Chatham-Kent Civic Centre, July 23, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)Chatham-Kent Civic Centre, July 23, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Chatham

Restrictions Applied To Lame Duck Council In CK

Council meetings in Chatham-Kent will run as per usual in the coming months, however, a few more restrictions are now in place.

With fewer than 75% of councillors seeking re-election in the fall, council is in a lame duck position.

Chatham-Kent's Chief Administrative Officer Don Shropshire describes it as a "safeguard" written in the Municipal Act, which restricts some decisions that can be made during the election period.

"The major restrictions on it are that council, during that period, is not in a position to make any expenditures [over $50,000] or disposition to property, or hire and fire any of the corporate officers during the period when there's still lame duck -- so until the new council gets appointed," says Shropshire.

However, there are still a number of decisions council can decide on from now until the new council is sworn in.

"Most of the authorities that council has will continue on without any changes," he says. "Things like approved budgets, if council approved capital budget items to repair a road or replace a bridge they would do that exactly the way they normally do, whether or not there's an election. It's just the unexpected items that there are some restrictions [on]."

In the meantime, Shropshire says he doesn't anticipate the position council is in to affect the way future council agendas look. He adds in preparing for the possibility of having a lame duck council, a resolution was passed in April 2018 to delegate authority if warranted.

"If there's a non-budget expense of over $50,000, in that case, myself as the CAO and another manager of the executive management team -- for example the chief financial officer -- we could approve expenses. Then there's a requirement that within the first 90 days of the new council being elected, we have an obligation to report that back to council so there's accountability to the taxpayers."

Shropshire says the move to delegate authority is one that other municipalities have adopted to ensure that unforeseen issues can be addressed immediately.

There are only three more council meetings scheduled until Chatham-Kent residents head to the polls October 22. The newly elected council will then be sworn in at the end of November.

Related: Final Candidates Running In The 2018 Municipal Election

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