Toronto Council meets today! We’ve got a really Schrödinger's Mayor situation here — will John Tory stay or will he go? Will he be the mayor or an uncanny ex-mayor? Also: a budget debate! The meeting is streaming here. I’ll tweet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT2AfoqMw7A
We’ve now got a strong indication that Tory will actively participate in this debate. He’s marked the vote to lock in the tax rate as his first “key matter”, meaning it will be debated BEFORE council votes on any amendments to programs and services.
As I note every budget season, this is a @towhey strategy pioneered under Rob Ford. It frustrates people who would like to move budget amendments because they can’t, once the tax rate is locked in, increase services and fund that increase with, like, a 0.05% property tax increase https://x.com/GraphicMatt/status/963068651229212673
Mayor John Tory is in the chamber. He is not, I can report, obviously carrying a document obviously marked “RESIGNATION LETTER” in big bold letters. The wait continues.
The original mayoral budget strategy for this meeting was to identify about $6 million in unallocated funds for councillors to direct toward programs and services. That's a very small percentage of the budget. If someone gave you a slice of pie this small you'd curse their name.
Since that strategy was set, however, there's been this whole mayoral scandal and resignation. Councillors are now more likely to ignore the guardrails and push for bigger changes. I've argued it's a necessary move for a post-Tory city hall. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2023/02/13/the-big-problem-with-john-torys-budget-its-short-one-john-tory-and-15-billion.html
Nearly standing-room only in the council chamber. Extra level of interest in this meeting, both from a rubber-necking point of view with the scandal and because this is a really important budget with major implications re: transit service, shelters, policing.
Delay as someone here to watch this meeting says they requested an ergonomic chair yesterday but it wasn’t provided. Nunziata directs security to remove the person. Councillors and members of the public say they should just offer a chair. Eventually, they get the chair.
… But disruptions continue, as person argues there’s a charter right to disrupt meetings. Nunziata calls a five-minute recess. They’re making everybody leave.
Council’s five-minute recess lasted for approximately 50 minutes. Blame inflation, I guess. The chamber is filling up again now. At some point, we’ll have a budget debate, I am pretty sure.
Meanwhile, the premier is weighing in. It’s been 12 years since Toronto had a left-wing mayor and the city has a $1.5 billion budget hole so I’m not sure what the fear is, really. The last left-wing mayor left office with a budget surplus. https://x.com/l_stone/status/1625879881543196672
Before proceedings begin, Nunziata threatens that any future disruptions will lead to her vacating the chamber and barring the public from attending this meeting.
On a point of order, Councillor Josh Matlow — who I saw helping the person who was denied the ergonomic chair she requested — rises on a point of order to say council should be better at making accomodations for accessibility.
As soon as John Tory starts speaking, chants ring out from the gallery. Nunziata calls another recess, vacating the chamber. Not clear if the public will be allowed back in.
For the record, the loudest chant is “Help the homeless / feed the poor / kick John Tory out the door”
Police now carrying people out of city hall by force.
Take three. Back in the council chamber. I believe just staff and media have been let in. Still-mayor John Tory is now paying tribute to Toronto’s Chief Engineer Michael D'Andrea, who is retiring after a 35-year career.
(Tory says he consulted with D’Andrea before doing this ceremony, given all the scandal stuff, and D’Andrea still wanted Tory to give him a retirement speech.)
As Tory speaks, some chants of “LET ME IN” and “JOHN TORY RESIGN” are heard from the entryway to the chamber. The sergeant-at-arms speedwalks in that general direction.
Standing ovation for D’Andrea from council and staff in attendance. Tory jokes that D’Andrea’s wife is here to make sure he actually goes through with the retirement and doesn’t decide to stick around for a few more years. Ahem.
Councillor Lily Cheng announces some birthdays: Nunziata celebrated Sunday, Pasternak celebrates today. They sing “happy birthday to you” which I believe might risk a YouTube copyright strike.
A new document attached to the budget could hint at the debate to come. Deputy Mayor McKelvie has submitted a briefing note from staff arguing that cancelling the Gardiner East rebuild project would mean “Around $340 million in throw-away costs.” https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2023/mpb/comm/communicationfile-165804.pdf (PDF)
Mayor John Tory declares his now-standard list of budgetary conflicts of interest. He can’t vote on any budgets related to telecommunication services because he’s still involved with Rogers.
Councillor Gord Perks rises on a point of order, requesting Tory allow council to debate the property tax rates AND the budget at the same time, as was the case in the pre-Rob Ford era. Tory says nope. Council will vote on the tax rates first.
Nunziata lays out the rules: Councillors can move amendments, but will needs to identify an offset for any spending increase. Councill will vote on amendments, but will note vote to adopt the budget as a whole — the mayor’s budget will pass automatically under the new process.
Another person in the gallery gets forcibly removed after calling councillors “corporate whores” and making some other comments re: Tory and smoking crack. Nunziata says to hell with it and decides to just break for lunch. Very productive morning. Back at 2 p.m.
Toronto council is back from lunch. Budget Chief Gary Crawford is asking the CFO about the $6 million found in the budget that is to be directed to programs and services by council. CFO says the $6 million comes in part from reducing planned expenses on consulting fees
Nunziata points out Crawford’s questions are out of order, because they’re about the expense side, and council is currently only debating the tax rate. Which demonstrates why this process of dealing with the tax rate and program spending separately makes for a challenging format
The mayor’s budget relies on a residential property tax increase of 5.5%, or about $183 annually for the average household. There’s also a 1.5% City Building Fund levy, which will cost about 50 bucks. Multi-residential and commercial properties see smaller increases.
Hasn't gotten much attention, but this proposed budget also bakes in a 2 point increase to the Municipal Accommodation Tax charged to hotels and short-term rentals like those booked via Airbnb.
Councillor Michael Thompson asks the City Manager: "Is the City of Toronto broke?" City Manager Paul Johnson says no, reiterating his point that the 2023 budget is balanced, which is technically true but with a big old asterisk.
Some interesting pie charts in an attachment to the report to council on the 2023 tax rates, showing the share of the capital budget funded by federal and provincial governments. Again: small slices.
Councillor Ausma Malik asks the CFO what's being sacrificed to make the 2023 budget balanced. CFO says a "significant portion" of the money that will be used to balance (if province and feds don't offer more bailouts) would have been invested in capital projects.
If bailout funding doesn't materialize this year, the city won't have a reserve fund to fall back on next year. "So we'll have to have a discussion about which programs in future years will continue," says CFO Heather Taylor.
On questioning from Councillor Perks, the CFO explains this budget includes about $1.1 billion in unconfirmed revenue in the form of provincial and federal bailouts, and also a provision to use the stabilization reserve fund to replace those revenues if no bailouts materialize.
Councillor Stephen Holyday asks the CFO about the City Building Fund. In another under-the-radar change with this budget, the city is extending the levy at 1.5% a year through 2035 — a 10-year extension.
Councillor Stephen Holyday: "Could we build less housing? Could we take a little longer to build the transit?" CFO confirms that's theoretically possible and would reduce the spending required, but may not be the wisest idea.
Before he speaks, Councillor Josh Matlow asks City Solicitor Wendy Walberg about the budget process. If no amendments pass today, budget will be automatically passed. If amendment passes, mayor gets 10 days to consider veto. If veto, council has 15 days to overrule with 2/3rds.
Councillor Josh Matlow moves to increase the RentSafeTO registration fee for apartment buildings by $3.44 per unit. He says the increase will allow staff to speed up inspections and investigations.
“David Miller was a strong mayor because of what he did, rather than the name of the legislation. That’s the kind of leadership that I believe we want,” says Matlow. He says Miller was last mayor to lead a real convo about revenues and left Toronto with a funded transit plan.
Matlow calls Gardiner a “budget sucker” that “goes against what cities around the world are doing.” He adds this budget doesn’t do “bare minimum” to keep people warm and safe. He is praising councillors like Morley, Myers, Moise for their work. Sounds a bit like a campaign speech
Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to change future capital plans so state-of-good-repair and maintenance get more priority versus new facilities and infrastructure.
Councillor Holyday also moves to pause the collection of the City Building Levy this year, saying the city could “throttle back a little bit on the construction of housing” to give taxpayers a break.
Councillor Gord Perks, on a point of order, wants Nunziata to rule on whether Holyday’s motion about state-of-good-repair versus new infrastructure is in order, given it’s about long-term financial planning. Nunziata says she may rule it out of order. She’s now pondering.
Pondering complete. And there’s a twist! Nunziata says the Holyday motion regarding pausing the city building levy is out of order, because if it passes council will need to find offsets for capital projects currently expected to be funded by the city building levy.
Holyday challenges Nunizata’s ruling, which prompts a recorded vote on whether she should be upheld. Motion to UPHOLD the ruling CARRIES 25-1. One remains the loneliest number.
Councillor Vince Crisanti moves to increase the eligible household income threshold for seniors to receive the property tax increase cancellation tax break, from $45K to $55K. He also wants to increase the threshold for eligibility for seniors to get a break on utility bills.
Crisanti, who I have learned is the official seniors’ advocate on council, says this move could reduce the number of seniors living in poverty. He wants to help seniors continue to age in place.
Councillors are asking Crisanti how much increasing the eligibility for the senior tax break will come from. Crisanti says it’ll be just under $1 million. Holyday asks him where the city will find that money. Crisanti says a motion on that will be forthcoming.
Holyday wants Crisanti’s motion ruled out of order, because his earlier motion was ruled out of order. Nunziata says Crisanti’s motion is in order because Crisanti has said he’s got an offset coming in a future motion. Holyday finds all this kind of baffling. But we move on.
Councillor Paula Fletcher moves to increase the rates for residential permit parking by $2. She wants to direct the increased revenue to pay for more EV chargers.
Good reminder here about how cheap these parking permits are. For residents without a parking spot and one car, a monthly on-street permit works out to less than a dollar a day.
Councillor Gord Perks moves a motion he promises is “just a minor procedural thing.” He wants future reports on budget variances to include the status of requests for bailouts from other governments, plus info on contributions/draws from reserve funds.
Councillor Stephen Holyday, still frustrated that his motion to pause the collection of the city building levy was ruled out of order, now wants to know if he can get a separate vote on the part of this report that specifies the city building levy increase. Nunziata says okay.
Holyday also wants separate votes on the increase to the hotel/airbnb tax, and the part of the report setting the various property tax rates for 2023. Requests are granted. So we’ll be getting a flurry of votes soon.
Councillor Anthony Perruzza, at length, makes the reasonable point that if city hall was allowed to keep the approx $2 billion a year in property taxes paid for provincial education expenses, Toronto’s fiscal woes would basically be solved.
Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie has a motion for a review of “State of Good Repair challenges.” She introduces it as an alternative to Holyday’s motion, saying she thinks a review is needed before changing any spending ratios.
Time to vote. Councillor Matlow’s motion to increase the registration fee for landlords by $3.44 a unit to better fund the RentSafeTO program CARRIES 25-1.
Councillor Paula Fletchers’ motion to increase permit parking fees by two bucks to fund EV chargers CARRIES 25-1.
Councillor Holyday’s motion to change the ratio in the capital budget to better prioritize state-of-good-repair over new infrastructure FAILS 3-23.
Councillor Crisanti’s motion to increase the income eligibility threshold to $55,000 for senior households to participate in the tax increase cancellation program CARRIES 24-2.
Councillor Perks’ motion for future budget variance reports to include the status of requests for provincial/federal funds and also info on reserve fund use CARRIES via show of hands.
Deputy Mayor McKelvie’s motion for a review of State of Good Repair challenges CARRIES via show of hands.
Budget recommendation to set Toronto’s 2023 property tax rates at the recommended amounts CARRIES 24-2.
Budget recommendation to set tax rates for the 2023 City Building Levy at the recommended amounts across the various property classes CARRIES 23-3.
Budget recommendation to extend the collection of the City Building Levy through 2035 at 1.5% per year CARRIES 22-4.
Budget recommendation to increase the hotel/Airbnb tax from 4% to 6% effective May 1, 2023 CARRIES 25-1.
And that’s all. Property tax rates for 2023 are official. Residential households will pay a combined 7% increase — 5.5% for the budget and 1.5% for the City Building Levy.
Council moves on from the tax rate to the stuff the taxes will pay for: programs and services. Budget Chief Gary Crawford asks CFO if it’s possible to find additional funds, on top of the $6 million identified in mayor’s budget. Taylor says there’s risk in assuming more savings.
Again, the play here is to treat this $6 million in unallocated funds as something like a rodeo clown, drawing the attention of councillors and distracting them from other budget areas.
Councillor Josh Matlow asks Transportation GM Barbara Gray about the new briefing note about the Gardiner East. How long did it take her to respond to Deputy Mayor McKelvie’s questions? Gray says they got the questions on Monday, and it took a couple of days to put together.
Matlow asks the CFO if she is optimistic about getting provincial/federal funds. She says she’s “very optimistic” about getting funds for the 2022 budget gap. The 2023 budget gap will hinge on the provincial/federal budgets — sounds somewhat less optimistic.
On questioning from Councillor Perks, City Manager Paul Johnson says the police budget can only accommodate the $1.7 million monthly cost of policing the TTC with overtime shifts through end of winter. If patrols are continued, the city will need to find another funding source.
Councillor Jamaal Myers brings up this CBC scoop about the cops spending $337K to produce a podcast. Police rep notes that figure covers four years of podcasts, and that the police think it’s important to “reach new audiences through different mediums.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/tps-podcast-costs-revealed-1.6746905
Myers asks the police if any of their $48 million budget increase will go to making more podcasts. Police rep says no.
Rapid fire, Councillor Brad Bradford asks for some police numbers. There were 5,300 cops in 2003, which grew to 5,650 in 2009. There are about 5,000 today. Police budget increased by about 4.9% annually during 2003-2009. Has grown at less than 2% a year between 2015 and 2022.
Nunziata lays out the plan: Council will break for 30 minutes at 6ish, then come back at 6:30 to continue their budget debate. Remember the iron law of Toronto City Council: as the hour gets later, the potential for hijinks increases.
Councillors are returning to the chamber for some Night Council. The Clerk has started a fresh live stream. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9v70Ee29-c
Councillor Carroll’s budget motion has been advanced circulated. It directs a total of $7 million to a variety of programs, including community investment grants, SafeTO anti-violence programs, one 24/7 warming centre, the Rent Bank program and… councillor office budgets.
Nunziata moves to extend this meeting until 8 p.m., at which time they’ll consider whether to go even later if necessary. Motion carries via show of hands.
Still-mayor John Tory is the first speaker on the budget. He says after a few minor budget amendments to come, this budget will be “the best budget for these times.”
Tory: “The budget protects front-line services. It keeps increases borne by taxpayers as low as possible — I think in all cases below the rate of inflation. And it makes it clear that if we want to make ourselves sustainable, the other governments have to come to the table.”
Tory says this budget balances “affordability” with the “need to protect front-line services.” He says that’s a tricky but important balance, and he thinks this plan achieves it.
Tory says staff have now found about $8 million in money that can be allocated, up from the $6 million he talked about when he proposed the budget on Feb 1. That’s the offset for the spending increases in Carroll’s budget amendment motion, which the mayor supports.
Tory ends by paying tribute to Councillor Gary Crawford, who has now presided over nine budgets. He also thanks McKelvie and Carroll and other members of council. “These are very very challenging times for the budget and for the city,” and he’s glad council could work together.
Tory says the city obviously needs a fiscal framework with Queen’s Park and Ottawa. He says that’s something that will need to be worked on in the future. He doesn’t say who, specifically, will be working on it.
Interesting that Councillor Shelley Carroll is the one moving this omnibus budget amendment, with Tory’s support. She wasn’t always an ally with the mayor — voting with him about 44% of the time in the 2014-2018 term, then 71% of the time last term. Now on Tory’s executive.
“No budget is perfect. And this one isn’t perfect,” says Councillor Chris Moise, but notes all seven newbie councillors worked with Councillor Shelley Carroll to put this omnibus motion together and he’s happy with the result. He highlights the increase of $100K toward the 519.
Councillor Dianne Saxe also acknowledges there’s problems with the budget — pointing to the giant hole in it — but highlights this part of the omnibus amendment that gives $500K to the Home Energy Loan Program as a good change.
Councillor Jon Burnside has a motion to fund a splash pad and playground in his ward with Section 37 funds.
Councillor Alejandra Bravo moves to redirect $900K from the police budget to instead provide indoor respite spaces for the homeless.
“This is such a small amount of money but it can make such a massive difference,” says Bravo. She says community partners including the Toronto Drop-in Network are ready to work to provide these spaces.
Carroll asks if Bravo is confident these 24/7 respite spaces can be set up, given councillors have been told setting up one 24/7 warming centre is a stretch. Bravo says the Drop-In Network, The Neighbourhood Group, and Toronto Neighbourhood Centres have said they’re ready to help
Burnside asks if Bravo spoke to the police about how taking $900K from their budget will affect response times. Bravo:“There seems to be some room for some small sacrifice, for example around corporate communications — we’re talking about the podcast, there’s also Tik Tok…”
“Does your motion propose to defund the police?” Councillor Brad Bradford asks Bravo. Bravo rereads her motion. “So can you clarify that your intention here is to defund the police?” asks Bradford. Bravo again points to the text of her motion, about redirecting $900K.
Councillor Cheng asks if Bravo considered other sources for this $900K, other than the police. Bravo says she focused on the cops given the size of their increase. Cheng asks if she considered taking funds from the washroom winterization fund. Bravo says that’s a capital project.
Councillor Michael Thompson moves to complete this budget debate tonight. That CARRIES. Strap in. We’re going long.
On questioning from Councillor Josh Matlow, Bravo confirms that the intent of her motion is to continue to provide 24/7 spaces after April 15. The warming centre funding in the omnibus motion will end on April 15.
Budget Chief Gary Crawford says every $1 million in the police budget is the equivalent of 15 police officers. Bravo says they’ve heard today there are other places in the police budget they can cut. “$900,000 is just a little over two podcasts.”
Crawford says council can’t direct the police, so Bravo can’t be sure the police won’t respond to this cut by cutting front-line officers. Bravo says she doesn’t believe the police will retain a communications tool while cutting officers. “I don’t believe they’ll do that.”
Crawford asks if Bravo would support cutting councillor office budgets to find this $900K. Bravo says she’d probably first want to look at the mayor’s office budget, which is going up 37% this year, but her motion asks for it to come from the police.
Councillor Matlow moves to reallocate $600K from the capital budget to review the Gardiner East EA and look at the implications of removing the elevated portion.
Matlow also has four other motions: - $500K for Indigenous Funding Framework and Black Mandated Funded Framework - $846K for 8 FTEs for RentSafeTO - $200K for the Housing Secretariat for Renoviction Assistance. - Section 45 funds for a playground.
Deputy Mayor McKelvie asks if Matlow’s Gardiner motion is to throw away $500 million in construction costs and “waste time” on a review, and also create a “danger to the public” by delaying repairs to the Gardiner. Matlow says no, but can’t really get a word in edge-wise.
Councillor Saxe and Councillor Bradford raising concerns about this Matlow motion, which redirects funds for “international trade activities.” They’re concerned that Matlow hasn’t talked to Economic Development staff about the impact on cutting this funding.
Matlow argues that in a constrained budget situation, councillors need to make choices, and he thinks opportunities for Black and Indigenous people are more important than international travel.
Councillor James Pasternak reads a list of Toronto’s placement on various “best of” lists, concluding by noting that Toronto ranked 17th on a best-cities-in-the-world list. Hooray. We’re number 17.
Councillor Paula Fletcher moves to direct the funds from the permit-fee increases she passed earlier to the installation of EV charging stations.
Councillor Ausma Malik moves to spend $200K in Section 37 funds for streetscaping on University Avenue.
Councillor Mike Colle: “Let’s take care of basics! And this budget at least tries to do that! Is it perfect? No. But you show me a perfect budget! Bring it forward!” Okay then.
Councillor Perks takes aim at this new budget process, where more than 99% of the budget is decided of the mayor and council gets the table scraps is less than ideal. Perks also points out it’s ridiculous to suggest taking $900K from the police budget increase is “defunding.”
Councillor Stephen Holyday has a motion to spend $1.6 million to restore mechanical leaf collection service, funded by a reduction in the budget for Transportation Safety. Real motion. I’m not making this up. This isn’t a bit.
Holyday also moves to spend $500K on the street tree maintenance program, funded by reducing funding for planting new trees.
Holyday’s final motion is to reallocate $5.5 million in funds related to the project to rename Dundas Street to the reserve fund, effectively killing the renaming effort.
Mayor John Tory rises on a point of order to say the Dundas Street renaming money in Holyday’s motion is not actually in the budget, so it can’t be reallocated. Holyday says he disagrees, and offers to bring his computer over to Nunziata and show her the money.
Nunziata says staff tell her there’s only $131,000 in Dundas Street renaming-related costs in this budget, which is significantly less than the $5.5 million in his motion. Nunziata indicates she’s going to rule this motion out of order.
Councillor Brad Bradford says the city has real challenges with safety, pointing to crime stats. He points to a reduction of officers since the David Miller era. “Front-line officers and first responders are down, and crime is up — that is just true.”
Coouncillor Nunziata dismisses the budget deputations, saying people in communities really affected by crime in their communities didn’t attend the budget meeting. “Just people who don’t support the police came to the budget committee, unfortunately, and made deputations.”
Deputy Mayor McKelvie says she won’t support Bravo’s motion to redirect $900K from police budget to community-run respite centres. McKelvie also won’t support Matlow’s motion to “defund the Gardiner.”
Crawford thanks Tory for his “continued and unwavering leadership throughout this entire process.” Unless I’ve missed something, I don’t believe any councillor has even hinted at or made an oblique reference to Tory’s resignation announcement last week and the overall situation.
And that’s it for speakers on the budget. Council will take a ten-minute break to get the motions in order and then come back for a bunch of votes. The end is nigh.
Councillor Stephen Holyday has revised his motion to reallocate funds for the Dundas Street renaming. It now redirects $130K for 2023, and $830K for 2024-2032. He had previously pegged the cost at $5.5 million. Off by just a bit.
Councillor Paula Fletcher rises to thank the sergeant-at-arms and the security team for handling a “very difficult situation” earlier. Councillors give the sergeant a standing ovation.
Councillor Carroll’s omnibus motion directing $7 million to various programs and services, including community grants, a 24/7 warming centre, the Rent Bank, TTC mental health outreach, and councillor office budget increases CARRIES 25-1.
Councillor Bravo’s motion to redirect $900K from the police budget toward 24/7 respite centres operated in partnership with community agencies FAILS 8-17.
Councillor Matlow’s motion to increase the budget for the RentSafeTO program by $846K to hire 8 new FTEs CARRIES 25-1.
Matlow’s motion to redirect $200K from capital-from-current funding to establish a Renoviction assistance program FAILS 7-19.
Matlow’s motion to reallocate $600K from the Transportation Services capital budget to get a review of the Gardiner East EA and consider the implications of reverting to the cheaper Boulevard option FAILS 4-22.
Matlow’s motion to direct $500K from the “international trade activities” budget to Indigenous and Black funding framework programs FAILS 7-19.
Councillor Paula Fletcher’s motion to direct $1.39 million from increased permit parking fees toward paying for new EV charging stations CARRIES 25-1.
Councillor Stephen Holyday’s motion to redirect $1.6 million from the Transportation Safety & Operations budget toward restoring mechanical leaf collection in a few parts of the city FAILS 5-21.
Holyday’s motion to redirect $130K in budgeted Dundas Street renaming costs for 2023 (and $830K for 2024-2032) in order to stop the renaming process FAILS 5-21.
Holyday’s motion to direct $500K from the budget for planting new trees to the budget for maintaining existing trees FAILS 2-24.
Nunziata apparently voted the wrong way accidentally on the leaf collection vote. They’re redoing it.
On the re-vote, Holyday’s motion to redirect $1.6 million from the Transportation Safety & Operations budget to restore mechanical leaf collection service in a few parts of the city FAILS 8-18.
Another incorrect vote, apparently. It’s late. The motion on Dundas renaming has been re-opened. They’re doing the vote again.
The second time around, Holyday’s motion to redirect budgeted funds related to the Dundas Street renaming effort, effectively killing the project, FAILS 6-20.
The $143 million in the budget related to telecom services, along with other spending areas for which still-mayor John Tory has a conflict of interest due to his Rogers connections, CARRIES 24-1.
Mayor John Tory gives notice that he will NOT be vetoing any part of this budget. So it will be approved and officially adopted imminently.
And that’s it. After a day that started with chaos, a pretty low-key budget meeting, really, with the mayor’s strategy of directing council to focus on a few million dollars available for allocation proving pretty darn successful at limiting the drama.
Council’s next meeting is March 29 — a long way from now. Assuming: a) Tory actually resigns; and b) a special meeting isn’t called before then, I believe that would be the day council declares the seat vacant and kickstarts the by-election process.
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