THUNDER BAY — The chair of political science at Lakehead University says, while Thunder Bay city officials are proposing major changes to how city council operates, there’s one other change that would be key to bettering transparency at city hall.
“We really need to know exactly how our councillors are voting if, come election time, we're going to hold them accountable,” Toby Rollo, who is also an associate professor at LU said.
“Currently, we have no way of doing that, and so whatever the wards are, it really doesn't matter if people in those wards don't know how their councillors are voting if they don't have easy practical access to that.”
Rollo said Thunder Bay and other municipalities should be introducing recorded votes at council meetings on all matters and making that information easily searchable. It’s so citizens can more easily track where councillors stand on each issue over their term, he said.
That Thunder Bay — and most other municipalities — don’t do this, he added, is “the deeper problem with our system.”
“That is vital to democratic transparency,” he said. “If you don't know how councillors are voting, if it's not easily accessible — meaning you're not expected to watch every single vote, or attend every single vote.”
“If you don't have access — quick and easy access — to the voting records of your councillors, then you have no way of holding them accountable.”
He added that this issue, in part, is what leads to low voter turnout at the municipal level.
Recorded votes are when each councillor clearly states (or electronically indicates, in the case of municipalities that have such a system set up) how they are voting on a motion with that information officially recorded.
Currently in Thunder Bay there are no recorded votes at committee of the whole, explained Krista Power, the city’s director of legislative services and city clerk. The only exception is that the mayor or councillors can to have their opposition to a motion recorded. That would then be included in the meeting minutes.
At city council proper (where decisions made at committee of the whole are ratified), Power said recorded votes are only done when one is requested by a member of council.
“One of the 13 needs to say, ‘I'd like this vote to be recorded,’ and then we have a process of how we take that recorded vote and how it's included in the minutes,” she said.
Generally, members of council vote whether they’re in favour or not of a motion by a mass show of hands to determine whether there are enough in favour to carry it. The exact breakdown isn't recorded.
City administration is currently doing two separate reviews related to how council operates. One is a review of council composition and how many wards the city should have.
The other, Power said, is a governance review, which is looking at possible changes to the existing committee system as well as reviewing the current procedural bylaw — the bylaw that would need to be amended to include changing anything to do with recorded votes.
Given that there’s so much potential change coming to council in the near future, Rollo said recorded votes should be top-of-mind, and there should be a resource, like a website, to keep track of those results for easy access, especially where one can go back after the fact to look, much like in federal politics.
The City of Toronto does recorded votes at its council meetings. Rollo and Power both said it's a trend that is catching on; Power added that the use of electronic agenda managing software has made it more accessible.
Here in Thunder Bay, Power said there are ways for people to keep track of how their representatives vote in real time, such as monitoring media coverage or following council meetings. However, Power said she is researching information around recorded votes as part of her wider governance review, calling it “one of the most important pieces,” although, as of now, there’s no specific recommendation for council to consider.
“We do not have a draft bylaw for council to review and have not made a decision yet as to whether or not we would make that recommendation,” she said.
“So, how one member votes on an issue versus another member is certainly a topic for public discussion and certainly something council should consider as to how they want that information to be made available.”
The governance report, including any changes to the procedural bylaw, is scheduled to go to city council before the end of June, she said, adding that residents can still provide input through the city’s online survey.
Rollo said introducing recorded votes as a matter of normal business is something he feels is very important.
“One of the key principles of democracy is accountability and if you don't know how your councillors are voting, you can't hold them accountable.”
