Some Brampton councillors have raised concerns about the high number of matters referred to staff and whether council has its priorities straight.

Referred matters are issues sent to city staff for further review, research and/or recommendations before council makes a final decision.

According to city clerk Peter Fay, council’s referred matters list sits at more than 120 items to date in the first year of this term of council — the average is 40 to 60 per year.

“There are a lot of residents here. We’re doing all kinds of stuff, but at the end of the day, we’re not actually focusing on their needs,” wards 7 and 8 Coun. Pat Fortini told council at its Oct. 30 meeting, adding he is concerned about additional costs involved in order for staff to be able to meet the workload.

“We’re spending too much time on too many things,” added wards 3 and 4 Coun. Martin Medeiros. “As far as I know, a lot of these things don’t meet our core objectives.”

While supporting the city honouring deserving individuals and groups where appropriate, Medeiros said he’s concerned about staff’s ability to reasonably accomplish all that’s being asked of them.

He believes the high number of more ceremonial matters like proclamations and street and park naming are eating too much time and affecting council and staff’s ability to focus on more pressing priorities for residents.

“When you see 120 (referred matters), that’s almost as much as a four-year term of previous council that we have within the one year. That means that all these motions are there that are not as important (and) spending valuable staff time running around worrying about how to recognize this person? Should we help with this day? It’s almost become a mandate creed,” he said.

“Certain councillors are understandably passionate about certain issues,” said Medeiros. “What’s happened is it seems like there is a lot of work on our agendas (and) a lot of motions that are not necessarily core business of what the city does.”

At a council meeting earlier this year, Fay said this council had already issued twice as many proclamations as its predecessors in its first year.