Rookie councillors get a feel for city hall ahead of swearing-in
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/10/2018 (2252 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
New members of council don’t officially start on the job for another week but they’ve been making their way to city hall this week to sign papers, meet the clerk’s staff and scout potential offices.
“I was there first thing Monday morning,” said Sherri Rollins, who won the election to succeed Jenny Gerbasi as the councillor in Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry.
The council elected in 2014 remains in office until noon Nov. 6 and includes the four councillors who didn’t seek re-election: Gerbasi, Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas), Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge) and Russ Wyatt (Transcona).
Also on the job for another week is Shawn Dobson, whose St. Charles ward disappeared as a result of boundary changes and who lost to fellow incumbent Scott Gillingham in the revamped St. James ward.
Joining Rollins in the incoming group are Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo), Shawn Nason (Transcona) and Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River).
A city hall tour won’t be necessary for Santos, who was Coun. Mike Pagtakhan’s executive assistant and will continue in that role until she officially becomes the ward councillor for Point Douglas.
“In the meantime I’ll be cleaning up Coun. Mike’s office,” Santos said. She had a meeting with City Clerk Marc Lemoine Tuesday and emerged with a thick binder outlining protocol and procedures for councillors.
Santos is doing double duty for the next week, helping shut down Pagtakhan’s office while gearing up herself, including sorting out priorities and hiring an executive assistant of her own.
She said she’ll continue working on ward projects that Pagtakhan had started, but is also keen to find funding for a new Arlington Street bridge. She’s also hoping to keep a campaign commitment for an after-school program at Weston Memorial Community Centre.
Klein and Nason went through city hall Monday. Chambers will meet with the city clerk’s staff Wednesday.
Chambers said one of his priorities is to gain support for an indoor pool in the St. Norbert area.
Rollins said her priorities will include community safety and establishing a 24-hour safe place for Indigenous women and transgender individuals.
The new councillors will move into their offices during the afternoon of Nov. 6.
A formal swearing-in ceremony for the new and returning members of council is set for that evening. At that time, Mayor Brian Bowman will announce his appointments to executive policy committee — the chairs of council’s standing committees — and to the roles of deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor.
The only other business taking place that night will be the election of Speaker and deputy speaker.
The councillors will meet privately sometime on Nov. 12 to sort out the composition of the standing committees, which will then be formalized at the organizational meeting of council on Nov. 14.
Some of the new and returning councillors will start carrying out their official duties on the afternoon of Nov. 13, when the Assiniboia, City Centre and East Kildonan community committees meet to go over grant requests and development proposals for their wards.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
Meetings with mayor
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman.
Mayor Brian Bowman has set aside time this week for a series of one-on-one meetings with all councillors.
On election night, Bowman said he wanted to hear each councillor’s priorities and find out if any are interested in being a member of his executive policy committee, comprised of the chairs of the standing committees.
EPC is considered Bowman’s inner circle and de facto cabinet, as it’s charged with developing the budget and steering council.
While Bowman promised in 2014 to allow council to appoint or elect the members of EPC, he quickly abandoned that pledge when he realized the prestige of committee chair, and the approximately $20,000 premium that comes with the job, is a powerful tool for controlling council votes and achieving his personal agenda.
The Winnipeg Charter limits the number of EPC members to a maximum of seven, including the mayor, giving him a solid voting block on the 16-member council, but not the majority.
However, Bowman was able to stretch his influence on council during the last two years when he appointed two non-EPC councillors to the roles of deputy mayor (Jenny Gerbasi) and acting deputy mayor (Matt Allard) and inviting those two to all of the closed-door briefings the administration provides to EPC, known derisively by the non-EPC councillors as EPC-plus-2 — giving him a nine-vote majority, if needed on contentious votes.
There were six standing committees of council last term: public works, finance, parks, environment, innovation and property and development.
The bet from city hall watchers is that five current members of EPC — Matt Allard (St. Boniface, public works, who was promoted to the post when Marty Morantz withdrew in the spring to chase the Conservative nomination for the 2019 federal election), Brian Mayes (St. Vital, environment), Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre, innovation) and Scott Gillingham (St. James, finance) — will be re-appointed but whether they hold the same posts remains to be seen.
The departure of Mike Pagtakhan (who had chaired the parks committee but didn’t seek re-election) leaves one vacancy on EPC. Speculation has it that Bowman will offer the opening to one of two new councillors:
• Vivian Santos, believed to be the first woman of Chinese descent elected to council, she worked as a legal assistant for Bowman and arrived at city hall with him before going to work for Pagtakhan as his executive assistant, winning his ward seat in last week’s election.
• Markus Chambers, believed to be the first black person elected to council, who spent 30 years in the provincial civil service, 20 of them in senior management. He was endorsed by Gail Asper, who was one of Bowman’s honorary campaign chairs.
Janice Lukes, Ross Eadie, Jason Schreyer and Jeff Browaty – all of whom endorsed Jenny Motkaluk for mayor — are not expected to be in the running.
— Aldo Santin
