How Many Councillors are Needed in Oxford?

With Council down one member, it was fitting that one of the top agenda items, last night, was the size of Oxford Town Council.

Currently at six councillors plus a mayor, it had been suggested that a town of this size, there was no need to have that many people representing residents.

Earlier this year a committee was struck to conduct a mandatory municipal boundary review, which looked at —among other things— what residents thought of the number of representatives. 

Council had been hoping to receive clear direction from those who participated in the survey as to what that number should be reduced.

Councillor Chrystal MacNutt says the survey had "over 100 responses" representing less than a tenth of the community and provided no clear direction on the question. 

MacNutt says on the question of council's size, 20 percent of respondents were not sure, 45 percent said the current complement was the right number, and 30 percent of folks felt there were too many representatives. 

Mayor Henley said with a chief administrative officer in place, there is less need for so many councillors, since some of the decision-making responsibilities can be passed from Council to CAO Linda Cloney. That would enable Council to reduce the number of committees that require so much of councillors' time.

Both Deputy Mayor Arnold MacDonald and Councillor Paul Jones wanted to know how other communities with a CAO structure were managing with a smaller sized council before they weighed in on the matter. 

Councillor MacNutt told Council that the committee had not come to a conclusion as to how many councillors would be desirable, but there was agreement that the existing councillors were tied up in too many meetings.

Cloney noted that recent elections showed how hard it has been to find candidates to fill a full slate of Councillors, with the last election in 2021 requiring a by-election to fill two seats.

Councillor MacNutt suggested with the town's growing population and so many newcomers, finding candidates for future elections may not be so difficult.

No final decision was taken, but the matter will be taken up at a Special Council Meeting following the next Committee-of-the-Whole meeting.

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