Prometheus The Supremo
►Member №41+⅜◄
Member Bio
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 4,107
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- a strange reality, bizarro toronto
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Ford, Nunziata seek cut in councillors TheStar.com - GTA - Ford, Nunziata seek cut in councillors
February 27, 2008
Jim Byers
City Hall Bureau
Rob Ford wants to see a lot less of his fellow city council members.
Ford and fellow councillor Frances Nunziata have put forward a motion at next week's city council meeting seeking to cut the number of elected city councillors from 44 to 22.
Ford said the move would save tens of millions of dollars.
"It's basically what constituents have told me over the years; there are too many of us down there (at City Hall). We have 22 MPs and 22 MPPs in Toronto; we should have 22 councillors."
Right now, there are two council members per provincial/federal riding. Ford said one would suffice.
"Our committee meetings are getting shorter and the council agendas are paper thin," he said. "It's the perfect timing, and the City of Toronto Act (which came into effect last year) gives us the power to do it.
"If we're in a financial crisis, and the mayor says we are, this could save tens of millions of dollars. Fifty or 100 million, even. You're talking 22 councillors, plus staff and salaries and agendas. It's hard to even put a price tag on how much you'll save."
Even some small-C conservatives on council insist the move wouldn't do anything for the city's bottom line.
"We might save a couple million dollars, but what are we trying to achieve?" asked Councillor Karen Stintz, who frequently weighs in on ways to cut spending. "There probably are better ways to save money around here."
Councillor Adam Vaughan was not impressed with the Ford-Nunziata suggestion.
"I can think of half the councillors we could get rid of, starting with those two. He (Ford) has a lot of time to talk about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but I have constituents to serve."
Councillor Doug Holyday said halving council would mean a huge increase in workload.
"I think it would work if we had an elected executive committee," he said.
A recent report on city operations recommended a stronger executive committee to help the mayor get his agenda approved. That's fine, but only if they're elected, Holyday said. He has suggested it have eight members: two each from Etobicoke-York, North York, Scarborough and Toronto-East York.
Stintz said council should certainly look at redrawing the ward boundaries.
"John Parker has 80,000 constituents and Adam Giambrone has 37,000," she said. "We need to look at that. If in doing so we opt to reduce the number of councillors, I could support that."
More important is finding a way for opponents to organize to keep mayoral powers in check, she said.
Council will also be asked next week to show leadership by freezing councillor and mayoral salaries.