Chaos erupted during a six-hour Oro-Medonte council meeting when Mayor Randy Greenlaw began shouting down Ward 5 Councillor Richard Schell during the reading of a motion.
“Councillor Schell, would you like to provide a brief explanation of this item?” Greenlaw said as the monitor displayed the text of a motion calling on the council to hold a recorded vote allowing members to clarify their positions on a recent 167 per cent raise for members of Simcoe County council. As the township’s representatives on county council, both Greenlaw and deputy mayor Peter Lavoie had voted in favour of the raises.
“No, I’d like to give a brief explanation — and before I do, I have some speaking notes along with an information package that I put together for everybody. So where I’m going with this information later and where I got this information from. I’d like to put this motion forward because of the unsolicited comments from residents. They are of the mistaken belief that representatives of county council vote the way they do at the direction of Oro-Medonte council.”
Schell explained that, after Premier Doug Ford highlighted his opposition to the pay rise during a September press conference, people from the township had begun assuming local councillors had supported the county’s decision.
At that point, Lavoie interrupted Schell to call for a point of order.
“Please don’t interrupt me,” Schell said, before continuing to read from his prepared remarks.
“A point of order has been called,” said Greenlaw.
“The point of order is that this has nothing to do with what the motion is about,” said Lavoie.
“I’m getting to that, if you’ll allow me,” said Schell.
“Then just get right to it,” Lavoie cut in.
“I am. Thank you for the interruption,” Schell said, before continuing.
“Not only did the people I spoke with agree with the premier, they blamed me personally for Oro-Medonte council. While we know our council has not been consulted, nor given direction to Oro-Medonte’s representatives, the public does not. . . . The township of Innisfil and the township of Springwater have passed motions to. . .”
At that point, Greenlaw began calling out to the councillor while hammering his gavel. “Councillor Schell! Councillor Schell? Excuse me, councillor Schell! May I get your attention?”
Schell continued to read from his prepared comments in an even voice.
“Councillor Schell!” Greenlaw said in a voice loud enough to cause slight distortions on the recording. “Can we cut councillor Schell’s mic? Councillor Schell? Councillor Schell, I’m talking to you. Excuse me, councillor Schell.”
Despite the mayor’s increasingly loud efforts to catch the former Eastview Secondary School teacher’s attention, Schell continued his speech.
“Point of order! Councillor Schell — please!”
“Please stop interrupting me,” Schell said. “Did I hear you say ‘point of order’ there?”
“I was going to say, we will be taking a five minute recess, thank you very much,” Greenlaw said, visibly struggling to maintain his composure.
After the short recess, Greenlaw instructed Schell to provide a brief explanation of the purpose of the motion.
“Thank you Mr. Mayor, I’ll be very brief. I believe that each member of council should be given the opportunity to have their position recorded, just like the members of county council and the other municipalities [of Springwater and Innisfil].”
Schell went on to explain the motion would require a secondary motion in order for council to vote on the matter immediately. Before he could finish, he was again interrupted by Greenlaw.
“Councillor Schell, pause for a minute, please. That is all you had to say. You’re asking us to break from procedure in order to get this to the floor. That is all you had to say to fulfill what you’re trying to do.”
“Thanks for your coaching,” Schell responded.
As Greenlaw began calling for a vote to determine if the original motion could receive an immediate vote, Lavoie noted this would require a seconder. After a few seconds of silence, Ward 2 Councillor John Bard raised a placard. All members of council, save Greenlaw and Lavoie, then voted in support of voting on the motion immediately.
Bard then agreed to serve as the seconder for Schell’s motion during the floor discussion preceding the vote. Councillor Lori Hutcheson then announced she was “extremely upset” by Schell, Greenlaw and Lavoie’s behaviour. “I’m going to ask that every member around this horseshoe show each other the respect that they deserve.”
Undeterred, Lavoie announced he had a few questions on the motion. “First and foremost, I’d like to clarify that you did, indeed, write the motion,” he asked to Schell, who nodded in affirmation.
“Can you then explain what resolution one means? It’s not clear in the wording.”
The resolution read: “That Oro-Medonte Councillors formally have their positions recorded in the public record to make its representatives on Simcoe County Council aware of their positions by voting separately on the following in accordance with the recommendations made by the county council governance committee.”
“What is it saying? I don’t understand the [resolution]? It’s not a properly formed sentence, in my view,” said Lavoie.
After a somewhat drawn out discussion during which both Lavoie and Greenlaw explained they had supported the raises because they were convinced that a better paid council would be a more democratic one, the motion was finally put to a vote.
With the exception of Schell, every member voted against it.
