Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward’s speaker series moves ahead next month with an opening session on housing, without support from a couple of city councillors — including Deputy Mayor for Housing Shawna Stolte.
Stolte withdrew support for the mayor’s A Better Burlington: Innovation to Action speaker series at the April 16 city council meeting, after Meed Ward’s decision to delegate two of three “strong mayor” powers to council or the city manager.
Council requested the mayor delegate all three potential strong mayors powers. Meed Ward responded to the request in an open letter dated April 10.
Coun. Lisa Kearns also withdrew support for the mayor’s speaker series, while Rory Nisan, Kelvin Galbraith, Paul Sharman and Angelo Bentivegna endorsed the project — although council endorsement was not required for the speaker series to move ahead.
During discussion about the mayor’s speaker series at city council, Stolte said “a lot of things changed in the last week” and, not knowing how the mayor may use opportunities provided by the speaker series, she was “withdrawing” her support.
Nisan expressed some concerns about the potential use of city resources for the speaker series, but after questioning staff, he expressed more comfort with the plan moving forward.
According to a motion memorandum on the speaker series, the goal is for two sessions a year — each with a clear theme and a relevant speaker, paid for out of the mayor’s office budget and corporate sponsorships.
The first session is scheduled for Monday, May 27 at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre and will feature former City of Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat on the subject of housing, community development and growth.
“Deputy Mayors will be invited to be participants in these series, where relevant to their Portfolios,” Meed Ward’s motion memorandum states. “Councillor Shawna Stolte, in her capacity as Deputy Mayor of Housing, is part of the planning team for the inaugural event on housing. The team includes staff from relevant departments, including events, finance and communications.”
A day after the council meeting, in email correspondence with the Burlington Post, Stolte stated she participated in two planning sessions for the first speaker series session — but will not participate moving forward.
Stolte said she started planning a 2024 City Wide Housing Symposium, and ward-by-ward housing information meetings, with a focus on addressing housing supply and affordability in Burlington.
She said she agreed to join the planning process and collaborate on the first speaker series event when Meed Ward made housing the subject.
“After deep consideration, I have concluded that Mayor Meed Ward and I have fundamental differences in how we choose to communicate critical information with the public and I have decided to resign my participation in the Mayor’s Speakers Series and resume my focus, time and efforts on planning for these smaller, interactive ‘ward by ward’ resident meetings across the City,” Stolte said.
She said she encourages residents to stay up-to-date on their ward councillors’ monthly newsletters for dates and times of upcoming housing information meetings.
The mayor’s speaker series motion memorandum states that the series will be free, to encourage as much participation by Burlington residents and city staff as possible, and focus on key challenges faced by the city while fostering tangible ways to improve Burlington and engage residents.
“Costs associated with the series will be secured through corporate sponsorships and the Mayor’s Office budget. Upon the recommendation of the Integrity Commissioner, sponsorship shall be secured through the City following its standard process, and will be separate from the Mayor’s Office to avoid perceived or potential conflicts of interests,” the motion memorandum states. “In keeping with the Council Code of Good Governance, sponsorship will not be accepted from anyone with an active application before the City. The Integrity Commissioner also advised seeking Council’s endorsement of the Speakers Series, which has prompted this motion.”
Meed Ward delegated her strong-mayor powers to determine the city’s organizational structure and hire or fire certain city officials to the city manager and delegated powers to establish committees, their functions, chairs and vice-chairs to city council — but retained the right to appoint a city manager.
Incoming city manager Hassaan Basit, who begins his new role on April 22 after 20 years with Conservation Halton, including the last eight as CEO, was appointed by the mayor on Feb. 16 after city council deliberated in closed session.
John Bkila, communications adviser to the mayor’s office, said the speaker series is “being organized and put on similarly to other events hosted by councillors and former mayors. The Mayor and each councillor have an annual budget and the spending against it is recorded every year.”
In 2023, each councillor had a budget of $10,000 for expenditures such as meetings, newsletters, mileage, postage, telephones and advertising and the mayor had a budget of $31,087 to cover similar expenditures to those listed above, excluding the costs of leasing a vehicle for business use. Last year, Meed Ward reported expenditures of $20,098 from that budget.
But Bkila said total costs for the speaker series are not yet available.
“The budget is still being finalized and, to date, it will be funded by the Mayor’s annual budget and corporate sponsors in line with the City’s policies,” Bkila stated in an email.
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