Who decides what City Council talks about? Does that need to change?

Who decides what gets discussed at Sault Ste. Marie City Council meetings?

Who decides which delegations are heard and which get turned away?

Does Mayor Christian Provenzano have too much say in the matter?

Those questions surfaced this week as issues in the upcoming Oct. 22 municipal election.

Under the city's procedure bylaw, the agenda review committee includes Mayor Provenzano and two staff members – chief administrative officer Al Horsman and Malcolm White, the city clerk and deputy chief administrative officer.

Meeting behind closed doors on Wednesdays before City Council Mondays, the three-person committee determines the subject matters, items and delegations that will appear on the following week's agenda.

Individuals denied permission to appear before City Council as a delegation may ask city councillors to consider passing a motion to have the matter considered.

Mayoral candidate Rory Ring questioned that arrangement at a Tuesday-night candidates' debate organized by the Sault Ste. Marie Association of Ratepayers.

"I don't know if you know it or not, but the council agenda is set by the mayor and the CAO (chief administrative officer) and the deputy CAO," Ring told the debate audience at Superior Heights Collegiate and Vocational School.

"Your ward representative is actually not represented within the formulation of the agenda before council. That's fundamentally a way of not representing those who are in your community, through an elected official," Ring said.

He wants more input from ward councillors in setting council agendas.

"As mayor I would immediately change that practice and have a revolving set committee that represents your wards and the individuals whom you represented from your wards. So given those constraints, that will open up the ability for us to really understand greater what the needs of our Sault residents are. That's all part of making Sault residents first in a decision-making process at council."

Mayor Provenzano countered that the city used to have an agenda-setting committee similar to what Ring was describing, but it moved away from that before Provenzano was elected four years ago.

"What Mr. Ring may not know is that the agenda review process was changed prior to me becoming the mayor," Provenzano said.

"It was changed prior to me becoming the mayor because there was a complaint to the ombudsperson. And the ombudsperson found that our agenda review process as a city violated the statutes."

"The agenda review process we used is very similar to the one that Mr. Ring is advocating. So the city staff, prior to becoming mayor, changed the agenda review process," Provenzano said.

"I am always open to council input. Councillor Shoemaker is a great example. Councillors who want things on the agenda, get them on the agenda."

A third candidate, Ted Johnston, said: "If this came from a recommendation from the ombudsman, I think the next step to that would have to be we need to go back and revisit. We need to lobby the provincial government to make changes. Obviously, the system doesn't work very well."

Also running for mayor is Kemal Joseph Martinovic, who didn't attend Tuesday's debate because of illness.