Cross-posted from Eye Weekly.
It’s a slow week at City Hall. With few meetings, Rob Ford gaffes or controversies to report, I thought I’d point out all the info that can be mined from the “city council minutes,†which are posted on the city’s website after each session of council. If you’re geeky enough to go through them, these are the documents where you’ll find who voted for what, who puts forward the most motions, and which councillors seems to be on the losing side of nearly every vote.
Sometimes the motions made reveal the kindergarten culture that council has been accused of portraying lately. Take these two, made by Councillors Howard Moscoe and Rob Ford when council debated altering its meeting times during January’s session.
1. Councillor Moscoe moved that the Item be amended by adding the following: The City Clerk be directed to ensure that, when Council votes to extend the meeting session past the scheduled evening recess time, adequate refreshments are provided.
2. Councillor Ford moved that the Item be amended by adding the following: The practice of providing an afternoon snack during meetings of Council be eliminated.
Moscoe’s motion won (30-6); Ford’s lost (7-29). Paula Fletcher voted for the refreshments, but against the snacks.
Moscoe and Ford went head to head again over the issue of reimbursing Councillor Kyle Rae for the expenses he will incur on a trip to the World AIDS conference in Mexico this summer. Ford has opposed council spending money on AIDS prevention in the past. “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay,†he once said, “you wouldn’t get AIDS probably, that’s bottom line.” Not surprisingly, he wasn’t keen on allowing Rae to pay for his trip out of his office budget either. In an attempt to appeal to Ford (perhaps the big guy is just jealous he’s not going on a trip himself?), Moscoe put forward a cheeky motion that the loose-mouthed maverick be allowed to accompany Rae to the conference. The motion narrowly lost by a vote of 16-18. The motion to allow Rae to cover his trip with funds from his office budget, however, passed with flying colours. Fiscally conservative Doug Holyday was the only councillor to join Ford in voting against it.
Council’s minutes also reveal cases when our local politicians misbehave during meetings — though the documents are careful not to reveal what it was that they said or did. Turns out councillor Frances Nunziata got caught up in a bit o’ drama when an item regarding a tree removal came up for debate at the beginning of the year. As reported in the oh-so-stimulating minutes:
Councillor Perruzza asked the Speaker to rule on whether Councillor Nunziata had spoken disrespectfully to a City Official. The Speaker ruled that Councillor Nunziata had spoken disrespectfully to a City Official and asked her to withdraw her remarks. Councillor Nunziata did not withdraw her remarks. The Speaker gave Councillor Nunziata a verbal warning. The Speaker then called Councillor Nunziata to order, and advised the Member that failure to withdraw her remarks would result in her ejection from the meeting. Councillor Nunziata did not withdraw her remarks and under Section 27-48 of Council’s Procedures, the Speaker ordered Councillor Nunziata to leave the meeting.
Ford appealed the Speaker’s order, and a vote was called to uphold it (council can vote to overrule the Speaker.) The order was upheld by a vote of 29-6. Nunziata withdrew her remarks and apologized. A second vote to let her stay carried.
To access the meeting minutes go to “Agendas†(under “Accessing City Hall†— “More Links†on the city’s main page). From there, click on “City Council.†At this point, you will be presented with a chart that displays past meetings and upcoming meetings. Each meeting will have links to the meeting’s agenda, decisions and minutes, but only those that are underlined are active. Those not underlined will be updated accordingly (though not always as fast as many of us would like). Here’s hoping he minutes for council’s last session (March 3-4) will be up fairly soon.
