Heritage representation on study committee reduced to one

By Mike Williscraft

NewsNow

Grimsby’s fight regarding its Main Street East heritage study went to another level week when council removed a nominee to the Town’s Heritage Conservation District Study’s stakeholder group.

At its meeting of Jan. 17, Heritage Advisory Committee nominated Pamela Evans and Olia Jurychuk to sit in on the group’s meetings.

However it was clear from the start of discussions that Jurychuk would not make the cut with Coun. Kevin Ritchie going so far as to suggest that the votes of council liaisons on GHAC should not count – a result of which would mean the tie vote among committee members would mean a majority of the committee did not approve of the recommendation.

“I’d like to use Coun. Bothwell’s own words of respecting the committee, so when you looked at the committee members and how they voted, they actually voted in favour of this. The votes that made this a tie were Mayor Jordan and Coun. Bothwell….Coun. Dunstall voted for it. If you take those votes out this actually

passes 4-3.

“So I’d like to propose that we put this motion back in and have our council vote on it and change this decision and respect the committee’s actual decision.”

Coun. Dorothy Bothwell, who chairs GHAC, said the committee was looking to create balance by putting Evans and Jurychuk forward.

Evans, Bothwell said, had been “a vocal opponent to the Main Street East heritage study. Her position was made very clear against it.”

“It’s important we have a balanced approach to that. Olia brings that as well, also living in a heritage home on Main Street. I think it would be detrimental to have a member on the stakeholder  committee that is in direct opposition to the work that’s being performed.”

Coun. Reg Freake questioned Ritchie’s motives, adding, “Why eliminate either, no reasoning I am aware of.”

“Olia has got superb experience, been around a long time on this committee and proven her worth, takes her time out to do this, doesn’t get paid for it and I think we should allow her to be a representative.”

Coun. Randy Vaine suggested some members of council were overstepping.

“This is not a personal thing…You can’t pick and choose people who support our view,” said Vaine.

“Pamela has quite the resume on heritage…Some of us are trying to pick and choose.”

Mayor Jeff Jordan, also a member of GHAC, clarified that the committee was doing just that when it chose the two candidates.

“We did pick two members,” said Jordan.

“Now we (council) are picking and choosing to eliminate one of those members and pick the other one.”

Vaine reiterated a point he has made many times before, simply, opinions of advisory committees mean little.

“This is an advisory committee. We are the council elected by all the people. Thousands of people voted for us to represent their views. These people are the committee, an advisory committee,” said Vaine.

While Vaine said the view to cut Jurychuk was not personal, both Dunstall and Ritchie suggested it was.

After Dunstall clarified who the staff person assigned to the working was, he suggested the matter may require closed session discussion.

“We’re walking a pretty thin line. If there is any further discussion, we had better go into closed session,” said Dunstall, referring to a lengthy debate regarding implementation of working groups for GHAC instead of regular monthly meetings.

Ritchie agreed.

“I, too, watched the five hour long heritage meeting and it was not very nice to watch,” said Ritchie, adding his amendment to remove Jurychuk was “the right thing to do.”

Ritchie then encouraged the rest of council and the public to watch that meeting.

Coun. Lianne Vardy said making Evans the sole representative on the Main East committee made no sense.

“Why would any of you think it’s prudent to have the only representative from the heritage committee to a heritage study be the person who was against the heritage study in the first place?” asked Vardy.

“This does not make any sense whatsoever. I don’t believe my colleagues are being transparent here and I don’t believe that this motion is doing what’s in the best interests of the community.”

Coun. Dave Kadwell suggested Bothwell was opposed to Evans appointment because the study she opposed was one Bothwell has put forward.

“I take exception to that attack,” said Bothwell, with Vardy jumping in with a point of Order on Kadwell’s line of questioning.

Jordan agreed with Bothwell that Kadwell’s question was not relevant to the debate at hand and moved on.

With cross-talk and accusations continuing, Vaine offered to clear things up.

“There are a lot of personal attacks back and forth here and I see you’ve jumped on Coun. Kadwell and let Coun. Vardy get away with quite a bit. I would ask that you caution Coun. Vardy as well. These attacks have got to stop,” said Vaine.

“I’m willing to take over the meeting  and chair it. I mean, they’ve got to stop.”

Among the issues Vaine claimed  were causing issues, naming of councillors in comments and comments about “the Five” were out of line, he said, adding there are four members of council who vote together 95 per cent of the time, while “the five” vote together 65 per cent of the time.

Ritchie questioned how Bothwell would know Evans was against the study in the first place.

“The information I am getting is not that (Evans was) against the study in any which way. They were against the lack of transparency in the previous heritage cultural district that was brought forward by Coun. Bothwell.”

Bothwell told Ritchie and other councillors with concerns to go back to the public record and Evans’ prior delegation presentation which noted issues with “a study” or “a district”, not transparency.

“Her vocal opposition to it was strong.  It does not preclude her from being a participant on this working group and the committee, not me, recommended both Pamela and Olia to be  representatives on the stakeholders committee.

Council voted 5-4 to remove Jurychuk as a nominee making Evans the sole GHAC representative on Main East study committee.

Ritchie, Vaine, Kadwell, Dunstall and Coun. Dave Sharpe voted to remove Jurychuk. Councillors Bothwell, Vardy and Freake and Mayor Jordan opposed.