Chamber says scrap board of control

London Free Press Wed, May 14, 2008

By PATRICK MALONEY

London's board of control has lost a key supporter, with Chamber of Commerce officials joining the chorus calling for the elimination of the executive city council committee. A panel studying possible changes to London's government structure last night heard several ideas from the chamber. "It's time to move on and not have a board of control in the future," chamber general manager Gerry Macartney told the governance task force. Macartney said there's a growing feeling among investors and citizens that board of control represents just another layer of bureaucracy. In a 2003 referendum, 55 per cent of voters said it should be scrapped. But because the voter turnout was less than 50 per cent, the result wasn't binding and has been ignored. Click here to find out more! London is Canada's only city with a board of control. It's also one of just two with a deputy mayor, Macartney said, adding that position should be replaced with a rotating crew of councillors who could serve as acting mayor. The chamber's plan would cut the number of city politicians, but the 14 who would be left would get a pay hike. The salary of each councillor would jump to $45,000 from $30,859 and the number of support staff would be doubled to six. The mayor's salary also should go to $100,000 from $96,137, the chamber said. But the board of control suggestion drew the most feedback from task force members. The proposal to replace it with a finance committee that would function just like council's three existing standing committees -- environment, planning and community and protective services -- was questioned by one controller. Bud Polhill said there would be only 14 councillors in such a scenario, meaning one committee would have just three councillors on it -- a chair, vice-chair and one member. Though Coun. Roger Caranci questioned making governance changes based solely on public opinion, Controller Gina Barber said city hall has faced a "crisis of confidence" since ignoring the board of control referendum results from 2003.