More Erroneous Minutes

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I felt compelled to email members of council since I know how often rules of procedure are relied on.

The August 10 committee minutes that council approved on September 25 are on the October 12 Heritage Committee meeting agenda for approval.

Councillor Crain mentioned he was on the Heritage Committee and he did move a motion at the August 10 committee meeting, but the minutes do not reflect that his motion carried. i believe Councillor Pouget is correct in stating that public minutes should be corrected at public meetings, as per rules of order, so i trust this will be given consistent attention.

Deputy Mayor Gibb And Councillor McArthur Flip-Flop On Gallery Members Speaking

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It was only two weeks earlier, at the September 11 council meeting, that both Gibb and McArthur spoke against and voted against allowing gallery member Larry Amlin to speak; both voted to allow Bolger to speak at the September 25 council meeting.

Mayor Prue acknowledged there were no delegates at the September 25 meeting, just one Presentation – Mr. Norbert Bolger. Prue then asked Bolger to come forward and stated just before he did, he needed a motion from council to bring forward items 13.2 and 19.1 which both deal with the matter at hand; it carried and Prue told Bolger the floor was his.

Bolger then stated he was not going to make a presentation; he was just going to be there to answer any questions; he explained that he sent a letter in to the town and everybody has it. He also said he’s talked to some members of council regarding the naming of the street, one of the streets in Brittney’s Gate. He went to the heritage committee and got their endorsement on it so he was there for the final endorsement from council and if there’s any questions he’d be happy to answer.

Prue asked if there were any questions of Mr. Bolger, stated there were no questions, and as Prue thanked him, Bolger took his seat in the gallery and Prue said it was back to council.

Prue asked if there was any discussion on the issue and there was for approximately 8 minutes; Councillor Pouget spoke, then Councillor Crain, Councillor Courtney, Prue passed the gavel and directly addressed Bolger, who went back up to the podium, then Crain again, Clerk, Deputy CAO, and then Bolger raised his hand and said something inaudible. Prue said it would require the unanimous consent of council.

The motion to allow a member of the gallery to speak carried.

After Bolger briefly spoke, Pouget asked a question and Bolger returned to the podium to answer her question; Prue didn’t call him out of order – Prue echoed Bolger’s answer.

Related: September 11 Council Meeting RECAP Part 1

Inconsistencies: Survey Participants Names Displayed/Not Displayed

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I reviewed 10 surveys on talk the burg and only 1 displayed names, along with mine – a survey I completed while logged in as ‘the burg watch.’

I questioned CAO Critchley why the survey with names was posted to the June 22 Accessibility Advisory Committee Agenda titled, Survey Responses Report – Public Consultation 2022, although it states 22 September 2017 – 20 September 2022.

Critchley: This information was freely submitted in a public forum as part of a public discourse. Should you have further concerns, have included the links to the applicable information on the website and she included links to the Multi-Year Accessibility Plan Public Engagement Site, Public Survey from Last Year and Privacy Policy.

After completing the town’s Open Air survey, I emailed all members of council with my critique and my comment, I hope to see all the names and all responses of all survey participants publicly posted as CAO Critchley advised this information was freely submitted in a public forum as part of a public discourse.

Why The Fuss About Erroneous Minutes?

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There was no fuss when then-Councillor Prue mentioned erroneous minutes regarding his wife during a 2022 regular council meeting so why all the fuss when Councillor Pouget rightfully notes errors? After all, minutes are legal records and should be accurate. The bigger question is why did no other council member note the errors?

Councillor McArthur stated it was adequate time to address this before this evening. without calling staff to task in public so he was going to oppose a motion to defer.

McArthur was present at the 2022 meeting when Prue noted errors; he also received my email noting the 2022 accessibility committee minutes error pertaining to a question by Shirley Prue. The result of my email? The minutes were not corrected prior to the council meeting and no one brought up the error during the council meeting.

Not only is it standard procedure for the chair to ask if there are any errors or omissions since only the governing body can make corrections and approve minutes, but the Municipal Act states one of council’s roles is ‘to ensure the accountability and transparency of the operations of the municipality, including the activities of the senior management of the municipality.’

Deputy Mayor Gibb chimed in with his judgment and concurred with McArthur. Gibb stated It could have been corrected with an email and that it could have been handled differently in his opinion. The Ontario Ombudsman investigated Amherstburg council back in 2016 and recommended members of council for the Town of Amherstburg should avoid exercising the power or authority of council or laying the groundwork to do so through email communications.

It would be more professional and efficient if members of council would just support/not support duly moved motions without speeches or judgments.

As mentioned in this post, Minutes Need To Be Corrected, the September 11 minutes, attached to the September 25 agenda contained errors: CAO Critchley was marked as present when she was absent, the wording of some of Councillor Pouget’s motions was incorrect. Words were omitted or substituted despite Pouget providing hard copies of her motions.

Related: Should Minutes Be Consistently Corrected?

Hotel Dispute Hearing Public Notice

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The public notice sets out all necessary details to view the October 6, 10:00 am hearing regarding the Zoning By-law Amendment application council approved in May for the boutique hotel at 256 Dalhousie.

From the OLT: Please note that as per Rule 22.5 of the Ontario Land Tribunal Rules of Practice and Procedures, recordings of hearing events – photograph, motion picture, audio, video, or otherwise – is not permitted unless the presiding Tribunal Member authorizes the recording. However, approval would be subject to conditions that no distribution or public re-playing of the recording occurs, and it does not constitute an official transcript of the hearing or a record for use in any subsequent proceeding. Additionally, as per section 29 of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act, persons found improperly recording hearing events before the OLT and/or distributing those recordings may be liable to a fine of up to $25,000.

Regional Garbage Plan Dumped

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What a waste. There were some long winded speeches during the Amherstburg town council meeting that resulted in the predictable 4-3 vote. Councillor McArthur mentioned ‘economies of scale’ five times; Crain once. Meetings would be more efficient if members would refrain from sharing personal anecdotes – do we really need to know the mayor freezes fish heads or what a councillor’s favourite coffee is and his thoughts on disposing of coffee cups? And, wouldn’t it be so refreshing if staff just answered yes or no to a question? Even better, can members just ask a question without a speech?

To move forward a majority of town councils had to vote in favour. Last night LaSalle and Lakeshore voted no, joining no votes from Essex and Kingsville. Amherstburg, Leamington and Tecumseh voted in favour.

How To Complain About Your Municipality

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The Ombudsman OntarioEvery municipality states every municipality should have a general complaint policy approved by council and posts a brochure titled, Tips for Municipal Complaint Resolution Policies. I was unable to find an Amherstburg Municipal Complaint Resolution Policy on the town’s website.

What is a complaint?
The Office of the Ombudsperson broadly defines a complaint as: An expression of dissatisfaction made to or about a public organization about some aspect of its programs, services or people where a response is explicitly or implicitly expected.

In the local government context, it is important to distinguish between a bylaw complaint and other complaints about the way their services are being delivered to the public. Most local governments have established processes for responding to bylaw complaints—enforcing bylaws and responding to bylaw complaints is a central part of a local government’s role. However, it is also in the best interests of all local governments to have an effective system in place to handle general complaints and concerns from the public apart from bylaw complaints.

Ontario ombudsman

The Ontario Ombudsman is an office of last resort so the first step is to complain to the municipality, the CAO for example and, if not satisfied, then complain to the Ombudsman by filling in a simple online complaint form.