Beamer, Akapo named deputy mayors
Coun. Henry Clarke raises concerns about process
Coun. Henry Clarke is no longer either the deputy mayor or the finance chairman on council for 2019 — and he said that although he’s fine with that, he still has concerns about how appointments to committees and boards were made.
Coun. Andrew Beamer is now the first deputy mayor, with Coun. Kemi Akapo the second deputy mayor.
Coun. Dean Pappas is replacing Clarke as finance chairman.
Clarke said the fact that he hasn’t been handed any of these appointments is fine — it gives him more time to work with constituents, he said.
“But I do believe the process to arrive at these assignments was flawed,” he said at the special council meeting Monday.
Councillors are appointed to city committees by the mayor.
Clarke noted that Mayor Diane Therrien told The Examiner recently that she was going to send around a questionnaire to councillors to assess expertise and interests.
Clarke said he thought that was a great idea — but the questionnaire was never handed out.
“That was a missed opportunity,” Clarke said.
Although Clarke said he let Therrien know about his areas of interest, he never received a response from her.
Furthermore, he said, there were committees and boards that weren’t on the list last term — so there’s no way councillors could have known to ask for those appointments.
Clarke didn’t dispute the appointments, however. He said that “in the spirit of cooperation” he would accept them and hope that the process of appointments in 2020 will include questionnaires and interviews with each councillor to determine their preferences and interests.
Therrien said she didn’t schedule any interviews, but would have on request.
She also said that some of the committees are new and not yet
“fully -formed,” and that in some cases she is reinstating a councillor position on boards where councillors hadn’t been appointed last term.
Coun. Dean Pappas said he was happy with the way the appointments went. He said he typically didn’t know until arriving to the meeting what the appointments were. This time he knew in advance.
Other notable appointments: Therrien has put herself and Coun. Gary Baldwin on the police services board.
She also has herself and Coun. Keith Riel on the board for Peterborough Holdings Inc. (both of them had previously opposed the sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc., the electrical distribution system to Hydro One).
Coun. Andrew Beamer remains chairman of the general committee.