Councillors, city mgr. move to remove mayor from committee

A city committee is moving a policy to council that will remove the mayor or any elected official from the group providing oversight to municipal agendas, policies, contracts and budgets.

“There is intimidation from members of staff to speak freely around the admin table if there was a political member sitting around the table,” city manager Ann Mitchell told Administrative and Legislative Review Committee on Tuesday.

The recommendation, if accepted by council at its next meeting, will remove the mayor from the Administrative Committee – not to be confused with the Admin. and Leg. Review Committee hearing the recomondation.

The Administrative Committee is currently made up of the mayor, city manager, its four managing directors as well as the clerk and city solicitor.

Mitchell recommended the removal of the mayor in her briefing note dated three days after council passed a motion to have the province investigate the city through a municipal audit. No formal direction or motion to staff was provided to put forward the recommendation to remove the mayor from the committee. However, an internal note from December 2022 appears to be the driver of the move.

Committee member Coun. Robert Dumanowski said he can see how the city’s executive staff would feel “fettered” in having an elected official in the room and those discussions should be free flowing.

Fellow member Coun. Andy McGrogan said he saw value in having an elected official on the committee but that was countered by Coun. Allison Knodel’s feelings the information wasn’t filtering down to other councillors.

Knodel said if the mayor provides a high-level overview of the committee meetings, “I’m fine with it.

“If it functions like it does now, I think it’s useless.”

Mitchell is recommending the Administrative Organization (AO) Bylaw also be amended if the mayor’s position is eliminated on the committee. That bylaw should be “replaced by a city manager bylaw as in (the AO Bylaw’s) current form, it is too prescriptive which limits the city manager’s ability to effectively run the (city) organization,” according to the briefing note.

While Mitchell’s briefing note states having an elected official on a municipality’s administrative committee is, “not standard practice,” a cross-jurisdictional analysis included in the briefing note shows it’s common.

Other recommendations which will be put before council at its next meeting includes a plethora of other recommendations concerning non-statutory committees for both public and elected officials.