Former Mayor Larry Di Ianni and Mr. Ecklund's daughter Erika

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LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

former Mayor of Hamilton, Larry Di IanniWard Boundaries Revisited

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted October 30, 2008)

I recall writing almost one year ago this week (October 27, 2007) that Council was considering reviewing ward boundaries and potentially adding one new member of Council to our complement of 15 Councillors plus one Mayor. I was surprised to read in the Council agenda the following resolution:

"That no further action be taken with respect to rep by pop and Ward boundary changes until the Council of 2010-2014."

A bit of a refresher is in order. Here is what I said in the October 2007 article:

"Led by two inner city councillors, a motion was put on the table to review the make-up of Council including a special look at the oversized wards, notably Ward 7 and Ward 8 on the mountain, with a view of increasing the size to more fairly provide representation for those wards in the former city of Hamilton. The reality as it now exists has 8 members of Council representing the former city of Hamilton, and 7 representing the former suburbs with the Mayor being elected at large.

The argument put forward by Councillor Whitehead is that just one of the two large wards has more people than the entire suburbs put together. By restricting these wards to just one rep, effectively cheats those residents of just representation. "

So, why after a whole year of inaction has Council decided to stay proceedings until 2010-2014? To be fair to them, they are proceeding with studying the ward boundaries and the number of Council seats with a view of presenting a potentially different configuration for the next term of Council. What they have decided is not to tinker with Council make-up during this term. That is only fair and reasonable and avoids any legal challenges that would surely have come if Council had made changes in arbitrary and ad-hoc ways.

As well, I was interested in Councillor Scott Duvall's concerns during the Council debate that his ward was being targeted for division since Ward 7 contains the largest number of citizens in the entire city, yet Councillor Duvall had to learn from the media rather than being briefed by his colleagues about some of the specifics of the deliberations affecting his and his residents' representation. This was a fair point to make, in spite of the Mayor's rebuke that Councillor Duvall should read his agendas to inform himself. What Fred was missing and what Scott was talking about is a bigger issue and that is the issue of consultation as well as the issue of properly providing appropriate rationale for the discussion. To my knowledge Council has done neither in a very thorough way.

Again, as I stated a year ago, and some Councillors hinted at during this discussion, 'representation by population' is only one aspect of any potential redistribution. There are financial implications as well as implications to the still-raw feelings about the amalgamation issue. Any re-balancing of the delicate relationship between the former city of Hamilton and its formerly independent suburbs also needs to be taken into consideration.

Now that Council has given itself some breathing room and isn't speeding towards a facile conclusion, perhaps appropriate stakeholder consultation can occur. There are some potential solutions to the issue and it is timely to examine them before options are presented. Let's hope for everyone's sake that a good process is put in place to allow this to happen. Our city deserves no less than the best governance structure for a still-struggling municipality.

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