Huron East Council to hear from committee before deciding on composition

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Despite the prevailing sentiment to keep things status quo, Huron East Council has stopped short of rubber stamping a decision on council composition until it hears from the ad hoc committee that recommended changes.

 

At its Oct. 1 meeting, council revisited the question of its own composition, looking at how many councillors should sit around the table and the future of the ward system.

 

Clerk Jessica Rudy prepared a report on the subject for council, recapping the recommendations of the five-member Public Advisory Committee as well as the results of community outreach on the issue. 

 

The committee, which was formed in early 2022, recommended a nine-member council comprised of the mayor; a deputy-mayor to be appointed from within council; two representatives each from the Tuckersmith Ward, a new ward that combines Brussels and Grey, and a new ward that combines McKillop and Seaforth, and two councillors to be elected at-large.

 

Furthermore, the committee recommended that council consider eliminating the ward system by 2029, moving to an entirely at-large election.

 

Back in 2022, in the lead-up to the municipal election, council directed staff to gather public opinion at all-candidate sessions and by way of a community-wide survey. The survey showed that over half (51.4 per cent) of the 70 people who responded supported reducing the number of councillors to nine, while 30.5 per cent were opposed. Just over 18 per cent of respondents were neutral on the topic.

 

Those who supported reducing the size of council cited their reasons as cost savings, more efficient decision making and streamlined council operations. Those same people said that drawbacks could be the loss of diverse perspectives, an increased workload for remaining members and reduced representation for residents.

 

In regards to the ward system, 40.3 per cent of respondents supported either the combining or elimination of the ward system, while a relatively equal percentage, 37.5 per cent, were opposed. Just over 22 per cent of those surveyed said they were neutral on the ward system.

 

Those who supported change said it would make municipal governance more cohesive and simple, while providing equal representation for all residents. Potential drawbacks, however, were cited as being a loss of localized representation and a risk of underrepresentation for the rural areas within Huron East.

 

In her report, Rudy then offered four options for change, in addition to a fifth option to keep things status quo. 

 

The first option was the recommendation of the Public Advisory Committee: a nine-member council with the aforementioned structure. The second option was similar, but slightly different: a nine-member council with the mayor, a deputy-mayor appointed by council, two at-large councillors, two councillors from the Tuckersmith Ward and one councillor each from the Brussels, Grey, McKillop and Seaforth Wards.

 

The third option is one that has been favoured by Mayor Bernie MacLellan for years. It would consist of an elected mayor and deputy-mayor and one councillor from each of the five existing wards. Under this structure, there would be no at-large members.

 

The fourth option for change would be a seven-member council with an elected mayor and appointed deputy-mayor with six at-large councillors. Rudy noted that, if council wanted a bigger body to represent the municipality, this structure could be expanded to a nine-member council, with eight at-large councillors, rather than six.

 

Rudy did note that if council wanted to make changes to the ward structure, she would recommend an official review.
“If council were to combine wards, as recommended by the committee, it is recommended by staff that a ward boundary review be conducted. This would involve the use of a third-party consultant to conduct the review and should be accommodated in the 2025 budget. This approach may result in further recommendations regarding ward boundaries, ward removal and size of council,” she said in her report to council. “Any ward boundary changes would need to be confirmed and reported to [the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation] by the end of March of 2026.”

 

Rudy noted that, based on council’s remuneration from last year, there would be an annual savings of $30,000 if council were to reduce its size by two. A four-member reduction would result in annual savings of $60,000.

 

Deputy-Mayor Alvin McLellan and Councillor Dianne Diehl were among the first to speak, both saying they were supportive of retaining the ward system. McLellan also said he felt the job still takes two people if the workload is to remain reasonable. Citing a recent busy week between Huron East and Huron County Council meetings and a committee meeting, he said that having one councillor per ward would bring it closer to a full-time job, which not only would eliminate some potential candidates from contention, but result in the expectation of greater compensation, negating any potential cost savings - at least in his opinion.

 

The mayor said he was supportive of a seven-member council, citing Huron East Council’s size relative to all of the other councils in Huron County. However, he said he’s changed course on the ward system and said he felt it should remain status quo.

 

Councillor John Steffler also spoke in favour of the status quo. As a new councillor, just elected in 2022, he said he has leaned on his fellow Seaforth Ward councillor Bob Fisher immensely to learn and for local history on issues. With one representative per ward, he said, new councillors would lose that resource.

 

Councillor Larry McGrath agreed with Steffler, saying that, one day, he’ll retire from his decades-long career as a councillor and someone new will come in and need that history from a more seasoned veteran. Meanwhile, Councillor Ray Chartrand said that if the ward system was to be altered, the size of the wards, specifically Tuckersmith, by far the largest, should be taken into consideration in regards to representation by population.

 

As the conversation petered out with the consensus seeming to be the status quo on both council size and the ward system, the deputy-mayor said he would like to hear from the members of the Public Advisory Committee and hear their rationale for recommending changes.

 

Rudy said she could try to gather the members and gauge their interest in attending a future council meeting, but warned that the committee has since been disbanded with its mandate now complete for several years. However, she said, she could try. 
The mayor then urged council that, if members were going to ask these people to return to this issue and come to a meeting, that they listen to them with an open mind, rather than already having their mind made up and wasting the committee members’ time. Furthermore, he said that, between the committee and the response from the public, council would be going against the wishes of the general public, as it’s been told to the municipality, though several councillors, in their discussions with members of the public out on the street, that the desire was to retain the status quo.

 

Council will revisit the issue at a later date with staff directed to reach out to the former committee members about a potential meeting with council.