On the topic of strong mayor powers, the next item discussed at the Town of Aurora’s General Committee meeting on November 7, 2023 was the Procedure By-Law. During the discussion, Cllr Harold Kim commented on the strong mayor powers, stating, “this is a provincial mandate that’s been mandated down to all municipalities, whether we agree with it or not.” In response, the Town of Aurora Solicitor clarified that “it didn’t have to do with the housing pledge — it had to do with the commitment letter. If the mayor signed the letter, they would be granted strong mayor powers.”

In the 2022 election, Mayor Tom Mrakas publicly opposed strong mayor powers. Yet today, we find ourselves under the leadership of the same mayor who accepted these powers by moving forward with the pledge — all before holding a meaningful discussion with Council. Mrakas was well aware that, out of six Council members, only two — Cllrs Kim and Thompson — would likely support the measure. By bypassing a full Council discussion, the Mayor effectively avoided open debate and potential opposition to the implementation of strong mayor powers.

November 7, 2023 General Committee Meeting

9.4 CS23-073 – Procedure By-law Review

• That Report No. CS23-073 be received; and
• That the draft Procedure By-law (attachment 2) be brought forward for enactment to repeal and replace the existing by-law.

Document 1: https://pub-auroraon.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=14058 | Document 2: https://pub-auroraon.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=14059 | Document 3: https://pub-auroraon.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=14060

TRANSCRIBED

Cllr Gallo, “9.4 CS23-073 Procedural By-law Review, could I please have a mover and a seconder for number one that report number CS23-073 be received and two that the draft procedural bylaw attachment to be brought forward for enactment to repeal and replace the existing by-law.”

Moved by Cllr Thompson | Seconded by Cllr Kim

Cllr Gilliland (01:11:32), “I just want to be consistent and the fact that I’ve already voiced my opinion that I don’t support the strong mayor powers and, therefore, I will not be supporting the procedural bylaw change. I will, however, I will support the housekeeping items that are not related and specific regards to the delegates and the inauguration of November 15th and those as such. So when it does come time to procedure, I would prefer to have a separate clause. One that’s related directly to the strong mayor powers and one that is just general housekeeping and I’m happy to pass those separately. Otherwise, I’ll just be not voting for this as a whole.”

Cllr Gallo, “Mr. Clerk, can we somehow separate?“

Clerk, “It’s difficult to separate specific amendments or I guess two different styles or however you want to put it with the procedure bylaw. I think strong mayor powers override the procedure by-law. So regardless of whether they’re voted in or not, the mayor will be able to make, I guess, those decisions that he wants to, and we just want to try to add it into the procedure by-law to make the public aware that it does exist. So I don’t think, through a series of amendments we could have Council vote against it. But as for separating, I don’t think it’s possible.”

Cllr Gilliland, “Well, if it can’t be simple language of procedural bylaw changes that are related to strong mayor power or procedural by-law changes not related to, I don’t know why that’s difficult. Then I would just not vote for any of the changes and then we’ll go from there and the mayor can do what he wants after that. But right now for the sake of the purpose of this, the intent of this was to make changes on procedural bylaw for strong mayor powers, so then perhaps it was not really appropriate housekeeping things within it and that can be addressed at a second time and I’m more than happy to looking at the other things later, but at this time I will not be voting in favour of this.”

Cllr Gaertner (01:14:11), “The revision of the procedural by-law to be in the first calendar year following an election. I think it takes a new Councillor or a new Councillors quite a long time to get used to the procedural by-law. So I wouldn’t like to see it too early in the first year, I would like to see it in the first year at all. I would like to see it in the second year and it may be a moot point but when I was elected I was the only new Councillor, but I think when Cllr Thompson, Cllr Kim and Cllr Humfryes, I don’t know who else was elected, that there were I think five new Councillors. So in a year, where there are a lot of new Councillors, to do a revision to the procedural by-law on the first year, I really don’t think it’s appropriate. We should wait till the second year. Is it possible that that can be changed?”

Cllr Gallo, “Amendment?

Cllr Gaertner, “Yes, please.”

Cllr Gallo, “Okay. So what is the amendment?”

Cllr Gaertner, “So it would be changed to the second calendar year following an election.”

Cllr Gallo, “I second. Oh, I can’t. No seconder. You can bring it at Council.”

Cllr Thompson (01:15:49), “Through you to Ms. De Sario, the municipal act specifically says the Council must create a procedural by-law, does it not?”

Ms. De Sario (Town of Aurora, Solicitor), “Yes it does.”

Cllr Thompson, “And to that matter, what’s before us is not just simply housekeeping. It’s ensuring that we adhere to the legislation and the municipal act that has been recently amended in past with regards to the strong mayor of powers. Is it not?”

Ms. De Sario, “Yes. You’re correct.”

Cllr Thompson, “Council can do they wish, but by voting is down you’re essentially saying you don’t agree with the Municipal Act.” (at 01:16:29 watch Thompson’s body language here after making his statement)

Cllr Weese (01:16:35), “I guess one and this is a good example of something that people may not agree with and the mayor does agree so should this not be approved either tonight or on Council? Am I correct in saying that the mayor could very well veto this if it’s not approved, could very well bring this back and veto. I’d like to see how that that shakes out because it’s just an example of using a power. So could I get some advice on what will happen if this is turned down and the next steps in the veto process?”

Ms. De Sario, “No, this is one of the by-laws that the mayor cannot veto. However, having said that if it does not get past at Council, the former by-law will remain because that’s not been repealed. So that the current one will remain as is; however, as the Clerk said it won’t have a bearing on any of the additions to the strong mayor powers because the mayor does still have the legislative authority to do all that. We as staff were just trying to clean up the by-law to so that we didn’t have to look at so many places at once.”

Cllr Weese, “That’s clear I think. No further.”

Cllr Kim (01:18:11), “It’s great to hear the discussion across the table, but it seems clear to me and I’m sure it’s clear to everyone else that this is a provincial mandate that’s been mandated down to all the municipalities whether we agree with it or not. I don’t think this is something that our mayor or any mayor necessarily ask for or wanted it. It’s there and it’s part of the municipal act. It seems, I do agree, it seems, kind of awkward that we have to vote on this when we don’t really have much of a say in the matter, but it’s part of the procedures. That being said, hopefully we have a benevolent mayor and I believe we do and I think, when we talk about whether one agrees or disagrees, I mean one’s assuming
that some aspects of these powers had been used or will be used, and you know, that’s yet to be determined and the bottom line is, I mean, this is this is something that’s been mandated down and we don’t seem to have much choice in the matter. That’s my comments.”

Cllr Gaertner (01:19:46), “I just some clarification possibly to the Clerk. So this is a power that was offered to mayors, mayors could accepted or refused it?” 

Clerk, “My understanding, it was offered to a select number of Mayors, mostly larger municipalities with room to grow, but that’s just my understanding of it.”

Cllr Gaertner, “But within that context the mayor could accept it or refuse it. I mean the Mayor of Newmarket did not accept the strong mayor power. So it’s it’s not something the government says we have to do.”

Ms. De Sario, “No, it’s not. The strong mayor powers aren’t something that a mayor accept or not accepts. Under the municipal act a municipality is designated to have the strong mayor powers. So Aurora was designated whether we wanted it or not. Aurora was one of the municipalities that became designated. There are other municipalities that also said they didn’t want the strong mayor powers, but they did receive them because they were designated as of last week.”

Cllr Gaertner, “I should be clear, whether or not a mayor in a municipality wants the strong mayor power they have it. It’s whether they use it or not, is that correct?”

Ms. De Sario, “Yes, so if I a municipality is designated they automatically have it, then there are some of the clauses in the act, there are some powers that are discretionary except for the budget, the budget is a shell but other than that other powers are discretionary.”

Cllr Gaertner, “Right. Just to be clear that it’s not something that a mayor has to do, they do not have to use their power.”

Ms. De Sario, “Yes, you are, correct, except for the budget.”

Cllr Gallo, “It was contingent on pledging 8,000 homes, if that wasn’t done than they wouldn’t have had it.”

Cllr Gallo (01:22:10), “I just have two. I have the same opinion and to Cllr Thompson’s point I don’t agree with Municipal Act and I don’t agree with what was done. The only one thing that I’ll bring up at Council, I don’t want to give off the chair now, but I will let you know so you can put some thought towards it and it has to do with notices of motion. I’ve always believed that notices of motion from us should be treated the same as any other report on a GC and should be discussed at GC. So I will be asking for an amendment at Council.

And it will read something like this, that notice of motion be discussed at General Committee (GC) meeting and included in General Committee report to be pulled at Council for further discussion if necessary as opposed to what we’re doing now, which we have the actual Notices of Motion at GC and we only discuss them at Council. I think we should have the opportunity to have a full debate at GC like every other issue that comes before us.”

Cllr Gilliland (01:23:33), “There was some talk about the housing pledge and if you do not submit the housing pledge or have any commitment to any housing pledge, that was part of the package as far as I know. We treated it separately, but it seemed to me that Mayor Taylor did not submit a housing pledge and was against the strong mayor powers and felt that it was not necessary. So as a result he chooses not to accept them by not submitting a housing pledge. Am I not understanding that correctly?”

Cllr Gallo, “If it’s quick, because I think we’re straying away from a procedural bylaw but if it’s really quick then let’s let’s make it quick.”

Ms. De Sario, “Actually, I can’t comment on Newmarket because I’m not really sure what happened. However, for the Town of Aurora and for other municipalities, every municipality, it didn’t have to do what the housing pledge, it had to do with the commitment letter, if the mayor committed with the letter then they would be receiving strong mayor powers.

Cllr Gilliland, “I think that’s pretty crystal clear. Regardless of the point for me it’s the principle I don’t agree with the strong mayor powers. So for me in principle, I just don’t agree with the procedure by-law change. I’m going against Municipal Act. So be it. I just think this whole thing is a mistake and I’m going to stand by what I feel and what I think and leave at that.”

Mayor Mrakas (Office of the Mayor – Town of Aurora), “I just want to bring up one point. If we do all read our procedural by-law, in our current one, it actually states, interpreting the procedural by-law which is section 4 (a) in the event of conflict between this procedural by-law and legislation the provisions of the legislation prevails. So ultimately we can have a procedural by-law that is transparent to the public allowing them to understand our procedures and what is allowed and what’s not allowed or we can have a by-law that is conflicting with the legislation and we have to follow the legislation regardless.”

All those in favour: Cllr Thompson, Mayor Mrakas, Cllr Kim

Opposed: Cllr Gallo, Cllr Gaertner, Cllr Gilliland, Cllr Weese

Cllr Gallo, “That fails.”

Cllr Gallo, “Motion to receive. Anybody?” Cllr Gaertner, second Cllr Gilliland. Any comments or questions to receive. Seeing none. All those in favour? Opposed? It’s carried.