Motion to cut bag tag cost disallowed by Oxford Warden

By Lee Griffi

In what could be described as somewhat of a procedural mess, a notice of motion read at last week’s Oxford County council meeting that could have reduced bag-tag costs was ruled out of order.

Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione attempted to introduce the motion, which, if allowed, would have been debated at next week’s meeting. If passed, it would have resulted in the cost of a bag of garbage at the curb dropping to $1 in 2027, down from the current $3.

Warden Marcus Ryan ruled the motion a request for reconsideration, which could only be introduced by a councillor who had voted in favour of increasing the fee from last year’s $2 rate. Acchione, along with councillors Deb Tait (Woodstock) and Deb Gilvesy (Tillsonburg) voted against it.

The issue of illegal dumping in Woodstock has worsened this year, something Acchione said is a direct result of the higher price of taking garbage to the curb. He explained his motion was not one of reconsideration, nor was it meant to be.

“County council regularly approves increases in fees and never once has this approval required a reconsideration of the motion to approve the previous fee. There should not be a different set of rules for when a motion comes forward to decrease fees.”    

Acchione and Tait challenged the warden's ruling, which put the question to council as a whole for a vote without any discussion.

“Unfortunately, our procedural rules prevent discussion or debate on the question. In a recorded vote, council supported the warden’s ruling with Coun. Gilvesy, Coun. Tait voting against. In my opinion, we witnessed a failure of governance and democracy at county council,” Acchione said.      

Acchione said he is working with county staff to produce different wording that would be accepted at the next meeting on Feb. 25.

“The mayor and I both said we would not give up helping residents with this high cost and the high level of dumping of garbage,” added Tait.

Ryan said he stands by his decision 100 per cent. He added the motion came late to the clerk, and he alerted Acchione he would be ruling it out of order because it was a reconsideration.

“At a certain point, you have to say we have planned and we have to move on. As an example, you think we should buy and plant purple flowers; I think we should buy and plant yellow flowers. We debate, a motion wins and we plant purple flowers,” Ryan said.

He said at the next meeting, he isn’t allowed to come back and debate the motion again. Once Ryan made his ruling, several minutes of confusion followed over the process that seemed to confuse many elected officials and staff members around the horseshoe at the Oxford County administrative building.

“People did not know what they were doing and I think that is not okay. As the warden, I would apologize to residents that council should have known what it was doing. This is our procedural bylaw, not one we inherited from previous councils. This council adopted almost an entirely new one.”

Ryan said his decision had nothing to do with the potential of a garbage tag dropping from $3 down to $1.

“I am still one member of council, and I still want certain issues to turn out in certain ways, but at the same time, I have to ensure there is fairness and equitable access for every member of council to bring forward concerns from their residents.”

He added there are mechanisms in place to ensure the county doesn’t have a rogue or power-hungry head of council who does their own thing outside of the rules.

“To be clear, there are several mechanisms for (Acchione and Tait) available to bring this forward. The way it was done was not the most efficient way to bring the motion forward,” Ryan said. “There were other ways available then and other ways now to advance this.”

East Zorra-Tavistock Mayor Phil Schaefer, who voted in favour of the garbage-tag hike for this year, said the warden’s ruling was correct and added illegal dumping isn’t an issue in the township.

“We had a problem with illegal dumping a couple of years ago. … At that time, we increased the fines for dumping to $1,000. The OPP levied that fine against someone last year, and since then, the instances of illegal dumping have dropped substantially,” Schaefer said.

He added he does feel for the City of Woodstock as it grapples with an increasingly problematic illegal dumping issue.

“I hope their staff report will come up with some solutions and ideas.”

Schaefer was asked if he would support a decrease in the cost of a bag tag next year, should some type of motion be introduced at some point. He did not provide an answer.