City Council Adopts New Committee Format

May 13th, 2001
meeting

Representatives from the AWCA Executive attended the Council Meeting of Monday May 7th to be present for the discussion on the Motion to replace the City of Pickering's Executive Committee with three separate Committees of Council.  This Notice of Motion was moved by Councillor Holland and seconded by Councillor Brenner.

The AWCA is not in opposition to the principle of dividing the current Executive Committee into three unique bodies.  Our main concern with the motion was the accessibility of these new committees to the public.  Although the planning committee will still meet in the evening, the other two (Operations Committee and Finance and Corporate Services Committee) will regularly meet during the daytime.

Several amendments that were proposed during the Council Meeting will hopefully permit the daytime committees to meet in the evening when there are matters of public interest to be discussed.

The AWCA will continue to monitor the success of this new arrangement and provide any comments to our local representatives if necessary.

Outlined below is the final resolution as it appears with the 7 amendments carried by Council ...

  1. That the Corporation of the City of Pickering's Executive Committee be replaced by three Committees of Council, one for each of the three Municipal Departments - a Planning Committee, an Operations Committee and a Finance and Corporate Services Committee effective June 1, 2001; and

  2. That there be a transition period effective June 1, 2001 until September 2001 whereby all Corporate matters would be dealt with through a Committee of the Whole that would report to Council; and That the Committee of the Whole meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month as set out on the meeting schedule; and

  3. That each Committee of Council be comprised of 3-4 members of Council and that the Mayor of the City of Pickering sit ex-officio on all committees; and

  4. That every Member of Council be allowed to attend and vote at Planning Committee meetings regardless of their membership in that committee; and

  5. That each Member of Council may sit on as many as two committees but is not required to have membership in any committee; and

  6. That all former Executive Committee items be considered by the appropriate Committee of Council to make recommendations to Council; and

  7. That each committee meet such that two committees report to the first Council meeting of the month and the remaining committee report to the last Council meeting of the month unless the Mayor, CAO or a majority of committee members by petition call an emergency meeting; and

  8. That each committee determine its own meeting schedule so long as ample time is provided to consider and make recommendations back to Council for consideration and so that it fits into the rotation as outlined in point 7, and

  9. That the Planning Committee, Operations Committee and Finance and Corporate Services Committee meet in the evening on all matters pertaining to public interest as determined through public consultation; and

    That staff of the Division of Corporate Projects & Policy facilitate a Stakeholders Forum within the interim period with the community and Council to define matters considered to be of public interest; and

    That an invitation be sent to, but not limited to, all individuals who have shown an interest through written comments with this item to participate in the Stakeholders Forum.

  10. That the membership of each Committee of Council be determined by Council no later than May 22, 2001 for a term to expire November 31, 2003; and

  11. That the membership of subsequent Committees of Council be determined at the beginning of each new term of office in tandem with other committee appointments; and

  12. That the Chair of each Committee of Council rotate alphabetically every meeting among the Committee membership; and

  13. That Site Plan Committee be dissolved into the Planning Committee; and

  14. That Members of Council receive an honorarium per meeting not to exceed $2,500 per annum for each committee of which they are a member; and

  15. That at the end of one year of implementation of this new structure, Council and senior staff evaluate the success of the new structure as well as calculate the savings and efficiencies that have resulted from the initiative.

The resolution was carried as amended, with the following recorded vote ...
Yes: Councillors Brenner, Holland, Johnson & McLean
No: Councillors Pickles, Ryan & Mayor Arthurs

For more details on the specific amendments, please refer to the
City of Pickering Council Minutes for May 7th, 2001.