Two councillors requested a change to the committees they represent during the City of Brantford’s regular council meeting on Tuesday, November 23.
Mayor Kevin Davis will take over for Councillor Dan McCreary as the representative on the Downtown Brantford Improvement Task Force (DBITF) while McCreary will become the representative for the Police Services Board.
The decision to appoint Mayor Davis to the DBITF was discussed as an amendment to the appointment of members to various committees, boards, advisory committees and task forces. Councillor McCreary made the amendment, which stated, “That appendix A be amended to appoint Councillor McCreary to the Brantford Police Services Board in place of Mayor Davis for a term to expire on November 15, 2022.”
Mayor Davis was the first to speak to the amendment.
“I just wanted to explain that by this amendment I’m withdrawing from the Brantford Police Services Board to be replaced by Councillor McCreary and, in turn, Councillor McCreary will be withdrawing from his role chairing the downtown improvement task force. If the task force sees fit, I will then assume the role of chairing the task force,” said Davis. “I feel strongly that I need to take this opportunity while there is still time left in this term of council to focus more of my time and efforts on improving the situation of our downtown and addressing those serious challenges is a top priority for me, personally, and of course this council. Unfortunately, to date, with the various committees I am on, I haven’t been able to make the kind of contribution that I had been making in the first year or two when I became Mayor and that has been due to other commitments and meeting schedules, one of which is the Brantford Police Services Board.”
Mayor Davis continued, “I do know that the experience and insights that I have gained by being part of the Brantford Police Services Board, and I highly value that experience in working with the service that certainly will assist me in chairing the downtown improvement task force, again if the task force sees fit to do that, as enhancing safety and security measures is one of the three primary objectives of the DBITF action plan. In the same respect, I know Councillor McCreary’s experience as chair of the DBITF will certainly provide for him an important context in his role as police services board member. I would like to thank Councillor McCreary for making this transition possible and I’m asking for your support in helping to make this possible and help me to focus in the last part of this term of council on this very important priority of the downtown.”
There was no further discussion on council voted on Councillor McCreary’s amendment, with it being carried, 8-1, Councillor Richard Carpenter opposed.
Councillor McCreary then requested to speak to the motion as amended.
“I want to thank members of council, in advance, for supporting me to go on the police services board. I’ve been off a number of years and it will be very interesting to get back and share the board duties with my ward mate, Councillor Martin. We’ve never had the opportunity before to work on the police services board together and I think we can support and encourage our police service to look after the needs of our community,” said McCreary. “There are needs in our community that I think we need to reflect better on andI think we’re going to have a community-wide discussion about police priorities here and I think that’s one thing that will come out of our activities in the next few months together.”
McCreary went on to explain some of the background regarding the decision to change roles.
“The Mayor and I did solicit input from every member of this council over the last day or so and, with the exception of one councillor who has not provided any response, everybody thought this was a favourable opportunity for the Mayor and I to readjust our responsibilities,” said McCreary. “I would also like to point out that although we took some criticism for a similar amendment a couple of weeks ago, we did follow the very same process there, and all but one or two councillors did provide their input and their advice on that. This landed on our desk tonight but I don’t see any complaint about this and that’s a positive step and I am pleased to see that we are enjoying, more or less, solidarity on this issue tonight.”
There was no further discussion so council voted on the resolution as amended, which was carried unanimously, 9-0.
