A group of Aurora councillors is making a bid to overturn the mayor’s veto of a motion regarding the proposed men’s shelter at a special council meeting.
Councillor John Gallo said he thought it was “an abuse of strong mayor’s powers” when Mayor Tom Mrakas vetoed his approved motion, which called on York Region to resubmit its proposal for a men’s emergency and transitional shelter at 14452 Yonge St.
The motion passed during the council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25, but was vetoed the following day by Mrakas, using his strong mayoral powers.
Now, Councillors Gallo, Ron Weese, Rachel Gilliland and Wendy Gaertner have called for a special meeting March 18 to try to overturn the veto.
“I think that's the crux of my frustration,” added Gallo. “Council didn't move forward with that specific application. It was simply a request for York Region to put it back on their radar — and to veto that knowing full well that it contradicts the provincial policies of trying to build 8,000 homes between now and 2031, it's egregious that he would do that.”
In his veto notice, Mrakas pointed to a York Region report from June 13, 2019, saying developing a shelter at 1445 Yonge St., which also houses the Henderson Sewage Pumping Station, could “compromise its strategic purpose and may interfere with the delivery of infrastructure to support housing.”
But Weese questioned that logic.
“If (the region) didn’t think they wanted to use their property for that purpose, they never would have brought the original application,” he said.
Both Weese and Gallo said they were hopeful one of their fellow council members — councillors Harold Kim and Michael Thompson, who voted against Gallo’s motion at the Feb. 25 meeting — would vote to overturn the veto.
Overturning a veto requires a vote from two-thirds of all council members, which for Aurora is five votes — even if a council member is absent from the meeting. Mayor Mrakas has one of the votes. The override has to happen within 21 days after the clerk provides the written veto document to the members of council.
If the veto is overturned, Gallo’s motion would stand.
“Should the appeal not be approved, then there may be other legislative processes that we can go through, should we choose to do that,” said Weese, who said he did want to speculate further.
The shelter proposal has been hotly debated since York Region brought the proposal for the men’s transitional shelter to a planning committee meeting on Feb. 13, 2024, where it was rejected in a 4-3 vote by Aurora council.
An online petition was circulating on some Aurora community Facebook pages on Tuesday, calling for support for the mayor's veto.
The special council meeting is set to be held at Aurora Town Hall, at 100 John West Way, at 6 p.m. on March 18.
Mrakas did not respond to a request for comment.
In a video posted to social media on Wednesday, Mrakas said he was in Washington D.C. as part of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. Mrakas is the appointed board member for York Region for the group, according to a town spokesperson. He is set to be in Washington March 4 to 7 to participate in the initiative’s annual Great Lakes Day.