City Council Passes Surprise Downsizing of Municipal Heritage Committee – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

October 28, 2023
Hamilton City Council made a surprise decision last week to cut the size of Hamilton’s Municipal Heritage Committee from eleven citizens to seven.
The motion to cut the committee size was passed at the Selection Committee meeting on Tuesday without public notice.
The agenda for the Selection Committee meeting stated the meeting would be in closed session to conduct interviews for citizen appointments. The agenda stated no decisions would be made.
Shortly after 5:45 p.m., the decision to cut the committee size was unanimously passed.
The City Clerk has not released which councillors were present for the vote.
[The City of Hamilton argues the Ontario Municipal Act only requires municipalities to share the outcomes of votes, not who was present or how those present voted. Ontario’s 443 other municipalities state who voted and how for all public meetings.]
The next day, at the Council ratification meeting, the Selection Committee’s vote was ratified as an urgent no-notice item.
Council approved the new 2023-2026 members for the Municipal Heritage Committee, choosing not to renew some members who reapplied.
Returning citizen members are Chair Alissa Denham-Robinson, Vice-Chair Graham Carroll, Karen Burke, and Lyn Lunsted. New citizen members are Andrew Douglas, Andy MacLaren, and Stefan Spolnik.