Approximately 100 people jammed into the council chamber for a special meeting Tuesday to hear council debate the use of newly granted strong mayor powers recently given to Orillia's mayor.
Everyone left disappointed as the main topic was ruled "out of order" by Mayor Don McIsaac.
However, council was onside with the decision. That's because the meeting was supposed to be attended by "external legal counsel" to help council wade through the implications of recent decisions, but no legal counsel was able to attend the meeting. As a result, the meeting was doomed.
"My preference is we hold the meeting when the lawyer is here," McIsaac said.
In the end, council decided to postpone the meeting until external legal counsel could be arranged.
"We are dealing with a hot-button issue and we want to make sure we are as careful as we can be," said Coun. Jay Fallis.
Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford agreed, saying the meeting would be rescheduled "to ensure we are not setting the city up for additional liability."
The call for the meeting was unusual in itself. It was petitioned for by six of Orillia's eight ward councillors. It was called to discuss the "mayor's unilateral actions surrounding strong mayor powers."
The petition indicated discussion may include the process by which the mayor requested and received strong mayor powers, the mayor's "refusal to release details of this request to his fellow council members and the appropriateness (procedurally and otherwise) of the mayor's use of strong mayor powers to date."
McIsaac used his new strong mayor powers to rescind the hiring of Trevor Lee as the city's new chief administrative officer; he then appointed Amanpreet Singh Sidhu, the city's deputy CAO and solicitor, to the position.
The petition also called for a lawyer — someone not working for the city — to be present to "provide further direction to staff." City staff were to retain the lawyer.
Coun. David Campbell asked city clerk Dan Kirby how many lawyers had been contacted prior to the meeting.
Kirby replied that he'd be happy to "discuss this in closed session."
Unlike regular council meetings, Tuesday's special meeting was not live-streamed to YouTube — something that didn't sit well with many.
"You can imagine how this looks to folks," Campbell said.
Kirby said it was simply a matter of not having the staff present to set up the live streaming at such short notice as the petition for the meeting was only brought forward on Friday.
Campbell asked Kirby how long he has been the city's clerk.
"Since November," Kirby responded, adding he is also a lawyer.
Sidhu, who was appointed by McIsaac to be the new CAO, was not present at the meeting. He was also not present at the last council meeting.
Durnford tried to have the meeting forge ahead by waiving a procedural bylaw, but Kirby said there are limitations to waiving it. At that point, the meeting bogged down in a discussion of Robert's Rules of Order, a manual of parliamentary procedure.
"We have a room full of people looking for answers and so is council," said Campbell.
Among the room full of people were Jane and Gordon Ball.
"I really wanted to get some answers to what is going on in terms of this unusual hiring and firing of the CAO, and I would say that today has been a really frustrating experience because it's all procedural matters that are difficult to understand," said Jane.
"I'm wondering why this meeting happened without the external legal counsel present," added Gordon.
Valerie Powell, who ran for the Green party both provincially and federally in Simcoe North, was also in the audience.
"I have a huge interest in maintaining our democracy at all levels. I thought this smacks of corporate, unilateral decision making. Democracy is a messy business, but it's the best we've got, and if we don't have a democracy, we are going to have a lot of things we don't like," Powell said.
"I wanted to see how this played out, and I'm not surprised. I have a pessimistic feeling that this will be a delay tactic and people may start to lose interest, but I hope they don't. I hope to see a bigger crowd next time."
In the April 11 council information package, corporate services staff wrote that no external counsel had been retained who was able to attend a meeting within the petition's timeframe of doing so by April 15, but the meeting was not called off.
Durnford said when the meeting is rescheduled with a municipal lawyer present, she wants it to be live streamed and for the public to have the opportunity to ask questions.
Durnford, Fallis, Campbell and fellow councillors Tim Lauer, Jeff Czetwerzuk and Luke Leatherdale signed the petition. Councillors Ralph Cipolla and Whitney Smith did not sign it. Cipolla told OrilliaMatters he would have signed the petition, but he didn't learn about it until late Friday.
Orillia was granted strong mayor powers on April 3 after McIsaac requested them from the province to help deal with the ice storm.
On April 7, he used the powers to rescind the hiring of Lee, who was to have started as the city's new CAO on April 14. Instead, McIsaac appointed Sidhu to the position. Lee admitted to be shocked at the unexpected turn of events.
Across Ontario, 47 municipalities currently have strong mayor powers, including Barrie.
Last week, the province extended strong mayor powers to another 169 municipalities, effective May 1. That expansion means 14 of the 16 municipalities in Simcoe County will have strong mayor powers. (Essa and Tiny townships were not given the powers.) The purpose of those powers is to expedite the building of housing and infrastructure, including roads and transit.
"Municipal politics will be impacted the same way in 169 municipalities, so it's very challenging what they will be going through as well," Fallis said.
