Ward appeal waste of money, councillor feels

Mon, January 23, 2006

By JONATHAN SHER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER



A London city councillor who challenged a 14-ward map ordered by the Ontario Municipal Board has changed his mind and today will ask city council to ditch an appeal.

Coun. Harold Usher said it makes no sense to spend money on a pricey Toronto lawyer to continue an appeal over new electoral boundaries that seem to have been widely accepted by Londoners.

"Most of the people I speak to (say) it's a done deal. The perception is everything is done and it's going to be 14 wards," Usher said late last week.

The new ward map -- 14 smaller wards of one councillor each, replacing seven existing wards with two councillors each -- will be in effect for November's civic election unless a court or the OMB strikes down the order.

The two-term councillor says he still doesn't like the way a single member of the OMB could order new wards.

Nor does he like the way the new map cuts off his own Lockwood Park neighbourhood from the rest of White Oaks, joining it up with a community with which it shares nothing, Pond Mills.

But it appears from the Ontario Municipal Act, the OMB acted within the law and it doesn't make sense to continue a costly appeal on behalf of taxpayers who've accepted the new wards, he said.

"Let's move on. Let's not spend any more money on lawyers," he said.

Usher was one of 12 council members who voted Dec. 5 to appeal the OMB order.

But he and Coun. Sandy White, who also voted for the appeal, expressed concern when two weeks later council voted to hire a lawyer from Toronto even though city lawyers said they could manage the case themselves.

Questioned last Friday, White said she wasn't sure if she'd back Usher's motion or support the appeal.

But those who support the appeal will offer new arguments today to rebut Usher.

Controller Bud Polhill says OMB member Douglas Gates lacked authority to reduce the number of councillors per ward from two to one.

That failing could leave London saddled with 28 councillors -- two each in 14 wards.

"That's got to be fixed or clarified. If we don't we're in major trouble," he said.

The city's legal team is expected to make similar arguments when asking a divisional court Feb. 13 to allow the appeal:

- While Gates wrote he wanted one-councillor wards in a decision Nov. 22, he made no mention of that in his order of Dec. 30.

- The London-Middlesex Act calls for seven wards with two councillors each.

- The Municipal Act doesn't allow the OMB to change the "composition" of council. The city will claim that means not changing the number of councillors per ward even though a second OMB case decided last year did just that.

Gates made his order after a hearing where advocates for change argued existing wards split communities such as downtown and Old East Village and stretched councillors over too wide an area.

"There is a pressing need for change . . . the existing ward structure has undermined city council's ability to connect with citizens," he wrote.

Gates criticized the city for standing pat after citizens in 2003 voted to abolish council's board of control and reduce council's size, a vote that wasn't binding because there wasn't 50-per-cent turnout.