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Effective BIA representation
?Among other important agenda items being dealt with by Township Council this week - items like a boost in the power grid, or the future of our hospital, or even the community spirit of our high school students (see pages 1 and 3) - a couple of quiet items of correspondence drew our attention. On May 18, Councillor Gordon Highet sent Clerk Debbie Leroux an e-mail saying he was stepping down as a member of the BIA (Business Improvement Area) Board of Management, effective immediately.
On June 1, Councillor Jack Ballinger sent BIA chair Bev Leslie a letter also resigning from the Board, citing an inability to make all the meetings. “It is unfair,” he said, “to hold a position that someone else may very well be able to fill.” Mr. Highet gave no reason in his e-mail, but told the Cosmos he had the same problem as Mr. Ballinger; time conflicts made it difficult for him to attend meetings.
When it comes to being Council representatives on the BIA, of course, these two gentlemen aren’t just any old councillors. They represent the two wards, 4 and 5, in which the BIA operates, which is the reason they were named to the Board of Management in the first place. It may well be, as another councillor hinted to us, that time wasn’t the only issue the two had with the BIA. It may also be that other councillors could be found to take their chairs. Councillors Mikuse and Northeast, for example, although they represent rural wards, have been strong boosters of downtown in their time on Council (although each of them wears plenty enough hats already). And although the BIA also works for Toronto Street South, the public perceives it as having a downtown focus.
In our view, these questions are just red herrings. As long as the BIA spends tens of thousands of municipal tax dollars, there should be members of Council on its board of management, even if they’re not voting members. And those members should at least be the councillors representing Wards 4 & 5, if not the mayor as well. The bylaws setting out the mandate and organization of the BIA should stipulate their membership.
“You can’t force them to sit on the BIA if they don’t want to,” we were told. Well, yes, you can. They’re elected members of Council, and if a municipal bylaw obliges them to represent Council on a particular board or committee, then resigning from that board isn’t an option. The meeting times of the Board (which shouldn’t be variable) should be treated as commitments just like Council meetings; if the volunteer members of the Board have problems with those times, they can resign, but not the Council representatives.
It seems a little odd, actually, that after more than three years of sitting on the BIA Board, both councillors should suddenly have trouble making the meetings, and resign within a couple of weeks of each other. Especially now, as the BIA enters its busiest season, Council needs effective representation on its governing body.
Who those representatives are shouldn’t be a matter of politics, or whose calendar allows them to make the meetings. It should be a matter of common sense, and common sense says Messrs. Highet and Ballinger should have stayed where they were.
