THUNDER BAY — Coun. Mark Bentz put forth for the second time a motion to implement for a four-ward system with one councillor in each ward, six councillors at-large and the mayor.
Once again, the motion Bentz failed to convince his colleagues around the council chambers.
“Last week at committee, we had voted to stay status quo with composition. I won't go through my whole debate again, but I just felt it important that we utilize some of the committee's findings. They worked hard on this,” said Bentz.
Bentz said he brought his motion back because of last week's narrow 5-6 vote.
Coun. Greg Johnsen said he had already voted against the council composition review committee's recommendation twice last week and that to vote on it again is concerning.
“It's alarming to me that one member of council would put forth their idea without much research or finding research out after the fact,” said Johnsen.
Democracy gives “everyone the opportunity to vote,” said Coun. Rajni Agarwal, adding that Bentz took in the findings from the council composition review committee as a basis for his motion.
The council composition review committee had proposed adopting a four-ward system, with a mayor, two councillors per ward and two at-large councillors. Bentz's motion was a variation on that idea, which had not been examined by the committee.
“The direction that an individual citizen wants to make for our community will be taken when we have the right to a majority vote. That's really, really important when we look at democracy. We don't want to say you really don't have a voice because you're not gonna be able to vote for the majority you want,” said Agarwal.
Once again, the motion was defeated with a narrow — one vote — margin.
Bentz's motion was supported by six members of council, Couns. Bentz, Agarwal, Albert Aiello, Travor Giertuga, Kasey Etreni, and Mayor Ken Boshcoff. Couns. Dominic Pasqualino, Andrew Foulds, Johnsen, Brian Hamilton, Shelby Ch’ng, Kristen Oliver, and Michael Zussino opposed.
Council the put the original council composition review committee recommendation to a revote.
Giertuga took the opportunity to motion for an amendment to that recommendation. He asked council to consider an all-at-large system of nine councillors, a duty mayor and the mayor. He also recommended that the candidate who was the runner-up in the mayoral race would become the duty mayor.
He said that the majority of municipalities have an all-at-large system, and this system would allow for all residents of Thunder Bay to vote on 100 per cent of the people on council.
Giertuga's amendment was also defeated by a wide margin, 2-11.
Only Giertuga and Boshcoff voted in favour of an all-at-large system. The rest of council voted no.
The majority of councillors cited the same concerns of setting down a swift motion without consulting the public.
Hamilton said it would be “is really really irresponsible" to change city governance in a city council meeting.
“This would be a binding vote that we would actually change our democracy in about five minutes of debate at city council. So, I hope the public is watching,” said Hamilton.
Oliver said she was concerned that an all-at-large system would result in under-representation “not only of certain geographical areas in our community, but also specific communities of people within our community."
“Decisions are at risk of being driven by those that have the most resources and name recognition, which can lead to governance that reflects the voices of a few and not the diversity of our community and for that reason,” she said.
With Giertuga's amendment defeated, council had a recorded vote on the official council composition review committee recommendation.
“I would be voting for mainly all ward representation model, and you'll notice that seems to be the opposite when you're talking at-large. Every single one except one counsellor in the ward voted against an at-large system,” said Giertuga.
He said the committee did a lot of work to provide council with their recommendation, and he believes reducing the size of council is what is needed, as well as, adjusting the ward boundaries.
“I will support their recommendation. They did a lot of work. They're the experts on this, not us, and we're voting on whether we keep our jobs or not,” said Giertuga.
The committee’s recommendation was voted down again, this time 4-9.
Giertuga, Aiello, Oliver, and Boshcoff voted for the recommendation, while Bentz, Agarwal, Etreni, Pasqualino, Foulds, Johnsen, Hamilton, Ch’ng, and Zussino opposed.
