London city council: Yes to annual tenant fair, no to public pest control

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City hall will not move ahead on a public pest control team, but it will make a tenant fair an annual event, politicians decided Tuesday night.

In a series of split votes, city council rejected reviewing the city’s property standards bylaw enforcement protocols in a 12-3 vote, and exploring a publicly funded pest extermination team in a 11-4 vote. Councillors Sam Trosow, Anna Hopkins, and David Ferreira voted in support of both measures, with Skylar Franke adding her support to the pest control team, while all others voted against.

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Council also voted unanimously to make this year’s tenant support fair at city hall an annual fixture, and voted 8-7 to bring the hoarding and extreme clean program, which helps tenants prepare for pest control, to 2025 budget talks after it was left out of the latest budget.

Mayor Josh Morgan, and councillors Jerry Pribil, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Lehman, Susan Stevenson, Shawn Lewis, and Peter Cuddy opposed referring the budget request. All others voted in favour.

All four votes were based on recommendations from Life Spin, a local anti-poverty agency.

Ward 1 Coun. Hadleigh McAlister, who sits on the board of London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH), was happy to see support for the tenant fair.

“I think that’s something worthwhile, that I think we got a lot of value in terms of tenant engagement with city staff and vice versa,” he said.

McAlister didn’t believe a publicly funded pest control team was feasible for the city, but wished to revisit the extreme clean program, he said.

Several councillors expressed opposition to reviewing the city’s bylaw after city staff told politicians in late October they already were looking at updating London’s bylaws based on building code changes.

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Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow argued staff’s review doesn’t cover enforcement protocols, and said a public extermination team still was worth investigating.

“We’re not talking about enacting this tonight, and yes there are a lot of questions that would have to be raised,” he said. “We continue to get complaints from tenants about the bug infestations, and, quite frankly, whatever is being done is not adequate.”

MAYOR STEPS IN ON COMMITTEE VACANCY

A stubborn vacancy on one of council’s committees has led to the mayor suggesting to reduce its size.

During a routine refresh of council’s committee members for 2025, a lack of interest for a single open spot on the community and protective services committee forced Mayor Josh Morgan to use his strong mayor powers to recommend reducing the committee’s slate to four members from five.

A committee normally needs five assigned members in order to sit and function, Morgan said. He can use the same power to reverse the change should someone step forward, he said.

“The business of the committee, in my opinion, needs to proceed. I don’t think it’s functional to divide these duties across the existing committees,” he said.

Council has three standing committees, community and protective services, planning and environment, and the new infrastructure and corporate services committee – born out of a merger between the civic works and corporate services committees.

Community and protective services deals with issues from housing and homelessness, to bylaw enforcement, and parks.

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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