A Time For Niagara, Ontario Regional Councillors To Put Down Their Swords And Say Goodbye

 By Doug Draper

None of the usual debates between rivals surfaced at Niagara regional council this November 4. More than a week after municipal elections that will see a change in the number of faces in the council chamber, it was an evening for recognizing those who are leaving – some of them after more than three decades of service to the region.

Veteran Port Colborne regonal councillor Bob Saracino offers farewell words. Photo by Doug Draper

There was Bob Saracino, who was defeated in the October 25 municipal elections after serving 38 years on regional council as a representative for the City of Port Colborne, Ontario, including 18 years as that city’s mayor.

“It has been quite a ride,” Saracino told his council colleagues as he prepared to leave the chamber for the last time as a regional representative whose ride began two years after regional government was created in Niagara in 1970.

Saracino, who spent a good deal of his time during the past number of months trying to encourage his fellow councillors to support a provincial investigation into the way the Niagara Health System is managing hospital services in the region (something a majority of regional councillors decided note to support), said he feels “humbled” if he “played any small role” in making life better for people in a Niagara he called “the greatest region in this country.”

There was Bill Smeaton, a dean of regional politics whose history with the council goes back 33 years and who decided not to run for another term although there was no reason to believe he would not be re-elected in his home municipality of Niagara Falls. Smeaton, who also served two terms during that period as Niagara Falls’ mayor, went on to play key roles on regional committees, chaired the region’s planning committee at a time, during the past decade, of fundamental shifts to planning policies promoting more growth aimed at rejuvenating urban centres and less of the kind that sprawled into  Niagara’s country sides.

During his final words at the November 4 meeting, Smeaton said Niagara seems on the cusp of more change when it comes to bringing services and the existing municipalities closer together. He said he gets the impression from what he hears from people across the region that “the public is ready for a more welding together of north, south, east and west, and I don’t think anyone can stop it.”

Outgoing regional council veteran Bill Smeaton. Photo couresty of Niagara Region.

There were also those who barely had the chance to get their feet wet in regional politics.

 There was Carlos Garcia, a St. Catharines resident and an activist for heritage issues who was among those who led an ultimately unsuccessful battle to keep a high-rise condo tower from being approved in the designated heritage district of Port Dalhousie. Garcia only got to serve on the council for about 13 months following the untimely death last year of St. Catharines regional councillor Mike Collins.

Garcia brought a thoughtful, progressive voice to the council – one a citizen could almost certainly count on to embrace a good plan for expanding transit in Niagara, and protecting our natural and human-built heritage, while at the same time keeping the cost for ordinary citizens in mind. It was one of those softer, less brash voices that, unfortunately, may have left him short of winning a seat on the incoming regional council.There was also Norm Puttick, a combination of Archie Bunker and some errant student who a teacher might say; ‘Oh no. I got him in my classroom. Like Saracino, Puttick has served 38 years in municipal politics altogether, most of them on the council in his home municipality of Niagara Falls. He won a seat on regional council four years ago and quickly earned a reputation as a free spirit (some called him a loose canon) for often questioning the status quo.

Puttick, who lost a bid to sit on the regional council for a second term, served as an old-style populist who, regardless of how much he may have gotten under the skin of some of his council colleagues, always gave the impression that he had the best interests of ordinary citizens at heart.

 Also leaving the regional council are – Shirley Cordiner, a councillor for Fort Erie, Damian Goulbourne, the outgoing mayor for Welland, Ted Salci, the outgoing mayor for Niagara Falls, Barbara Henderson, the outgoing mayor for Wainfleet. Katie Trombetta, the outgoing mayor for West Lincoln, Judy Casselman, a councillor for St. Catharines, Dave Lepp, a councillor for Niagara-on-the-Lake Dave Lepp and, possibly, Bob Grabriel, a councillor for Thorold who is awaiting the results in a recount that has left him four votes behind in a run October 25 for his city’s mayor.

Then there was Mike Collins, after all, who was a longtime St. Catharines regional councillor who outgoing Niagara regional chairman Peter Partington remembered during this last meeting of a council he was such a prominent member of, even as he battled cancer. Partington remembered Collins for “his dedication” and “his passion and his love for this chamber.”

Late regional councillor Mike Collins. Photo courtesy of Niagara Region.

 Collins, concluded Partington, “will be missed by all of us for a long, long time.”

Then there is Partington, himself, who chose to retire after serving two terms at the region’s helm, and several years before that as a regional councillor for St. Catharines and as an MPP with the Conservatives in the 1980s.

Partington’s record, outlined in earlier posts on Niagara At Large, include steering the region through some tough economic times – most particularly the latest world-wide recession – while at the same time setting policies for more sustainable urban planning, waterfront preservation and the makings of what will hopefully be a regional transit system that is long overdue.

Interesting thing here, and Niagara At Large has already reported this before the belated headline this November 5 in the St. Catharines Standard, is Partington’s greater willingness to talk about a possible amalgamation of local municipalities in the region now that he is leaving office – a subject that was so mum it was sometimes described as the “A-word” by the few councillors who dared to bring it up.

Now on to deciding who will be the next member of the newly elected regional council who will serve as Niagara’s chairman. Count on Niagara At Large to be following this closely, and you too should be following it closely and contacting your own regional representatives to let them know who you feel would do the best job of leading Niagara over the next four years.

We ask you, our readers, to share your views on the outgoing council and any thoughts you may have on where we should now go as a region.

(Visit Niagara At Large at niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)