County council is thinking about going back to having an unelected reeve instead of a mayor, a recent motion suggests — a move a former mayor denounces as a "cockamamie idea."
Coun. Joe Milligan moved this week to have administration to look into the actions, timing and costs associated with switching Sturgeon County back to a government with seven elected councillors who choose a reeve from within their ranks — a switch that would happen in time for the October 2013 election. Council voted 5-2 to table the motion for 30 days and run the idea past county residents, with councillors Milligan and Ken McGillis opposed.
It's been about 10 years since the county shifted to having an elected mayor-at-large, Milligan said, and he's had several residents ask for a return to the old system. "It isn't a motion to accept [this change] or anything," he emphasized. Rather, he was making the motion now to comply with the Municipal Governance Act, which requires any changes to an electoral system to be made at least 180 days before an election.
A switch could result in smaller districts for each councillor, Milligan said in an interview, meaning better representation for each resident, and would eliminate the problem of the mayor's district having two seats on council – the mayor plus the district councillor.
It would also let council replace the reeve on an annual basis, he added.
"The mayor would probably be more responsive to council if he was elected by council."
Former mayor Helmut Hinteregger denounced the idea when he was told of it.
"Who the heck would come up with that cockamamie idea?"
Going back to the reeve system would disintegrate what little sense of co-operation was left on council, he warned, and make council less democratic.
"It's a step backwards. It takes the county back 50 years."
From reeve to reeve again?
Currently, residents vote for six councillors and one mayor during an election. Under the old reeve system, residents voted for seven or so councillors who would then, on an annual basis, pick one of their number to be reeve.
Sturgeon County abandoned the unelected reeve system in 2000 when about 3,200 residents, upset with the actions of council and its reeve, signed a petition demanding they make a change. Residents voted in favour of an elected reeve in a plebiscite held that October. The county changed the title of reeve to mayor in 2002.
The old system was too much of an old-crony network, said Hinteregger, who was on council at the time of the change. Councillors would continually re-elect someone as reeve in exchange for political favours, such as new roads, discouraging dissent and innovation.
"There were always I.O.U.s that had to be paid."
Reeves regularly served 20-plus years under the old system, Hinteregger said. You cannot have a government that is responsive to the people with such a system, he argued, and residents "cheered us on" when they got rid of it.
Lawrence Kluthe, who has served as both an elected mayor and an unelected reeve in Sturgeon County, supported a return to the old system saying that, "under the present system, it's a constant war."
Council has been plagued by 4-3 splits nowadays, he said, and a return to the old system could encourage more co-operation — under it, the mayor/reeve has to have the majority of council on his or her side in order to stay in power. A return would also eliminate the need for a costly mayoral campaign.
The reeve system has served the county well in the past, said Coun. Don McGeachy, speaking during council, but all but two of the communities in the capital region have abandoned it.
"We definitely have our issues, but I believe democracy is served well with the current system we have."
Milligan's motion returns for debate April 10.
