As most of you may know there has been a push on to force Council to change from 5 wards with 2 councilors per ward to 10 wards with 1 per ward. This will increase accountability of the councilors to the constituents, and come election time, if someone hasn’t done a good job, then there is a better chance of them ending up out on their ass.
Council hired a consultant, and paid him $20,000 to do a report. They received the report, and after 8 different motions, voted to file the report and take no action. Clearly those against change, are fearful of their re-election chances, and despite the the fact that 31 years have passed since the boundaries were last adjusted, they thought that doing nothing would make this issue go away until 2014…
Wrong.
The municipal act has a provision that allows a petition of 500 signatures to get before the Ontario Municipal Board. This has happened recently in Lakeshore and in London, with the OMB siding with the residents, not with the self serving councils.
The push is on, and we need signatures.
Visit http://www.citizfaction.ca/petition, to download a copy of the petition or to find out where you can go to sign a copy.
Yesterday on Scaledown Radio, Chris and myself had Paul from Citizfaction.ca on air, along with a record 3 councilors talking about this issue. We were joined by Alan Halberstadt, Bill Marra & Fulvio Valentenis.
Today was a BIG day on ScaleDown Radio! Andrew and I welcomed three city councillors on the show to discuss the Ward Boundary Review with Citizfaction.ca creator Paul Synott. We asked the councillors their thoughts on the marathon three and a half hour discussion at city hall last week that ended in a motion to “note and file” the consultants report, as well as their thoughts on the ward boundary process itself.
They are acutely aware of the popular Citizfaction petition underway and the chances that this may just end up at the OMB and, if the precedents are any indication, a decision imposed upon them by the December 31 deadline. It is our impression that they know this is continuing on and that they want to regain at least a little control of the situation.
Citizfaction has two more days with which to collect signatures on their petition, so if you can lend any support at all (even if it’s simply downloading the form, signing it and returning it) it would be much appreciated!
Councillor Alan Halberstadt admitted to crafting a motion of reconsideration of Dr. Williams ten ward option which will be presented to councillors on July 27, and councillor Bill Marra has expressed support of that option as well. We’ll have to see what happens Monday night, but here’s a hint of what to expect at that discussion…
Click here to listen to the show.
So please, sign the petition, download a copy and sign it, even if it’s just you and the people in your household… Every signature counts. Send me an email andrew@internationalmetropolis.com and we can arrange to get the petition from you…
I could never figure out why the City had such a system. It is even more whacky since the boundaries have not been adjusted for population in such a long time span. Change is necessary.
Windsor’s current ward system was more the result of political expediency than thought. City Council initiated a study in 1975 to reform the previous patchwork system of eight-elected representatives ( five elected at-large from the core city and three ward representatives from Riverside and the Sandwich township areas amalgamated in 1966.) The study was thorough – took two years — and several-welled reasoned choices were sent to council for consideration. But incumbents don’t like voting for changes which won’t assure re-election. The councilors picked one option but changed it to have two representatives per ward instead of one. All the weeks of planning, study and consultation were undone in a spontaneous change of direction at one meeting. In January 1978 not only the city but the two school boards were in the new five ward system.