A Deputation Postponed
On Wednesday January 8th, Diane Leblovic, a founding member of TinyTRA, was scheduled to make a deputation at a Tiny Township Council meeting. Her deputation addressed concerns over what appears to be public misinformation regarding overtime pay for senior Township staff and proposed changes to the rules that would limit the status of open deputations to Council. Before Diane began her remarks, Mayor Evans raised objections to the deputation, citing minor technical issues such as the omission of a date and signature. Diane noted that she had pre-cleared the content of her deputation with the Township Clerk. However, the Mayor insisted on his position, prompting Diane to withdraw her deputation with the assurance that she would address the technical issues and resubmit it at a later date. He did not want the information heard in council. Diane has graciously permitted us to share her deputation, which is included below. We encourage your thoughts on its content and the approach taken by Mayor Evans during the meeting.
Diane Leblovic
1/12/20254 min read
MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
Thank you, Mayor, Deputy-Mayor and Councillors for your time to hear my deputation today relating to Municipal Administrative Matters. I will be addressing two separate aspects of this topic.
Misinformation re: Senior Staff Compensation
Today will be a different approach to customary deputations as I will be posing to all members of Council a series of questions concerning an email exchange between Karen Zulynik and Councillor Steffen Walma relating to CAO and Directors compensation for overtime, a copy of which is attached to my written presentation filed with the Clerk.
The first is an email from Ms. Zulynik dated October 30, 2024, which reads as follows:
Dear Councillor Walma,
Regarding changing the council committee times…you referred to not having to pay staff overtime. I was under the assumption that all administrative staff are on salary…so they’re not getting overtime…am I wrong?
The second is the response by Councillor Walma dated November 4, 2024.
There will be a fulsome discussion at the next committee of the whole meeting on the subject. Staff will be able to answer questions/concerns on both timing structures. In short re: overtime. Senior staff (CAO and Directors) do not get overtime. Support staff (deputy clerk, IT, bylaw etc.) do accrue overtime at meetings after hours. Usually, we have 3 or 4 staff there for approximately 4 hours.
I would note that Councillor Walma’s email response was copied to both Mayor Evans and Clerk Walton, so they should be fully familiar with this matter.
Ms. Zulynik’s email was clearly an inquiry requesting confirmation that Senior Staff received NO COMPENSATION for overtime work.
Councillor Walma’s response appears on its face to confirm that position. However, on a careful reading of the response, you will note that he only states that Senior Staff (CAO and Directors) do not receive any “overtime” leaving the clear impression that they receive no compensation for overtime work. This position is, I assume, intended to support his motion to hold Council meetings during regular business hours.
What is not addressed in Councillor Walma’s response is that the CAO and the Directors do in fact receive additional compensation in the form of one additional week’s pay per calendar quarter-payable in each of March, June, September and December.
What is especially troubling and disappointing is that Councillor Walma and Council have led the taxpayers to believe this MISINFORMATION about the CAO and Directors not getting overtime while doing their jobs.
What happened to Accountability and Transparency with all of you on this issue? In my view, suppressing accountability and transparency by Council and Councillor Walma is inappropriate and unacceptable.
In addition, Councillor Walma has been on Tiny Township Council as Deputy Mayor for 8 years and 2 years as a Councillor and I would think that he would have been involved in staff contracts over that period. One can only conclude that he was fully aware of this additional compensation. If he did not know, it was his job to know.
Please note that I have no issue with this additional compensation for the CAO and Directors. What I seriously object to is Councillor Walma’s carefully crafted response to Ms. Zulynik which fails to disclose this relevant and important information.
It is essential for there to be clear, transparent information provided by Council. Taxpayers have every right to full disclosure.
My question therefore to each of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillors Brunelle and Helowka is – Did you know about this additional compensation for the CAO and the Directors? I trust that you will all respond to the question following my presentation.
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The Downgrading of Open Deputations.
On March 13, 2024, as a Council you passed a new Procedural Bylaw that stated that notes provided for open deputations will be forwarded to Council members only for their information and the notes will NOT form part of the official agenda. Prior to that, Open Deputations were part of the official agenda, and any accompanying notes and materials became part of the permanent public record. An example of this is December 18 2023 Agenda Diane Leblovic 2024 Budget Open Deputation Notes (Received on Desk).
Council has materially changed this process. All Open Deputation materials go only to Council members for information, speaking notes or other materials are not attached to the agenda. To make matters worse Council rarely ever asks any question on the concerns and issues of the individual presenting.
Open Deputations usually are from local residents and taxpayers of Tiny who want to bring their serious concerns to the attention of Council. However now written deputations or speaking notes are not part of the public record. One can only learn what the presentation was about for content by watching Tiny’s live streaming site. This site and its’ technology are not available to everyone and are not easy to follow, which obviously create accessibility and inclusivity issues. Even worse any record of the deputation will disappear when the live streaming tapes are expunged at the end of the next calendar year.
Many speakers for Scheduled Deputations are from corporate entities (Profit and Not for Profit) asking for money or other financial support. Many of these are from persons or corporations which are not even resident in Tiny Township. Scheduled Deputations of 10 minutes appear on the agenda for residents and taxpayers to read prior to the meeting and these materials remain permanently on the public record.
What this Council has done is to diminish both the status, relevance and importance of Open Deputations. The clear message to your community is that you do not place the same value on their views as those of persons making Scheduled Deputations
Now is the time for Council to Amend this Motion on Open Deputations as follows:
1. Speaking notes or other written materials are to be part of the official regular agenda and the public record.
2. Council will engage and ask questions of, and respond to, persons making Open Deputations.
If you decide not to adopt my suggestions, the clear message will be that the issues and concerns raised by local Tiny residents in Open Deputations are not important to you.
Thank you.
Diane Leblovic
The exchange between Diane and the Mayor can be viewed on the attached YouTube (timestamp: 55:42).
