Council in need of tiebreaker process: mayor
Posted Aug 5, 2010 05:47:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Peter Kelly says whatever happens to the size of regional council, he wants to see changes made that will ensure tie votes can’t happen.
Kelly was referring to ties like the one that happened Tuesday when council voted on a motion to downsize from 23 to 20 councillors.
With two members away from the table, the vote was split down the middle at 12 for each side – and the rules dictate the motion must be defeated.
Speaking on News 95.7’s Maritime Morning, Kelly says he wants some kind of tie-breaking procedure written into council’s charter.
“If there’s a tie, as other councils do across the country, there would be a vote to break that tie,” he said.
In the former city of Halifax, the mayor only voted in the event of a tie, a rule employed by other municipal bodies – but Kelly says he’s not prepared to relinquish his say.
“I think you need to see how the mayor votes, so I think that would stay,” he said. “But maybe there needs to be another process to guarantee there are no tie votes.”
Kelly says the question of tied votes is what prompted motions to reduce council to 16, 18 or 20 members plus the mayor – ensuring that if everyone is present, there would never be an even number of votes cast.
“I think you need to see how the mayor votes, so I think that would stay, but maybe there needs to be another process to ensure that there are no tie votes,” says Kelly.
He says that process is something that could be written into council’s charter.
