November 13, 2023, at 12:00 PM

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The meeting is called to order at 12:01 PM.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That consent items 2.1 and 2.2 BE APPROVED

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.1   Authorization for Temporary Borrowing

2023-11-13 Staff Report - Authorization for Temporary Borrowing

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports, the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated November 13, 2023 BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on November 28, 2023, to authorize the temporary borrowing of certain sums to meet current expenditures of The Corporation of the City of London for the year 2024.

Motion Passed

2.2   Data Sharing and Services Agreement with the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

2023-11-13 Staff Report - Data Sharing and Services Agreement

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports, the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated November 13, 2023 BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on November 28, 2023: 

a)  TO AUTHORIZE and TO APPROVE a Data Sharing and Services Agreement between the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation and The Corporation of the City of London (the “Agreement”); and

b)  TO AUTHORIZE the Mayor and Clerk to execute the Agreement.

Motion Passed

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Application - Issuance of Proclamation - Recognizing the Salvation Army Week

2023-11-13 Proclamation - Salvation Army-Application

Moved by S. Stevenson

Seconded by S. Trosow

That the application dated October 26, 2023 from The Salvation Army of Canada and Bermuda, December 18, 2023 BE PROCLAIMED Recognizing the Salvation Army Week.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

4.2   Consideration of Appointment to the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee (Requires up to 6 Members)

2023-11-13 Submission - Application to AWCAC

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That Jon Higgins BE APPOINTED to the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee for the term ending February 2024.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential (Enclosed for Members only.)

Moved by S. Stevenson

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That the Corporate Services Committee convenes In Closed Session to consider the following:

6.1 Land Acquisition / Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice / Position, Plan, Procedure, Criteria or Instruction to be Applied to Any Negotiations

A matter pertaining to the proposed or pending acquisition of land by the municipality, including communications necessary for that purpose; advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege; commercial and financial information, that belongs to the municipality and has monetary value or potential monetary value and a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality.

6.2 Land Acquisition / Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice / Position, Plan, Procedure, Criteria or Instruction to be Applied to Any Negotiations

A matter pertaining to the proposed or pending acquisition of land by the municipality, including communications necessary for that purpose; advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege; commercial and financial information, that belongs to the municipality and has monetary value or potential monetary value and a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality.

6.3 Labour Relations/Employee Negotiations

A matter pertaining to labour relations and employee negotiations in regard to the Corporation’s association or unions, advice and recommendations of officers and employees of the Corporation including communications necessary for that purpose.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

The Corporate Services Committee convenes In Closed Session from 12:10 PM to 1:12 PM.

7.   Adjournment

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 1:17 PM.

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (29 minutes)

All right, colleagues, it is 12-0-1, and I am going to call the 20th meeting of the Corporate Services Committee to Order. I’d like to begin by acknowledging that the City of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, Lene Peiwak, and the Adewanderan peoples. We honor and respect the history, languages, and diverse cultures of the indigenous people who call this territory home. The City of London is currently home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, and as representatives of the people of the City of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory.

Also, share that the City of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request. To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact csc@london.ca or phone 519-661-2489, extension 2425. Colleagues, I am just going to begin by looking for any disclosures of pecuniary interest. Seeing none, I will also note that Councillor ramen is with us via Zoom.

As a visiting Councillor and Councillor Pribble is with us in chambers as a visiting Councillor. So moving on to our agenda. Section two is our consent agenda, looking for a motion to move either all of the consent agenda or portions of. Councillor Trozzell.

Move the entire agenda, consent agenda. Thank you for that. Do we have a seconder? Councillor Ferreira, thank you.

Colleagues, we’ll look for any questions or comments now on our consent items. Seeing none, I will ask the clerk to open the vote. Closing the vote, motion carries. Thank you, colleagues, moving right along.

We have no item three scheduled items. So that brings us to section four. That’s items for direction. We have two items under this section of the agenda.

And I’m going to recommend that we deal with these separately. As sometimes we have multiple proclamations. That’s not the case this time. Our first item, however, is a proclamation for the issuance of the Salvation Army Week.

And I’ll look to see if there’s a mover and a seconder for that moved by Councillor Stevenson, looking for a seconder, Councillor Trozzell. Now, any discussion on this? Seeing none, I will ask the clerk to open the vote. Closing the vote, motion carries.

Thank you, colleagues, moving on. 4.2 is the consideration of an appointment to the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee. Councillor Trozzell. I do have a question.

I’m always thrilled to see people added to the advisory committees. So I don’t have an issue with disappointment. I am wondering though, were there other applicants in the pool because we didn’t see any others, I’m going to assume that this was, anyway, that’s my question. Thank you, and we will go to the clerk for that.

Thank you through the chair. No, that was the only applicant to invest my knowledge. So my next question, thank you. My next question to the chair is, we must have other advisory committees that need additional people.

Because I know from talking to some of the chairs myself that this far into the council term, they start to get people who are not showing up or they get resignations. What are we going to be doing to repopulate these committees as soon as possible? Well, we will see, we do have the city clerk with us. So I will ask Mr.

Schultz if he can outline the process by which we continue to advertise open advisory committee appointments. Certainly through the chair, we do advertise on a regular basis. I would note that the current term is going to be ending this February, so February 2024. The latest information I have through the chair is that most of the committees are at capacity with the exception of the animal welfare community advisory committee.

But that said, if we become aware of a significant number that are required for a specific advisory committee, certainly we can advertise mid-term for that specific advisory committee. But as indicated, we do advertise on a regular basis. The advisory committee term ending in February of this year would necessitate advertising soon, November or December to fill those spots unless there is a motion that is brought forward to do something different. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Clerk, Councilor Trossa. Last question, it’s not on the agenda, so I’m not gonna move it, but since this I think is my last meeting here this year, I’m just wondering if it would be, if we don’t get a pool, a good pool, would it be possible to just extend the terms of people through November 2026, so we don’t have a lapse in membership? We’ll go to the clerk first and from the chair, I can offer a comment on that as well, but I’ll go to Mr. Sealthus first.

Thank you, Chair. Yes, that’s certainly an option, and that’s what I was referring to. If any elected official wish to move that, it’s certainly within the Council’s prerogative to extend terms to whatever amount they deemed appropriate. So, yes, that is an option, and we’d happy to work with the Councillor.

Should that be a direction that he wishes to take? Thank you, Clerk. And as I said, I wanted to just share a comment as well. So, the terms of the advisory committees when the new terms of reference were put together were staggered to be offset with the term of council.

As colleagues recall, when we were first elected, there was a tremendous number of appointments with boards and commissions, as well as our own committee selections and those things, which is why the advisory committees were staggered to give Councillors, new Councillors in particular, an opportunity to get their feet on the ground and get through some of the first appointment phases before we moved on to the advisory committees as well. So, certainly, it would be possible to extend a term. I would just caution colleagues to think about when you would want to extend a term to, but I would also suggest that it might be best dealt with through SPPC because it would be best to be consistent with all of the advisory committees at one time, rather than do one-offs for Animal Welfare Advisory Committee here and then have potentially civic works, suggest a different term for the Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee. So, it might be a discussion, more appropriate landing at SPPC, if that’s helpful.

Yes, it is, and I agree with you. Thank you. Thank you. So, we have Councillor Truss out.

You said you had no issue with appointing. Were you moving the appointment of Mr. Higg? I’ll do that.

Okay. So, we have a motion to approve the appointment of Mr. Higgins. I’m looking for a seconder.

Councillor Ferrera, any discussion on the appointment of Mr. Higgins? Seeing none, then I will ask the clerk to open the vote on that. Losing the vote, motion carries five to zero.

Thank you, colleagues. That moves us along to our deferred matters and additional business. Looking to see if there’s anything under that category for colleagues, seeing none, I’m gonna move on then to section six. This is the confidential.

We have three items on our confidential agenda. So, I’m gonna look for a motion to move in camera for the public’s knowledge. The reasons for moving in camera is the two of these are related to land acquisition matters. And the third is a labor relations employee negotiations.

Look for a mover and a seconder. Moved by Councillor Stevenson and seconded by Councillor Ferrera. And I’ll ask the clerk to open the vote on that. Losing the vote, motion carries five to zero.

Thank you, colleagues. So, we’ll just need a moment to get the deck chair shuffled and the council chambers secured and closed. And then we can proceed with the confidential session. The clerk advises that our live stream is back up and running.

So, we are back fully in public session. And I will ask Vice Chair Trussau to report out. Thank you. At the November 13th, 2023, meeting of the Corporate Services Committee, we discussed three confidential matters, 6.1, regarding a land acquisition, 6.2.

Also regarding a land acquisition and 6.3, receiving information about labor relations in the form of an update. And progress was made on all three. Thank you for that, Vice Chair Trussau. Colleagues, we are at everybody’s favorite part of the meeting where we get to adjourn.

But just before we do that, I just wanna note that this is the final meeting of this iteration of the Corporate Services Committee. The next Corporate Services Committee will be compromised of the new chair, Councillor McAllister. So congratulations on stepping up to chair of this committee for the next year. And then, whenever Council sees fit to populate the other four seats with, we’ll take over in December for this meeting.

So, I just wanna take the opportunity to thank all of you for our year together working through these many issues, and especially to our staff who have been so helpful and patient with us through this year. We’ve certainly had some complex files that we have had to deal with this year. So, I just wanna thank, and particularly, this is the point where we normally thank Ms. Livingston for leading, but I hope she’ll forgive me if I particularly single out Ms.

Barbone as we deal with a lot of financial policies at this committee. And so, I especially wanna thank Ms. Barbone for all of her help to this committee in navigating the complex financial matters that come before us here at Corporate Services. So, thank you, Ms.

Livingston, Ms. Barbone, Mr. Parity, all of our staff for supporting us through this. And to our clerks as well, we’ve had Ms.

Westlake Power and Ms. Korman, and now we have been able to welcome our new committee clerk. So, I have Alina, good luck with the next group of this committee as it moves forward. So, I’ll look for a motion to adjourn.

Oh, Councilor Trussow. Just briefly, I wanna just second everything you said. I’m really glad I had the chance to serve on this committee during my first year of council. I think every council member should rotate through this committee.

You really do learn a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in City Hall. And we’ve had some interesting files, and I think you’ve done a wonderful job chairing, and it was a pleasure serving with all of you. And I have not asked to be on this committee again. So, I think this is probably, you never know what’s gonna happen at SPPC, but this is probably my last meeting here, and I’ll move on to some other things.

Thank you again. And now I will look for a motion to adjourn. Move by incoming Chair McAllister, and seconded by Councillor Stevenson. All those in favor?

Motion carries. Thank you colleagues, for those who are not done with committee work today, planning and environment committee, we’ll start at four p.m.