'm looking at it from a different perspetive," he said. "We have some shared services with other municipalities. Some of these decisions are made on a Saturday and Sunday, so the motion allows us to make the decision and then let council know what happened. It gives the control group the ability to deal with a situation instantaneously. I support the motion from an emergency management perspetive so we can move forward as a committee and make those timely decisions and then bring the report to council."

But Cummings was not convinced.

"I know everything is new to us," he said. "There is very little that the staff are doing that is operational and doesn't fall under the CAOs job description, as it is. I think we need to keep the decision-making or governance part in council's hands at this point. We're not declaring an emergency and hopefully we do not have to. That is my concern. I think it should be still council's prerogative to make any of these major decisions."

Coun. Michel Mayotte backed his peer adding there is no reason why staff cannot make a quick phone call to gather all council members for a special meeting if an issue arises, a view supported by Coun. Debbie Levy.

"I would like to see us approve what has been done to-date," she said. "I think the team is working beautifully. But now that council is fully engaged electronically, we can be called at a moment's notice. I would like to continue to do my job as an elected representative."