Belleville’s deputation deadline closes before agenda is published

Many municipalities accept applications to speak before council (known as a deputation or delegation) as a form of public engagement to allow individuals or organizations to speak publicly to members of council on the record about a topic of interest or an item on the meeting’s agenda before a decision is made.

The process to do so is laid out in the Procedural Bylaw, which every municipality must have and governs the calling, place and proceedings of meetings.

In Belleville, both open and closed council agendas are developed by the Mayor and CAO and the Clerk compiles and publishes the agenda. Councillors are not involved in the agenda setting process and must submit a formal written Notice of Motion to have a motion added to a future council meeting.

Deputations must be submitted 6 days before a council meeting and their contents be approved by Mayor and CAO

Residents may request to appear before City Council or committee, but must do so no later than 4:30 p.m. on the Tuesday before the next regular Council meeting.

Belleville’s Regular Council meetings are held on Mondays at 4:00 PM every two weeks at City Hall in the council chambers, so for the June 22, 2026 council meeting, the deadline to submit a deputation was Tuesday June 16, 2026 at 4:30PM.

Belleville’s Procedural Bylaw requires deputation applications to be submitted on the Tuesday before the next meeting:

Persons desiring to be included on the meeting agenda as a Deputation shall contact the office of the Clerk no later than 4:30 p.m. on the Tuesday preceding the date of the next Regular Council Meeting to request to be listed on the meeting agenda as a Deputation, but the Mayor may authorize a Deputation be added to the meeting agenda any time prior to finalization of the meeting agenda.

Section 7.6

In 2024, Belleville added the requirement that the Mayor and CAO must receive and review the contents of the deputation’s presentation:

The Mayor and CAO will review all deputations, including materials and presentations, as part of the Agenda setting process. Failure for a person to provide such materials by the deadline in this section or prior to the finalization of the agenda will not be authorized to make a Deputation to Council.

Section 7.6

Belleville regularly posts meeting agendas 1 business day before the meeting

Belleville generally posts council meeting agendas on the Friday before Monday meetings, giving residents less than 1 business day advanced notice of upcoming decisions:

• The Transit Operations Advisory Committee meeting Monday, June 15 posted the agenda 1 business day prior on Friday, June 12.
• The Grant Committee meeting June 16 posted its agenda the day before on June 15.

The Regular Council meeting Monday, June 22 at 4:00PM posted its agenda 1 business day prior on Friday June 19th. The agenda was amended to add the receipt of the Integrity Commissioner’s Closed Meeting Investigator Report that found Council broke provincial law with a secret vote on Friday afternoon, less than 1 business day before the item would be discussed – giving residents only the weekend to provide feedback.

Presenting a deputation to council regarding an agenda item is mathematically impossible

If the deadline to request a deputation is the Tuesday before the Monday meeting, but the agenda isn’t posted until Friday, it is mathematically impossible for a citizen to apply to speak on an agenda item they haven’t seen yet. Therefore, formal delegations, if they are approved by the Mayor and CAO, can only be on general topics of concern or interest and are unlikely to be related to those being discussed at a given meeting.

Examples

Contacting the Clerk’s Office to find out when a topic will be on the agenda is a logical next step to determining the deadline to submit a delegation application. However, in practice, Belleville’s responses to these requests does not resolve the procedural impossibility.

Closed Meeting Investigator Report added to agenda as an amendment less than 1 business day before the decision

An Integrity Commissioner’s Closed Meeting Investigator Report that found Council broke provincial law with a secret vote was released on June 18.

The complainant emailed the Clerk’s Office on the morning of June 19 to ask when the report would be addressed by Council as required by law:

Please let me know the date of the council meeting that IC Report CMI-2026-01 will be on the agenda once it has been set.

June 19 at 7:16AM

Their response recommended signing up for “E-Updates” by email:

sign up to receive E-Updates regarding Council meetings and their minutes …

If you are subscribed already, you should receive notice once a council meeting has been scheduled and the agenda is published.

Clerk’s Office at June 19 at 9:37AM

Another way of wording this response is “wait for the agenda to be published”, which leaves applying for a deputation on the subject as a procedural impossibility.

The agenda for the Regular Council meeting Monday, June 22 at 4:00PM was posted sometime during the day on Friday June 19th. On Friday afternoon, the agenda was amended to add the Integrity Commissioner’s Closed Meeting Investigator Report, giving residents the weekend to respond and making a formal deputation impossible:

Lack of response regarding Jane Forrester Green Space giveaway report didn’t provide enough time

We had hoped to make a deputation regarding this issue. I made a number of phone calls requesting a timeline for when the report would be brought back to council so we could plan for it. Each call I had to leave a voice message, with no return calls, until 2 days ago.  Unfortunately due to the short timeline, 3 days, regarding notification of the completion of the report to be presented at Monday’s agenda, it has not allowed for that.

Belleville resident regarding Jane Forrester Green Space giveaway

Unscheduled deputations: residents can speak during a meeting with majority support

Persons wishing to appear as a Deputation and who are not listed on the meeting agenda may appear as a Deputation with support from the majority of the Members present.

Section 7.6(3) of the Procedural Bylaw

If you are not listed on the agenda, you may still request to appear as a deputation during the meeting.

Approval requires a majority vote of Council members present.

Website

Rules include:

• Maximum of 3 people
• Maximum of 10 minutes combined
• Members may ask specific questions