On City Beat last Thursday, Mayor Dennis Fenske spent the opening few minutes addressing councillor behaviour at the last regular meeting of City Council on December 11th.
Mayor Fenske said that unfortunately a few councillors took exception to the proceedings and one went as far as to personally attack another councillor, which is not allowed in any form.
Fenske added that there is a certain amount of decorum that is expected, and outlined in black in white, in the City’s Organizational By-Law, section 103. He said that if in the chairs’ opinion members of the council or general public are out of order, (the chair) has the right, and duty, to let the person know they are out of line and give them the chance to correct their behaviour. If there is no change in the behaviour, the chair of the meeting has the right to expel the person from the meeting.
The Mayor said that he offered the chance to Councillor Wong multiple times, and that Wong would have had to leave council chambers had he not somewhat apologized for his remarks towards Councillor Foley.
Mayor Fenske said the only punishment for Councillors who refuse to follow the rules is to publicly censor them, which Fenske said can only be done with a majority plus one vote of council.
The next regular meeting of City Council is scheduled for January 2nd at 7:00pm at City Hall.
If you have something you would like to ask the Mayor, email your question to CHTMNEWS@ARCTICRADIO.CA before Thursday.
