Kingston mayor returns some ‘strong mayor’ powers to CAO, council

Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson is using his newly minted “strong mayor” powers to give some of his new authority back.

In a statement sent out Wednesday morning, Paterson’s office said he has chosen to return some powers recently granted to him by the province back to council and the city’s chief administrative officer (CAO).

“Our current structure of decision-making and oversight for the city is working,” Paterson said.

“I have no interest in politicizing the roles of staff and I look forward to continuing to work with my council colleagues to tackle these tough issues.”

Of the six strong mayor powers granted to Paterson and 25 other mayors across the province on July 1, three will go back to the purview of Kingston’s council and the CAO:

• The power to determine the city’s organizational structure will be given back to the CAO.
• The power to appoint the CAO will be given back to council and the power to appoint heads of divisions will be given back to the CAO.
• The power to appoint or dissolve committees that consist solely of council members will be given back to council.

Still, Paterson will be keeping some of his strong mayor powers. The following, according to the city, cannot be delegated to council or the CAO:

• Bringing matters to council or vetoing bylaws to advance provincial priorities.
• Preparing and presenting the budget to council (which would still be subject to council amendments, a mayoral veto and a council override process).
• His ability to direct city staff in writing.

This comes after Kingston councillors voiced their displeasure with the new powers through a motion presented at a June 20 meeting, with all except Paterson voting to send the motion to Premier Doug Ford.

Kingscourt-Rideau Coun. Brandon Tozzo took to social media Wednesday to congratulate Paterson on his decision. It was Tozzo who originally brought the June 20 motion to council.

He says his problem was never with Paterson specifically holding those powers, but rather any one person being given this amount of authority.

“My reluctance with the strong mayor powers is about really the denigration of our local democracy. And to me, it’s like leaving a loaded gun for the next person who could be in office,” Tozzo said in an interview Wednesday.

According to the province, council can override some of the strong mayor powers, like the veto or budget amendments with two-thirds of the vote. Tozzo thinks this threshold results in “minority rule.”

“Having a third of council and the mayor dictate the rules of the game, dictate bylaws and budgets, that’s undemocratic and it’s unCanadian,” Tozzo said.

When interviewed on the matter Wednesday, Paterson took issue with the new mayoral authorities being labelled “undemocratic.”

“There are many cities in the U.S. that have this system in place. And so I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that that New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco are undemocratic. They just have a different system,” Paterson said.

As for the fact that Paterson kept some of the new powers, Tozzo says he’s not concerned if Paterson is in the mayor’s seat, it’s who comes after him that worries him.

“I do generally trust his judgment not to abuse the powers that he has kept,” Tozzo said.

Paterson did note that although he’s rescinding some of his powers as of Wednesday, the decision is not binding. He, or any other mayor in the future, could regain them all at whim.

“I’m not ruling out any use of powers If there was a circumstance where I thought that they were needed,” Paterson said.

Although several of the mayors handpicked for the powers across Ontario have said they won’t use them, few have made the decision to return some of their new abilities.

On June 30, Guelph’s mayor made a similar decision to return some powers to his council and CAO.

The city will be keeping track of all of Paterson’s mayoral decision on a city run open data dashboard. 

– with files from Global News Aryn Strickland