Mayor out of order, or expressing opinion?

MURPHY.

MUSKOKA LAKES - The mayor of Muskoka Lakes said she does not debate in council, she merely voices her opinion.
There is a difference.
Two years into her term, Muskoka Lakes Mayor Alice Murphy is being called into question by a former council member for debating at council meetings.
In a recent letter to the editor, former Muskoka Lakes councillor Mary Grady voiced her concern that Mayor Murphy is too vocal during council meetings.
“I was hoping that it would be resolved by the mid-term and that it related only to lack of experience on the part of the mayor and council. It is clear now that the mayor’s participation in debate has become the norm,” Grady said.
“The effect is that it puts far too much power into the hands of one council member who, in fact, has none while in the chair.”
According to the township’s procedural bylaw, the chair of a meeting — including council, committee of the whole or a standing committee — may state relevant facts and their position on a matter, but they may not participate in any debate without first leaving the chair. That means someone else temporarily takes charge of the meeting.
Murphy said council tries to frame their meetings in such a way that they appreciate input from the chair.
“I would suggest that some folks might view input and position as debate, and I think there’s probably some interpretation there, some licence that perhaps the writer has taken,” she said.
“I think dialogue is good, I think debate is fantastic, it allows us to flesh out the issues.”
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing legislates certain laws that municipalities must follow, but how council meetings are run and what the chair can and cannot do varies throughout the province, depending on each area’s bylaw.
In Muskoka Lakes, the mayor chairs the council meetings; while various councillors assume the role of chair during committee of the whole, the meeting issues must go through prior to coming to council.
Nigel Bellchamber, a trainer with the Association of Municipalities Ontario, said they see hundreds of councillors and heads of council who come for training each year.
“There’s as much art to it as there is sometimes regulation,” he said.
Bellchamber said it depends on how large and how formal the council is as to what happens when the chair wants to enter the debate.
In a large council of 15 to 20 members, sometimes the chair won’t enter the debate unless they actually leave the chair and speak from someone else’s seat, he said. In smaller councils it may mean moving the gavel to someone else’s seat, or there may be no formal procedure.
“There’s an obligation to heads of council to chair meetings in a manner that will help conduct the business of the corporation effectively and efficiently,” Bellchamber said.
He compared it to the conductor of an orchestra, “sometimes they have a light hand and sometimes they have a heavy hand, there’s no perfect way to do it.”
He said if the head of council is speaking too much from the chair, “any member of council can use the procedural bylaw of order and ask that the mayor follow the procedure bylaw if he or she wishes to enter the debate,” he said. In Muskoka Lakes that would mean leaving the chair.
Grady also mentioned Robert’s Rules of Order.
In Muskoka Lakes, unless it is otherwise specified in the procedural bylaw, all procedure must be done according to Robert’s Rules of Order, a book that was published in 1876 and is still used as a parliamentary authority on how to run meetings.
Robert’s Rules state that if the chairman wants to get involved in debate, he/she needs to call on another member to take the chair and temporarily preside over the meeting. The rules say this should rarely be done. However, if the meeting is 12 people or less, according to Robert’s Rules the chairman is allowed to enter the discussion.
Since Muskoka Lakes has its own rule concerning the chair becoming involved in debate in the procedural bylaw, it overrides Robert’s Rules.
“There is nothing to justify the unfortunate habit some chairmen have of constantly speaking on questions before the assembly, even interrupting the member who has the floor,” the rules say. “One who expects to take an active part in debate should never accept the chair, or at least should not resume the chair, after having made his speech, until after the pending question is disposed of.”

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