Rideau Lakes council is garnering legal advice following Mayor Arie Hoogenboom’s use of strong mayor powers surrounding the Chantry office project.
On Monday, Hoogenboom vetoed the project from being put out to tender by using the new powers given to him.
Prior to putting a motion forth to vote seeking legal advice regarding the mayor’s decision, council temporarily set aside the procedural by-law, which are effectively guidelines members of council follow to ensure transparency and decorum exists between each other and the public.
For example, a typical practice under procedural by-laws is when a new motion is requested from a councillor, they introduce it at as a ‘notice of motion,’ at a meeting, with the intent to include the item on the agenda at a future meeting for discussion. This gives the public, council, and staff proper time to learn about what’s being proposed and respond accordingly.
In the instance Wednesday, council voted 5-3 in favour of setting aside the procedural by-law, which is within their right, in order to introduce and vote on the motion immediately, waiving the notice of motion process and as a result, not giving time for the public, staff, and council to dive into what was being voted on.
That’s something South Elmsley resident John Dorsch felt was unfair.
Speaking after the meeting, Hoogenboom told myFM this is far from the first time the procedural by-law has been either paused or changed during this term.
According to Clerk Mary Ellen Truelove, Banks’ motion was sent to staff, including CAO Shellee Fournier and Hoogenboom, at 12:37 p.m Wednesday, eight minutes prior to the start of the meeting. It only would have triggered following a failed vote to overturn the mayor’s veto, which is what happened.
Council members underwent a training session the previous week to learn more about strong mayor powers, and Banks said she’s just following what they learned.
Hoogenboom disagrees and said this pursuit will be fruitless, and stands by his reasonings for the veto.
According to staff, the township had spent around $138,000 to bring the Chantry municipal office retrofit project to the tender process, which is now not moving ahead.
In 2023, the same council voted to pause the Portland Municipal Hub project when the vote came to put that project out to tender, which Hoogenboom was an advocate for.
At that point the township had spent around $365,000 to get the project to the tender process, bringing the total of money spent on cancelled projects in these two cases around $503,000.
Story by Grant Deme