Sault city council rejects deputy mayor proposal

The majority of council believes the existing acting mayor role provides experience and mentorship for all, as well as saves costs.

Article content A motion geared to creating a dedicated deputy mayor in Sault Ste. Marie has failed. City councillors believe the existing system – which sees councillors take turns on a monthly revolving basis to fill the need in the role of acting mayor – works well and doesn’t cost taxpayers additional money.

Recommended Videos A deputy mayor title would likely result in additional honorarium to compensate for the additional workload. Instead, they suggest that the regular review of the city’s procedural bylaws, to take place during the next council term, is the best route for that review. Ward 4 Coun.

Stephan Kinach, the mover of the resolution, argued that a deputy mayor, appointed by council, would offer consistency of leadership and improved governance, integrity and transparency on major issues if the mayor could not perform his/her duties for any reason. Kinach believes the acting mayor designation the city currently uses is for temporary fill-ins and not designed to serve as a permanent governance support mechanism where recurring conflicts or other circumstances require regular delegation of the mayor’s duties. A deputy mayor would better fill that role and be responsible to keep abreast of the major issues to step in and offer a seamless transition if required, he said.

Kinach said during this term of council, there have been 205 declarations of conflicts of interest noted. Of those 106 were declared during open council and 39 in closed sessions. He noted that the mayor declared 95 conflicts of interest – which was the right thing to do – but required someone to fill that role.

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker noted he has not been absent for any meeting during this term as mayor or his previous term as councillor. It’s during those conflict-of-interest items that a councillor takes the chair to lead any discussion or vote on a particular matter, sometimes only taking a matter of minutes before he returns to the chair. Shoemaker said he doesn’t have any particular view on the issue and would leave it to the procedural bylaw review committee later this fall to determine if the change is warranted.

Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi said he doesn’t believe a dedicated deputy mayor is necessary because all members of council receive their agendas ahead of time and have the time to do their homework on matters. He did note that additional professional development may help if a mayor was absent for an extended period of time.

However, Ward 1 Coun. Sonny Spina noted that while councillors can easily fill in for the ceremonial or one-off conflicts, having a deputy mayor may assist with continuity when dealing with major, ongoing issues. He used the former General Hospital negotiations as an example – something that took some time to complete.

Under the current system, it may be that staff would have led the negotiations and there would not have been a representative of council at that table and staff would have had to have more frequent closed-door meetings with councillors to keep them updated. Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo said the work of the mayor is important and a lack of presence at that table could undermine council’s position and the work it is doing.

We do deserve to have someone that’s sitting on the chair to have the same knowledge our mayor does and for those reasons I will support this tonight,” he said. “I’d be comfortable to know someone was prepared to step in if required to maintain consistency.” Ward 4 Coun.

Marchy Bruni agreed that developing a better training ground to step in for the mayor is necessary, avoiding the additional cost of a deputy mayor. “I think it’s a good training ground when each councillor steps up there when the mayor has a conflict,” he said. Ward 2 Coun.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen agreed the training ground and experience for councillors is important. “What we want to do, and what our responsibility is as public servants is to mentor and encourage the next generation or the next candidates to do that,” she said. The motion to create a deputy mayor position failed in a 7-4 vote.