Mayor and Council

1. Correspondence intended to be delivered to Mayor and Council shall be addressed to Mayor and Council, to the attention of the City Clerk. Correspondence addressed to an individual Councillor will not be placed on the Council Correspondence Listing. The item of correspondence must be legibly printed or handwritten and shall include the authors name(s), signature(s), and contact information.
2. The City Clerk has the authority to redact personal information on the Council Correspondence listing, as appropriate. If personal information is redacted, the Clerk shall maintain an unredacted copy of the correspondence.
3. Correspondence submitted in any form shall not humiliate, berate, belittle or publicly criticize staff and / or humiliate, berate or belittle Council in addition contain any defamatory statements, allegations, inferences, impertinent, disrespectful or improper manner. The City Clerk may reject such correspondence that they deem in contravention of this section, in consultation with the Chief Administrative Officer. If the correspondence is not in compliance, the correspondence will be returned to the sender with an explanation as to why the material cannot be received in its current form and the correspondence will be withheld from inclusion of the Council Correspondence Listing.
4. Correspondence intended for Council is generally received as public information subject to the Ontario Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. 
5. Petitions intended for distribution to Council shall be typewritten or legibly printed, addressed to Mayor and Council, and shall include the name, signature, and address for each signee, and may also include their telephone number and email address. The individual(s) who organized the petition is required to provide their contact information for appropriate follow-up. Petitions shall specifically state at the top of each page, the purpose of the petition. If the petition does not specifically state the purpose at the top of each page, it will not be listed on the Council Correspondence Listing.

Under Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act, the Mayor has the following special powers and duties as the head of Council:

• Appoint the Chief Administrative Officer;*
• Hire and dismiss certain City officials and determine the organizational structure of the City of St. Catharines;*
• Create or dissolve committees of Council, appoint the Chairs and Vice-Chairs and assign their functions;*
• Bring matters forward to Council for consideration that in the Mayor's opinion could potentially advance a prescribed provincial priority;
• Veto certain by-laws approved by Council that in the Mayor's opinion that all or part of the by-law could potentially interfere with a prescribed provincial priority;
• Propose and prepare the municipal budget by Feb. 1, which would be subject to Council amendments and Mayoral veto and Council override process; and
• Direct City staff in writing.

* The Mayor may choose to delegate these specific powers and duties.

The Mayor is required to exercise these powers in writing and make them available to the public, subject to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A public listing of Mayoral Decisions is available in the chart below.