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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCD-24-87 (revised)~•~~~~;""'~'~~~~~-,1 TOWN OF NEWCASTLE f' ~~~ ` ~k='~ R E P O R T File # .~ .-~° // -~, ~, ~'~ C~ ~~ ~~ ~ Res. #.~~ ~ ~~'~ i~ _ .~~~:~~ By-Law # P'EFTjNG: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE j~q~ ~ MAY 4 , 1987 T #: CD-24-87 FILE #: 35.23.11. SUBJECT: DURHAM REGION AREA CLERK'S RESPONSE TO THE FINAL DRAFT REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS (REVISED) RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. That Clerk's Report CD-24-87 be received; and 2. T-hat the~eneral Purpose and Administration Committee that Council endorse the position taken by the Durham Region Area Clerks and support the forwarding of a copy of the "Area Clerks' Response" to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Mr. Sam Cureatz, M.P.P., the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections, and the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. BACKGROUND AND COMMENT: This report was tabled by Committee on April 21st 1987, for additional information. The report was re-written and the information requested included. In February 1986, the Minister of Municipal Affairs established a committee whose role was "to conduct a review of, and make recommendations for, improvement to the local government electoral process in Ontario." Following its forming, the Committee prepared a document entitled "Issues and Options: An Interim Report on Municipal Elections in Ontario." This lengthy document was circulated for comment in August 1986, and received in Newcastle on September 4th 1986. The intention of the circulation was to solicit responses to the report by October 1st 1985. Continued ...../2 Report CD-24-87 - 2 - May 4, 1987 " °~ ~~~ Given the timing, no response to the report was prepared here. The decision was, that since the report was being reviewed by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (A.M.O.) and the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (A.M.C.T.O.) and others, it would be reasonable to a~rait the report that would be prepared following the review process. By letter dated February 11th 1987, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, announced the production and circulation of the Advisory Committee's first report, entitled "Local Government Elections in Ontario", Final Report of the Advisory Committee. It was this document that was the subject of a meeting of the Durham Region Area Clerks held on March 18th 1987, in the Whitby Municipal Building. At the March 18th 1987 meeting, the area Clerks reviewed the final report, the positions taken on the eighty-eight (88) recommendations by A.M.O., and A.M.C.T.O., and reached a concensus position. The document has been reproduced and is attached for Council's information. By letter dated April 7th 1987, Mr. Donald McKay, A.M.C.T., Clerk, Town of Whitby, forwarded a copy of a document entitled "Durham Region Area Clerk's Response to the Final Report of ,the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections." This final document contains the Advisory .Committee's recommendations, the A.M.C.T.O. response, the A.M.O, response, and finally the position taken by the Area Clerks. The Area Clerks have we believe, been objective in our approach to the issue. We have supported a review of the municipal electoral process, but are concerned that in many areas the Final Report recommendations erode the local authority, and' attempts to place the control of local elections in the hands of persons who are not practitioners and thus are not familiar with the intricacies of administering the municipal ~hection process locally. For example, the Advisory Committee has recommended: (1) the establishment of an Ontario Municipal Elections Commission to administer the municipal electoral process; (2) the filing of cash deposits with nomination papers in municipalities with populations over 50,000; (3) limiting the amount of campaign donations; (4) limiting the amount of campaign expenses; Continued ...../3 Report CD-24-87 - 3 - May 4, 1987 ~--° Vl, i ~ ~~) (5) a system of tax credits for contributors to municipal election campaigns; (6) advancing polling to the third Tuesday in October; (7) extending proxy voting to any elector who is unable to vote at the advanced poll or on polling day; and (8) permitting school boards to place questions pertaining to school board matters on ballots. Members of Council were interested in knowing what A.M.O.'s position was with respect to the Advisory Committee's Report. I would advise that: "A.M.O. endorsed 18 recommendations out of the original report. A.M.O. further endorsed another 30 recommendations with amendments. There were 34 recommendations not endorsed by A.M.O. In the final report, of the 34 recommendations not supported only 8 were withdrawn or changed to reflect A.M.O.'s view. Five were modified but will not meet with approval of A.M.O. Twenty-one of the recommendations were made again, completely unchanged and flying exactly in the face of A.M.O, recommendations." For.~Couhcil's'further i~formation~;a copy of the editorial from which the preceeding paragraph was taken is reproduced in its entirety and attached to this report (Attachment I). The response of the Area Clerks to the recommendations contained in the final report parallel or support the positions taken by either A.M.O, or A.M.C.T.O. (Attachment 2). I am, on behalf of the Region of Durham Area Clerks, requesting that the General Purpose and Administration Committee endorse the position taken by the Area Clerks on this most important matter, and recommend endorsement of the position to Council. Further, I would respectfully request that the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Mr. Sam Cureatz, M.P.P., the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections, The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Association of Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario be advised of Council's position. Respectfully submitted, Recommended for Presentation to Committee r _ ~~~ f ~ ~, e°` > ~` ~ c~c,~-~.~ '' ~ .-~ - ~ ~ Vie, i, ~` j ~ i avi a es, . , . , . , , sa rence o se . , Town Clerk Chief Adm' is~trative Officer Attachments: 1. "Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections" Municipal World, April 1987. ~. Durham Region Area Clerks Response To The Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections. ~"i,~h~ ,. ~ t: ~~*' F F'~ a ~. ;- r Mabel Dougherty extremely busy at this time and we are entering into a holiday period for ur- banites and a transition period for our university and college students. AMO has stated that this is a period of con- cern asthe urban residency change does escalate during this time as parents tend to move following the school term ... I do not agree with moving the election to the third week in October due to har- vesting time in the rural areas. Farm people do not have time at this season to campaign until the harvest is com- pleted. I realize the campaign weather can be rotten, but you can't have your cake and eat it too." t3'It~~ c~at,'t >4=e e~`tcc~ztc existitt~ per°sanrtel r•atlter tlaart add tPtot°e costly sPaj`f ... Departing from the committee rec- ommendations, the speaker also ex- pressed concern about the practices in certain municipalities of obtaining sig- natures on nomination forms without filling in the name of the candidate or the office for which the nomination is being sought. "I am astonished at the number of blank forms that are signed by the electorate. You, as a candidate, should be responsible for your nomina- tion paper and be aware that a paper without identification could find its way into the hands of an unintended candi- date." David Barrett, Clerk, City of Welland, former Administrative Vice-President, Association of Municipalities of Ontario - Spealcing on behalf of the Association which represents a'oout 95°l0 of the population of the province, and the largest group of municipal corporations across Canada, he stated that " ... I am extremely disappointed as a member of MUNICIPAL WORLD the AMO Executive ... that our response has almost been totally ignored. We have an excellent rapport with the present Minister of Municipal Affairs. 'Through our meetings with him, I hope that Mr. Grandmaitre and his Ministry will pay a lot more atten- tion wwhat AMO is saying than his Advisory Committee has done. A lot of the rationale and reasons given in the report for their recommendations do not hold true. Somebody once said that reasons that sound good are not always good sound reasons and no where is that more prevalent than in this report. For example, on the earlier election date, they said that about half of the respon- dents to their interim report recom- mended anearlier election date ... I ttm extrerrtel~j disappoirttt~d as a nternber° of the A1t10 Executive...that our response has almost begirt totally ignored "I could only assume that an individual writing to the Committee and saying that they would like an earlier date was granted exactly the same weight as AMO writing to the Committee and saying that they did not want the date changed. They were one and we were one. "AMO endorsed 18 recommendations out of the original report. We further endorsed another 30 recommendations with amendments. There were 34 rec- ommendations not endorsed by AMO. In the final report, of those 34 recom- mendations that we did not support only 8 were withdrawn or changed to re- flect AMO's view. Five were modified but I believe that they will not meet with approval of AMO. Twenty-one of them were made again, completely unchanged and flying exactly in the face of AMO recommendations." The speaker stated that a select committee from the AMO Executive will be making their views known to the Minister. John W. Nigh, City Clerk, City of Scarborough, Member of the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ont- ario, Special Municipal Elec- tions Project Team -The speaker stated that the Project Team had met with the Advisory Committee to dis- cuss and explain their response to the Interim Report. Noting certain benefi- cial changes in the Final Report, the speaker stated "I am disappointed with many other parts of the report ... Amendments to legislation take a relatively long time to accomplish. They should only be considered if they are needed and will result in improve- ments to the statute. Cosmetic changes which have no real value should be avoided. There are some recommenda- tions in the report which I place in this category. I do not see any benefit whatsoever in changing the name from the Municipal Elections Act to the Lo- cal Government Elections Act. The words "municipal" and "local" are syn- onymous. Further, the Municipal Elec- tions Act has existed for a number of years and is a familiar term. What advantage is there in changing?" Cosmetic changes 14'lti~lt have no real vahte should be avoided. The speaker noted further that several well-known terms would be changed. For example "polling day" to "voting day," "polling subdivision" to "voting division," "advance poll" to "advance vote," -basically f.o substitute the "vote" or some form of it for the word "poll." Why? 1fie provincial Elections Act, enacted in 1984, uses the word "poll" in its various forms extensively. The Canada Elections Act uses the word "poll." The word has been commonly associated with all elections for many many years. "I would suggest that such ~2e ELECTION page 1 i i APRfL i9&7 99 David Barrett John Nigh ~ ~ C~~ ~ Final Report ofi the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections The following is a synopsis of the presentations on the Final ~ Report of the Advisory Committee on Municipal Elections which was released of the annual meeting of the Rural Section of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, ... and the panel response thereto. Copies of the committee's final recommendations were made available to the delegates at the commencement of fhe session. The principal recommendations of the report were outlined by Committee Co- chairpersons Anne Johnson, former City of Toronto alderman, Gerald Parisien, former mayor of Cornwall and Mary Erichsen-Brown, former trustee, ;imcce County Board of Education. They outlined the activities of the Com- mittee since its appointment in Feb- ruary, 1986 and reviewed the more than 27 meetings [hat the committee had had with associations, groups and indivi- duals and its consideration of more than 200 letters and briefs from muni- cpalities, school boards, associations and interested citizens. The co-chairpersons indicated that this consultation and research had culmin- ated in August, 1986 with the release of an interim paper entitled "Issues and Options: An Interim Report on Municipal Elections in Ontario." A second phase review had begun in September. During the second period of consultation, meetings had been held with interested groups and more than 250 letters and submissions had been received. Primary areas of concern had been identified as being: • the enumeration process with problems stemming primarily from the short time available to the Ministry of Revenue staff to compile voters lists; • campaign financing and account- ability; and • recount procedures where the committee had sought alternative meth- ods which would reduce the burden on the courts. Other administrative issues dealt with by the Committee included clarification of voter and candidate qualifications, ballot marking and counting and the date of assumption of office. The Committee was particularly con- cerned with improving accessibility for those with linguistic or physical dif- ficulties and ,with ensuring there was more local government education for the general public. Its recommenda- tions included broader provisions for the use of proxy voting, earlier voting days, as well as proposals for voter education and accessibility. The committee also focused on the increasing cost and potential for abuse of local government election cam- paigns. It expressed [he belief that "a candidate should not have to be wealthy, or supported by monied inter- ests, in order to run for local public of- fice." The Committee emphasized that "open government requires greater scrutiny of campaign contributions." The diversity of Ontario's 839 mu- nicipalities required special considera- tion of the election problems in large, medium and small municipalities and also recognition of the differences be- tween elections for municipal councils, school boards and public utilities com- missions. Arguing that new policies and pro- cedures also require new structures, the committee stated that "the implementa- tion of the committee's recommenda- tions would require much greater coor- dination than the existing process could provide. In particular, the fragmenta- lion of responsibilities among several government agencies gave rise to the proposal for a single central agency to advise and assist the participants in the local government electoral process." (The proposed Ontario Local Govern- ment Commission). The Committee invited comments on these final recommendations [o be received by the Minister by the end of May, 1987. Mabel Dougherty, Reeve, Town- ship of Onondaga, Director, Rural Section, Association of Municipalities of Ontario - Responding from a political perspec- tive, this speaker acknowledged that a review of the Municipal Elections Act was past due. Stressing AMO's posi- tion, she said "as I perused the report, I came [o the shocking reality that these two documents did not in the slightest resemble one another. Why do we waste the time of municipal politicians and staff in reporting back to such documents?" Giving support to changes in termi- nology and for consolidation of legis- lation, the speaker stated "We do not feel that a new advisory body is neces- sary. Why can't we educate existing personnel rather than add more costly staff to be known as the Ontario Municipal Elections Commission? Clarify what we have. Municipal clerks can be informed and updated in their capacity. It is their statutory duty to be returning officers. An advisory body is only [hat. We need not confuse this issue . , , if Municipal Affairs are to supply adequate human and financial re- sources, let the Ministry support our clerks ... and provide [he materials nec- essary to carry out an A-1 election." Concentrating on specific recom- mendations, the speaker stated "I do not feel that it is in the best interests of ru- ral Ont<~u-io to enumerate in May - June. The farming community is 98 APRIL 1987 MUNICIPAL WORLD _. ~ ~ • ( ~ ELECTION from page 99 a change as it relates to municipal elections, is totally unnecessary and would result in different terminology in municipal and provincial elections." Refemng to the recommendation for the establishment of the Ontario Municipal Elections Commission, the speaker re- ferred to the AMCTO response to the Interim Report which at that time had stated "These recommendations, which suggest centralization of a system which is totally decentralized, appear to be based on the assumption that what is good for the provincial election process is also good for the municipal election process." A brief discussion of the two processes will illustrate their vast dif- ferences, A provincial election is one election for the province. There were, in 1985, 125 ridings and a total of 442 candidates. Political parties dominate the process and are recognized by the relative statutes. There are 793 local municipalities in the province and accordingly the possibility of 793 sep- arate elections. The offices to be filled will vary. The size of the municipali- ties range from very small to very large and their individual requirements will vary accordingly. "In 1985, there were, across the pro- vince, 5,941 elected members of coun- cil, 653 elected public utility commis- sioners and 2,112 elected trustees for a total of 8,710 elected members. How many candidates there were is not known. Political parties are not rec- ognized by any of the related states as having any status in the municipal election process. `"The Municipal Elections Act provides a common method of elections in all these diverse areas. The municipal clerk should remain the person respon- sible for municipal elections. The mat- ter of training election officials and producing publications for candidates is also best done locally. Resources and funding should be the subject of further discussion with the Ministry of Muni- cipal Affairs and the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario," The speaker then focused attention on technical errors in the report in paz- ticulaz the problems which would arise from the recommendation for aone- month continuous residency require- ments beginning on September 16, the day after the final day for revision of the polling list. "It would seem to me that the whole purpose of revising the list is to achieve a final list of eligible elec- tors who, being on the list, are entitled [o vote. Further, I cannot see how the proposed qualification could be enforced unless each elector was required to take a declaration concerning residency prior to receiving a ballot at the poll. The proposal that residency be continuous would mean a person moving during that period could not vote anywhere." Discussing the Committee recom- mendations for acceptable marks on bal- lots, the speaker noted that they would produce an inconsistency with the provincial Elections Act. On recounts, while stating that the recommendations are "generally acceptable" the speaker objected to the exclusion of the clerk from the recount process where the clerk had been involved in the original count and also to the formula for determining an automatic recount. Provisions for candidates deposits and disclosure and reporting expenses are complex and need careful examination. In conclusion, the speaker noted that the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers will make a detailed re- sponse to the minister. ^ 100 APRIL 1987 MUNICIPAL WORLD Anne Johnson, Gerald Parisian and Mary Erichsen-Brown