Council muzzles Mayor Bob Bratina
Hamilton’s mayor has a new lobbying team, but not a shorter leash.
Council ultimately backed away from a surprise motion pitched Tuesday that would have limited Mayor Bob Bratina’s ability to lobby senior government officials without the city manager or other councillors in tow.
Bratina characterized the motion as an “ambush” in a Wednesday radio interview and speculated it might be illegal under the Municipal Act or the city’s procedural bylaw.
Despite widespread support for the motion at Tuesday’s general issues committee, councillors “collaborated” on an amended motion presented at council Wednesday that eliminated any wording that required the mayor to lobby in tandem with the city manager or other councillors.
“This is not about undermining the role of the mayor,” said Councillor Terry Whitehead, who pitched both the original motion and the amended version. “This is about having a transparent, accountable, inclusive process for advocating to the upper levels of government.”
Councillor Brad Clark said the new motion, which calls for the creation of a government relations team to “assist the mayor,” is meant to address a “new reality” in provincial politics: namely, a minority government.
“When we go forward to advocate (to senior government officials) there should be other people at that table,” he said, pointing out council now needs to reach out to the NDP and Conservative caucuses. “We’re not just dealing with the (Liberal) government anymore.”
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