Sometimes you have to do the little jobs right in order to get the big jobs. And then sometimes you don’t.
Peter Emon is off and running as a candidate for the chair of Warden of Renfrew County, a chair he’s sat in several times now, a chair where the memory foam makes it virtually impossible for anyone else to sit there comfortably.
He does this while his chair on Renfrew town council sits idle and vacant, where periodically the roller function is engaged when the cleaners pass through the chamber on their regular rounds.
Normally, I guess I’d feel proud that one of our own — well, tenuously anyway — gets selected to occupy the top spot on the top-tier of local government, that being Renfrew County Council. Never mind the fact that he’s been warden several times over the years, originally as a mayor from Greater Madawaska and now as the reeve of Renfrew.
And there’s the thing right there, that reeve of Renfrew thing.
I cannot tell you why a community like Renfrew has need of both a mayor and a reeve. Both of the current occupants of council with those titles will argue the merits of having both, mostly having to do with the onerous responsibilities involving meeting preparation and community outreach and response.
But meeting prep has always been an expectation and community outreach/communication is not something I’ve witnessed first-hand from either of these two gentlemen.
If you want to designate someone other than mayor to attend County Council, then give that responsibility to a deputy-mayor. And how do we select a deputy-mayor? Well, we don’t and we do. We don’t “appoint” one from within the ranks of any current council. We do, or can however, select one through the election process, where the top vote-getting councillor gets the nod by default, something done in other communities.
For now, the appearance is certainly there that the position of reeve in Renfrew is simply a launch-pad for anyone wanting to serve on County Council, especially someone who has eyes of the warden’s chair.
Darned shame that Renfrew council has eliminated the position of reeve from the upcoming 2026 municipal elections. Kind of throws a bit of a bat in the spokes, so to speak. It does, however, save me a few hundred words arguing for this very same elimination, so I thank the current council for that.
And it does give Mr. Emon two additional cracks at the warden position, something that involves a single-year term.
So for two years, we may face a prospect of a voting chair at town council often sitting vacant, on a council with only seven votes to begin with. Math purists will see that as fully 14% of voting potential lost or regularly unavailable. This at a moment of increased importance, especially as the current council deals with the ever-increasing scrutiny cast upon the former council, of which both the mayor and reeve were members. They’d view that as a dirty shot, but honestly, one would think one would have some sort of interest, vested or public, in being part of the process of finding out what the hell happened and coming up with ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Reeve Emon was not present this morning as council convened an 8 AM meeting as part of the process of identifying and selecting a new CAO, or chief administrative officer, for the Town of Renfrew. If the title didn’t imply it already, this is the top senior staff position in Renfrew, and arguably the most important position in the whole shebang. Mayors, councillors, and often reeves — when they’re not acclaimed — have to face an often unpredictable electorate every four years. In short, politicians come and go. CAO’s most often remain, from council to council to council as the years pass by. It is, if you will, the most senior “guiding hand” position, a Cardinal Richelieu to Louis XIII kind of thing, although that’s a bit of an embellishment, but still. So it’s a really important decision
Medical reasons were officially cited for the absence, and since I’ve had a few of those in my lifetime, I’m not going to criticize anyone on that basis ever, as personal health and the health of loved ones is paramount and never presents itself according to convenient, tidy little schedules. So I truly wish the reeve the very best for a complete and speedy resolution of those medical issues.
I guess the elimination of the reeve position makes this all moot, other than it still functioning as a gateway to County Council, where Warden Emon faces a challenger this time out in Greater Madawaska mayor Rob Weir. Regardless of the result of that contest, it brings me back to what, I guess, is my main point.
A chair in Renfrew should not sit empty while a chair in Pembroke gets filled.
And nobody can guarantee that medical issues won’t impact any other person when it comes to representation on County Council in the future. If that person becomes ill, then we’re right in the same place. But the issue remains the same if that Pembroke chair is occupied to the detriment of the chair in Renfrew.
Both chairs need an occupant. And it’s the Renfrew chair through which the power of the Pembroke chair is derived. So it could be argued, in a democratic sense, that the local position is more important, as it’s an elected responsibility bestowed by voters at large, rather than an “elected’ position by virtue of a “vote” of peers at the County Council level. Even prime ministers, the most powerful position in the land, derive their position by virtue of elections in their local ridings.
You need to dance with the ones which brung ya, or something like that.
Perhaps moving forward, some mechanism can be identified by which all voting positions on Renfrew Town Council are fully operational and in play in the face of unforeseen circumstances that prevent any of those operational votes being put out of play for any extended period, something defined by the mechanism itself. All mature organizations have this function, at least those that aren’t personal fiefdoms. Why can’t the local political sphere, arguably as important as any other, especially to local taxpayers, have the same sort of contingency available to it?
Renfrew Mayor Tom Sidney continued to support the existence of the reeve position, perhaps thinking about the additional burden it may place upon a future mayor.
From the Eganville Leader’s Bruce McIntyre:
“I believe it will limit who can run for mayor. Following up on Councillor Cybulski, if you go to a full-time mayor, I think you may have to go down to five councillors to pay for that if you take the reeve’s salary over to the mayor. My concern is the potential quality of the person running for mayor based on time and in order to pay for it, council would have to go down to four councillors and a mayor.”
Um, okay.
So you’re saying council may need to be reduced to five councillors plus a mayor, before finishing off with an assessment it may require four councillors and a mayor. You have to grip the rails of that rollercoaster firmly lest ye be ejected mid-ride.
Why?
The reeve made $27,318/year, according to 2023 town figures, admittedly not something that presents itself as an opportunity for enrichment. If you slide that to a mayor to make it somewhat more palatable for a mayor to serve as both Head of Council here and County Councillor there, then I have no problem with that, it’s the same as giving the mayor a raise to reflect the increase in responsibility. But it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum thing. We can still have five councillors, plus an additional sixth, to make up for the operational vote lost when transitioning the reeve position out of existence. How much does a councillor get remunerated for a year’s service? In 2023, it was $1,927, a paltry sum compared to the former council’s pay envelope, which was set in the mid-teens of thousands, with certain councillors inexplicably making more than others for ostensibly the same jobs, unless they were compensated additionally based upon committee work. But today’s people make a shade under two grand, which is absolutely no financial incentive to get involved, but yet, there it is. So we can’t cough up an additional $1,927.00 for a sixth councillor? My goodness, council regularly approves funds for the United Federation of Euchre and Bicycle Wheels, and other such community groups, that far exceed what a current councillor makes. You mean we can’t spend that to ensure the integrity of local governance? Hell, at that money, let’s buy a dozen.
As to the mayor musing and fretting about the “quality” of person that might end up running for mayor, that friends is a big chomp-down on the irony pie. I’d like to know who the final arbiter is when it comes to “suitability” of potential candidates, at least outside of the current requirements.
People in glass houses.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 