In preparation for Monday February 29th special town council meeting

Well, another week has gone by. I’m now looking over the agenda for the special town council meeting for Monday February 29th. Kind of cool, a February 29th meeting. I wonder how often town council meetings fall on the date February 29th? I wonder if I should look into that, you know, just for curiosity’s sake? Nah, I don’t wonder enough to go research it, so moving on. Here we go!

In-Camera meeting

First, before the meeting begins, there is an in-camera meeting scheduled for 5:30. Last week, when they passed the accounts receivable, there was a small and somewhat muffled discussion about a legal bill. I couldn’t quite figure out what exactly they were talking about, but it seems it was about this :

“ITEM A – Legal Invoices – Section 239(2)(f) – Advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.”

Apparently, they will be discussing in-camera the item above. Since it will be in-camera, the doors will be closed and the public is not allowed into the meeting. They have asked the public to wait outside in the past, but I think they’ve since dealt with that faux pas. lol

Since, the meeting will be in-camera, I can only speculate what legal invoice it may be about. Since this council has a bit of a reputation of asking for legal advice and then later rejecting said advice, it seems that maybe now they’re disputing an invoice??? Hmmmmm….is it wise to dispute a legal invoice? Could the lawyer then just sue you for the bill plus interest etc? Don’t know, but it seems strange to argue a legal invoice. But, hey, what do I know?

Ironically, just last week, a gentleman sitting next to me, commented about how many in-camera meetings this council seems to have. I know the previous council was chastised for the number of in-camera meetings they scheduled, yet this new council seems to be have them frequently as well. Maybe just as many in-camera meetings? Maybe more? Who knows? It would be interesting to research this and compare, but, nah, I think I’ll pass on this too. However, if any of my readers would like to research and compare, I would be more than happy to share your results. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board PARC Presentation 

No details on the agenda about this, I’m guessing it’s about the St. Bernard’s/Stella Maris situation.

Policy Review and Approval

Once again, council will be reviewing some more policies. Once again, I wonder…..they still have not approved their own Code of Conduct policy. Coincidence? Probably not.

The policies being reviewed are :

• Accounts Receivable – Billing
• Accounts Receivable – Collections
• Petty Cash
• Accounts Payable
• Capital Project – Interim Financing
• Cash Receipts Control
• Internal Controls
• Internal Controls – Reporting
• Corporate Cheque Acceptance
• Corporate Cheque Issuance

While, I do not dispute the importance of reviewing these policies, they all look pretty cut and dry. That means, boring. There are 78 pages of information about each of the policies. I am bored just reading it. Monday night will probably prove to be a real yawner. I should probably stay home, give myself the night off. If I did that, would they miss me? hahahaha

Supplementary agenda – IBEW Local 636 Collective Agreement Ratification

Last week, Councillor Pouget asked the CAO when they would be getting a copy of the new contract for the town employees. He said it was still being reviewed by lawyers for both sides. Well, appears the review is done, because the contract is posted and administration is recommending ratification and approval. I read through the contract, not sure of what the major differences and changes are from the old contract to the new contract, however, it seems this is a formality for council to approve it.

I pulled this from the report :

Some of the key areas that will change as a result of negotiations are as follows:

•  Increase in the number of hours students can work during May to September
• Increase in the number of hours part time employees can be scheduled during May to September and the ability to schedule split shifts
• The elimination of 7 Seasonal positions
• The creation of 7 new full time positions and the ability to schedule split shifts
• The requirement for Union representatives to obtain permission from his/her supervisor prior to leaving the work site to conduct Union business
• The elimination of 13 specific protected positions to the implementation of a guaranteed minimum number of positions allowing administration to restructure its operations in an effective manner
• All new hires after January 1, 2016 may be scheduled flexible working hours to reduce overtime costs
• The elimination of standby due to the new flexibility of scheduling of hours
• Vacation top up for those individuals that are on long term disability is now limited to two years. Previously there was no limit.
• Increase in wages was awarded in year two, three and four of the agreement including $500 lump sum payments in year one and two for full time employees and $250 for part-time employees.
• No changes to benefits

Overall, Monday’s agenda does not have anything of excitement in it. Maybe I should reconsider taking the night off…….nah…..sorry if I got anyone’s hopes up. I hope I can rely on Councillor Lavigne to keep things moving along so that I don’t go comatose. I think the last policy meeting was finished within 45 minutes, could I dare hope the same for this meeting?

Monday February 22nd Regular Amherstburg Town Council Meeting

Before I begin, Councillor Courtney was absent tonight. Maybe she was out looking for my popcorn?

Delegation David McCarty

Mr McCarty was there representing DBM media proposing to erect ground billboards in six locations in town. Two of the locations are on town property and the other 4 properties belong to local farmers. Basically, businesses would pay him to put their sign up and he in turn pays the property owners a rental fee for the space. There was a picture shown of the signs and they seemed quite attractive and looked like a pretty good advertising idea. At this moment, these signs do not comply with our existing by-law. Mr McCarty was looking to get this up and running and soon. Well, it was not to happen. Councillor Meloche and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale seemed interested. Councillors Pouget and Fryer were not interested at all. A lengthy back and forth discussion that was going nowhere fast ensued. Councillor Lavigne saved us from the spiralling vortex and clarified that the delegation was just to be received and finally council did just that, received the delegation.

Councillor Fryer makes a motion and requested administration to bring back a report to allow revenue from these signs for the farmers. More discussion ensued. Then a recorded vote was called. (I love it when recorded votes get called–shows it’s contentious) 

So, here is a vote pattern that I don’t think has ever happened this term.

Support : Deputy Mayor Dipasquale, Councillor Fryer, Councillor Meloche

Opposed: Councillor Lavigne, Councillor Pouget and Mayor DiCarlo (I’m really going to have to go back in my notes to see if these 3 have ever voted together before, just sayin’)

Therefore, it was a tie vote, which means it doesn’t pass and we move on.

2016 Special Events Approval

As mentioned in my last blog, nine events were on the list for approval. This was passed with very little discussion. A small clarification about street closures for the Canada D’Eh Run, a small error to fix in the location advertised for Ribs and Ragtime and badda bing, badda boom, approved. So, what was the point of making all these people come before council? They all left after this. Surely these people (mostly volunteers) had better things to do tonight rather than sit in a council meeting. Too bad I didn’t.

Meloche Road Reconstruction

We have received a grant of 2 Million dollars toward the reconstruction of Meloche Road. Were we happy? Were we excited? No, Councillors Fryer, Pouget and Meloche droned on and on with a huge variety of questions and commentary. I stopped taking notes. No, I lied. I took notes, they say “blah, blah, blah”. Did I ever mention that a couple of our councillors think they’re engineers? Discussion of asphalt thickness ensued and I don’t know what else. Just as my eyes rolled back in my head and I was about to go comatose, Councillor Lavigne saved the day! He basically said, council asked for this grant, they got it, stop debating the technical aspects of it, accept it and move on with it! Thank you Councillor Lavigne for being a voice of reason and getting the show moving!

Ministry of Labour Orders Issued at the Libro Centre

OK. Stay with me here. It got CRAZY. Councillor Lavigne was angry, pretty angry, pretty darn angry. OK, maybe he was even ticked off, really ticked off. There was a very heated exchange between Councillor Lavigne and CAO Miceli, with some interjection from the Mayor (mostly out of order issues lol) and Councillor Pouget. Long story short, Councillor Lavigne was not happy that council was not informed about this report until right about now. There were veiled references to other health and safety issues in the fire department, yelling about in-camera information, health and safety committees that don’t function properly, who’s to blame, who’s responsible, how many different locations there are to oversee, centralizing, decentralizing, etc., etc. Councillor Lavigne seemed to feel that council was being forced to hire a Health and Safety Officer even though the report only recommended committee meetings. Administration was asking for and recommending the hiring of a part-time dedicated Health and Safety Officer. I thought for sure this would be a tie vote and all would be for not…….but wait for it……a recorded vote was called (did I mention I love those?)

Motion : to receive the report, hiring a contract Health and Safety Officer and administration re-submit the part-time Health and Safety Officer in the 2017 budget.

Support : Deputy Mayor DiPasquale, Councillor Lavigne (gasp), Councillor Meloche, Mayor DiCarlo

Oppose: Councillor Fryer, Councillor Pouget (no gasp here)

On a personal note, I really thought they should hire a Health and Safety Officer, so I am glad that Councillor Lavigne changed his mind (even under much duress) and did what I feel is the right thing.

Economic Development Advisory Committee-Chamber Nominee

The Economic Development Committee had a vacancy for a Chamber representative that had to be filled. The Chamber nominated Mr. Alan Halowski to be the representative for the remainder of the term. This should have been quick, easy and painless, but no, no it was not. Councillor Pouget seemed to have an issue with the Chamber having two (in her opinion) representatives on the committee. Mr. Rozankovic was placed on the committee as a member of the public, however has recently joined the Chamber. Therefore, she felt that this committee would have two Chamber representatives. Councillor Fryer also expressed concern that the entire committee could eventually have all Chamber members on it and be driven by the Chamber. (This could be part of the Chamber’s take over the world plan, but I’m not sure.) The Mayor pointed out that some people sit on various committees within the town, sometimes even on more than one committee and circumstances can change for individuals. Councillor Pouget, again, was worried that the Chamber members could sway the votes and it would be unfair. Hmmmm…….how many ACRG members were appointed to these committee? No one seemed to care about that a year ago as certain councillors repaid political favours and appointed their friends to these committees. I know I brought it up, but nobody cared. Why? Because the ACRG members hide in the shadows and other than Mr. Hobbs and Mr. McDonald, the public is unsure of who the other members are, but there are a few real good theories out there. And several currently sit on various committees all over town. Regardless, after much lamenting the motion passed and Mr. Halowski will be the Chamber rep on the Economic Development Committee. (insert evil laugh here)

New business

There were a few items brought forward but the one of interest was Councillor Pouget’s motion for administration to prepare a by-law to entirely designate Kings Navy Yard Park as Heritage Property. Much discussion followed. Councillor Pouget said the Heritage Committee voted on this (I wonder if they have too many Chamber members?) and they feel it’s necessary to protect the property. A portion of the KNYP is already designated heritage but the rest is not. Councillor Pouget felt this was an over site at the time and should be corrected. Councillor Lavigne pointed out that technically it’s not historical (thank you, once again, I remember this park being built and I don’t think I’m that old). The CAO said that the park is already protected as a park and has a by-law in place to protect it from various types of uses. This was not good enough for Councillor Pouget. We then heard from Mr. Hertel, who sits on the Heritage Committee, he spoke to support Councillor Pouget. It was an interesting discussion. I can see both sides on this one. I can see how the property is historically significant and important, however I can also see it’s already protected as park-land and designating it entirely as Heritage could create limitations and roadblocks to various changes that may be wanted or needed in the future. ( So, I think I will sit on the fence for this one. Any one want to come and view my fence? Just $400. ) Anyway, after lengthy discussion, the motion passed and council instructed administration to prepare a by-law deeming the park historical.

All in all, the meeting lasted close to 3 hours. Nobody threw their hands in the air and left although tempers did flare. No twilight zone events transpired, although there was some talk of conspiracy theory. And yet again, no popcorn was served.

In preparation for Monday February 22nd 2016 regular town council meeting

Another week has flown by and here we are, preparing for another town council meeting. Things have been relatively quiet in the Amherstburg political world, but I’m not sure they will remain that way after reading the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting. The agenda is 532 pages and jam packed. Here goes….

Delegation Ground Billboards-David McCarty

Not much detail here. According to the delegation request, it seems he wants to address some type of fee regarding ground billboards. Will listen and see what’s going on with this.

Drainage and local improvement debentures

There is a lengthy report posted with some short-term and long-term debt that the town has in regards to drainage. The town can offer debentures to it’s residents in regards to drain work required so that the residents don’t have to pay a large up-front amount of money. It seems very important that council and the public understand long-term debt, since these resident debentures would fall into that category. I took this directly from the agenda :

” Increasing debt levels even in cases where the debt is backed by residents can be problematic due to the fact that the Town of Amherstburg is already under much public scrutiny for the amount of long term debt. Increases in Accounts Receivable can be seen as the municipality is not collecting on the amounts owed to it. This can also be viewed by lenders and users of the financial statements as being a financial weakness.”  

Therefore, it will be very important that council and the public understand the financial implications of this type of debt. I think anybody with any basic business knowledge understands that there is a certain amount of necessary debt, but it will be very important how council accepts and presents this debt to the public. The report then goes on to explain the various drains that need upgrading.

Accounts payable

Every two weeks, council goes over, line by line the accounts payable. I looked for anything of interest, but really nothing popped out. We did, however, pay approximately $19000.00 in legal fees on this report, covering the last 2 weeks.

Meloche Road Reconstruction 

Amherstburg has received the maximum allowable of funding of 2 Million dollars for the repair and resurfacing of this road. It appears time is of the essence to get this project done if we want to receive the funding. It appears the money is only on the table for a short period of time and that the work has to be done next year. Of course, the town will have to pay a portion of this bill too. Let’s see if council is able to make a quick decision on this one.

Special Events Approval

The following events are seeking approval via the special events committee :

• Amherstburg Historical Gatherings at Commissariat April 23,24, June 18,19, July 29, Aug 1, Nov 18, 19, 2016
• Ribs and Ragtime – Saturday, June 04, 2016
• J. Wimpy Volleyball Tournament – June 11/rain date June 12  Annual Garden Tour – June 17, 2016 & June 18, 2016  South Coast Adventure Race – Saturday, June 18, 2016
• Canada Day Festival – Friday, July 01, 2016
• Canada D’Eh 5K Run – Friday, July 01, 2016
• Art by the River – August 27 & 28, 2016
• Super Santa Run – Saturday, November 19, 2016

I certainly hope these events get approved as I believe a variety of festivals and events are what makes Amherstburg a great place to be! I am uncertain, however, if each group will be coming before council to request approval or if this is a “blanket” approval for these events. I believe council had made a motion that each group had to come and represent itself and request approval to organize their event. I thought that was an unfortunate decision since it created just more red tape and hoops to jump through for events that are generally organized by mostly volunteers. Will these events get blanket approval from council or will they each have to come forward and plead their case?  Some of these events require road closures before 5PM and one requires a liquor permit.

*************Ministry of Labour Orders at the Libro Centre*******************

If you have just been skimming my blog up until now, stop skimming and start reading. This part of the meeting is very important!!!

It seems there was a Ministry of Labour visit to the Libro Centre following a health and safety concern.

Before we deal with the results of the Ministry of Labour visit, let’s review…

Town Administration requested to hire a Health and Safety Officer in the 2016 budget. When the budget came before council, 4 Councillors voted against hiring a Health and Safety Officer, they were Councillors Fryer, Pouget, Lavigne and Courtney. When the health and safety officer was voted down in the 2016 budget by these four councillors, they felt that the Human Resources Department could handle any issues going forward.

Every one up to speed now? Good, because here’s what the Ministry of Labour says. According to the Ministry of Labours investigation, our human resources department lacks staff, training  and resources (computer programs etc) to be able to effectively manage health and safety concerns.

Here’s a copy of the Risk Analyisis from the report going to council…

“Presently, there is a human resource shortage for dealing with Health and Safety in a progressive, proactive manner. The Town has moved to a centralized approach of dealing with health and safety matters, however given the broad spectrum of types of work conducted by Town employees, the various specialized equipment used, the job specific chemicals used, the specified training required, the specific PPE required, the various work locations, and the fact that there is no human resource software to track all of the documentation required by the Act in an efficient manner, the human resources department is lacking the resources to ensure that all departments are maintaining compliance at all times. Ministry inspections will continue for the foreseeable future which will result in negative consequences.”

So, why do we not have a health and safety officer? Because Councillors Fryer, Lavigne, Pouget and Courtney voted it down. Councillor Pouget used the reason at the time that it was because the Audit and Finance Committee did not recommend hiring for this position and spending the necessary money. Should this poor decision be based on the advice of a volunteer committee? Absolutely not! We have a town administration who are hired and paid well for their extensive education and knowledge to provide advice to council, instead of listening to these well paid and knowledgeable staff members, these 4 councillors ignored their advice. Not only did they ignore their advice, they chose instead to listen to a volunteer committee, a volunteer committee that has experience in Audit and Finance, not health and safety!

If these 4 councillors don’t manage to acknowledge and correct this problem, that they have created, then the only people that should throw their hands in the air and storm out of the meeting are the good people of Amherstburg.

Sandwich Street Resurfacing

Council had asked for a report of the Sandwich Street Resurfacing. I vaguely remember sitting in a meeting where they discussed thickness of asphalt ad infinitum. I think we have a few councillors who think they’re engineers too. Anyway, the report is in. It’s long and boring. What is the point of this report? Who knows? I wonder how much time and effort (which equals money) went into preparing this report? Hope there is lots of discussion to justify the time and money it took to create this report.

All in all, the agenda looks to be a long one. I wonder if I will be able to last and make it to the end without throwing my hands up and leaving early. LOL Maybe they’ll serve popcorn this week?

If anybody thinks any of this stuff is too strange to be true, here’s the link to the agenda :

Click to access 2016%2002%2022%20-%20Regular%20Council%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf

 

 

 

Tuesday February 16th Special Amherstburg Town Council meeting

Of special note, before I begin, Councillor Fryer was once again absent from tonight’s meeting. Councillor Courtney arrived about 10 minutes after the meeting began.

Tonight’s meeting was actually somewhat pleasant. There’s some words I never thought I would use about a town council meeting, pleasant. I found the tone light and cooperative. Nobody seemed angry or uncooperative. Council seemed to listen and I mean really listen to the members of the public. It was actually refreshing and gives me hope moving forward. It also finished up in about an hour, so that helped too. Anyway, on to the nitty gritty.

To start, the mayor asked for public input in regards to the fee increases proposed. Marc Renaud spoke on behalf of Amherstburg Minor Hockey Association (AMHA). I will get back to that soon as his comments were discussed more at length later during the meeting. I would like to point out that there was a representative there from the Amherstburg Baseball association, a few builders, Mr Renaud from AMHA and three other members of the public, therefore nobody seemed overly concerned about the proposed increases.

Building permit Fees 2016

As I previously blogged, many fees in the building department were up for discussion and increases, ranging from 5% to 50%.  Steve Brown, the chief building inspector, explained that some of the fees have been the same since 1994. Norbert Bolger of Norbuilt Homes was in attendance (along with a few other builders) and shared his thoughts on these increases. Mr. Bolger felt that many of Amherstburg’s fees have been low (maybe even too low) for certain things and that he was not opposed to any of the increases. I think it did us all some good to hear this since it put perspective and insight on the issue. Amherstburg’s fees are still set at a reasonable rate and are in-line with other municipalities. He said the building fee would only increase approximately $200. Several councillors expressed the sense of being “reasonable” and the building permit fee increases passed through quite peacefully.

Increase in Rental Rates for Recreation Facilities

The proposed across the board 1.6% increase for rental rates for recreation facilities engaged a lot of discussion. Returning to Marc Renaud’s comments who spoke on behalf of the AMHA …. He expressed concern that last year there was a 2.4% increase in rates and asked council to hold the line with a rate freeze for 2016 for youth sports. He said that Amherstburg has the third highest rates in Essex County. The CAO and council agreed with many of Mr. Renaud’s statements and understood the importance of keeping Amherstburg’s youth active in an affordable manner. Councillor Lavigne hit his stride and agreed with Mr. Renaud. Councillor Lavigne pointed out that our arena is a service provided to our town that will not make money. He pointed out that we want to attract people to move to Amherstburg and that they should be encouraged to do so, with reasonable ice rates which lead to more reasonable activity costs. So, here’s where it got interesting (and a bit hard to follow). There was a motion on the floor for the 1.6% overall increase. Councillor Meloche wanted to change it to 1% for youth sports. There was some back and forth about changing it to 0% for youth sports, but 1.6% for the remaining sports and activities. There was a back and forth like a tennis match. Councillor Courtney asked for clarification. She thought they said nude sports. That got everybody laughing. (Would this fall under the $200 fee for an adult entertainment license?) The motion was changed, adjusted and tweaked at least 3 times, perhaps 4. Who could keep count? Everybody was thinking about nude sports. So, low and behold, the final motion went through with a 1.6% increase in rental rates with the exception of youth sport rates to remain frozen until September 2017. There was some talk about bringing back the 2-tier system, not sure, still wondering if nude sports would be classified as adult entertainment.

2016 User Fee By-Law

These are all the user fees that don’t fall under building fees or recreation facilities. I had explained these in my previous blog. There was not one single question and this passed without fanfare. Nobody asked what a fence-viewing fee is. After the meeting, one of the town employees offered to explain it to me, but I prefer to speculate. Makes things more interesting. All I know is that if anybody would like to come and look at my fence, they can do it no charge. It’s a pretty nice fence I think.

So, there we were. 7:00 and the meeting was over. Nobody had thrown their hands in the air and left angry. Nobody had a mysterious hacker trying to access their computer from outer space. Nobody clapped when I left the meeting. The tone was light, fun and amicable. I wonder what created the difference in the tone of tonight’s meeting?

 

In preparation for Tuesday February 16th Special Amherstburg Town Council Meeting

This week’s special town council meeting will be held on a Tuesday since Monday is a holiday. (woo hoo!)

There are only three items on this week’s agenda:

• Building Permit Fees 2016
• Rental Rates for Recreation Facilities
• 2016 User Fee By-Law

At first glance, this agenda did not look very exciting and I didn’t think I’d have much to say. So, I read it again and it’s actually very interesting. The town raises money two ways : taxes and fees. They’re reviewing all of the fees that they charge us for using all the various municipal services that are provided to us. To me, it seems quite balanced, but then again, this is Amherstburg and some days I just think we’re not a very balanced group of people. LOL So, where this may go is anybody’s guess.

Building Permit Fees

Not much excitement here for me. Some fees are going up a bit, others quite a bit. I would guess that builders or people thinking of building homes, finishing basements, adding decks etc.  would definitely be interested in this.

1. Building a house?…permit fees going up 5%
2. Finishing a basement?…permit fees going up 33%
3. Building a commercial building?…extra 4% this year
4. Adding a carport, garage or deck?…extra 50%
5. Need plumbing permit?…increase 20% (back-water valve requirements)
6. Plumbing permit for non-residential building?…5%-10% more now
7. Minimum Plumbing permit fee…going up 25% ($25 increase)
8. Sanitary and Storm Sewer permit fees….add 50%
9. Service piping fee calculations…I have no idea what the heck this is…but it’s going up 5%-10% (I will have to find out if this is something I need to care about)
10. Manholes on private property…75% increase

   Rental Rates for Recreation Facilities

There is a proposed increase of 1.6% for the rental rates of our recreation facilities. This includes the arena, soccer fields, ball diamonds, Malden Park Centre, Toddy Jones Park and the Kings Navy Yard Park. I can see both sides of the situation on this one. The increase is modest and probably in line with how fees are generally going up anywhere and everywhere for everything. Therefore, it doesn’t seem out of line to ask for an increase. Here is the justification for how they determined the increase as stated in the agenda:

“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase from November 2014 to November 2015 in Canada was 1.4% and 1.3% for Ontario. For the same time frame, specific to recreation pricing, the increase in Canada was 1.9% and 1.6% for Ontario. Based on this information, Administration is recommending that the Town increase current rental rates at all recreation facilities by 1.6%.”

Based on this logic, I can’t say that this increase is unreasonable. However, as a parent whose kids use these recreation facilities, I will have to pay more in activity fees and I can’t say that this is a happy thought. I will admit, in most cases in the chart I looked at, the fee increase is a few dollars, so I would hope that that would only incur a modest change to the fees for the parents. I will follow and listen and see what they decide. Members of the public and the user groups have been strongly encouraged to attend. It says that council will be open to questions and comments from the public, so I am hoping that anyone with concerns about this issue will express them, either via email in advance or at the public meeting on Tuesday.

2016 User Fee By-Law

This section is a catch-all for everything the town has a user fee for that doesn’t fall into the above two categories. There is a lengthy document in the agenda showing the breakdown of the fees for a variety of items and services, some of which I didn’t know even existed until today. Some fees are staying the same, some fees are increasing and some fees are brand new. Some of the fees are just weird, bizarre, crazy or downright funny. Here’s a few highlights:

Until today, I did not know we had a town spoon that was available for purchase. For those of you looking to add to your spoon collection, you can rest easy, the fee remains at a reasonable $5.

Need a copy of a recorded council meeting on CD? Only $10. Just think, you could listen to it in your car driving back and forth to work. The four-hour meetings could provide days of entertainment at a very reasonable cost. Personally, I think I’ll pass. Once is enough.

If the line for the electric car chargers is too long, you can apply for a Horse Drawn Carriage Owners Drivers permit for only $78. This fee remains unchanged from last year.

Want to open an adult entertainment parlour in Amherstburg? Permit fee $200, remains unchanged for 2016. Can’t afford the $200? You can open an adult book store and the fee is a real deal of only $100. Meet someone interesting at the adult book store? Marriage licenses are going up from $110 to $117.

It just got more expensive to die in Amherstburg. Death registration going up from $12.50 to $15. But I guess that will be my kids’ problem.

A new fee this year is fence viewing. I don’t know what the heck that is, but it’s going to cost you $400. Seems kind of expensive, but I guess if you have a really nice fence maybe it’s worth it.

A refund charge of $25???? So I have to pay to get my own money back? What if I decided the fence wasn’t worth looking at for $400????

In all seriousness now, there are quite a few new fees forthcoming from the fire department. One thing I found interesting and from what I understand a lot of municipalities are doing is that if the town fire department has to respond to a motor vehicle accident for a non-resident of Amherstburg there will now be a fee of $450.  If a fire department official has to respond to an open burn call, you’re looking at $225. If fire fighters have to respond to an open burn call it’s going to cost $450 for less than 6 fire fighters or $900 for more than 6 fire fighters. Another big one, if you have more than three false fire alarms in a 12 month period, it will cost you $450. Personally, I think some of these new fees are reasonable. There are a lot of costs involved to have the fire department respond to various calls. Every time those trucks roll, there is a cost to the town and if they don’t charge individuals for that extra cost, then it just means that we will all pay collectively via our taxes.

So, overall,  I first thought this agenda was going to be a real yawner. But, like anything, it got to be a lot more complicated when I started reading the details. I hope our town councillors took the time to read the details and be prepared. I also hope someone can explain to us Tuesday night why a fence-viewing costs $400.

 

Monday February 8th Amherstburg Town council meeting

Tonight’s meeting started a bit late. There was a planning meeting scheduled at 5:30 that lasted a bit past 6:00. The regular meeting got called to order around 6:20. Of special note, Councillor Fryer was absent from tonight’s meeting.

ERCA report

Mr. Richard Wyma presented this year’s ERCA report. Not going to lie, it was pretty boring. It was much of what would be expected in an environmental report: water sustainability, great lakes, projects, tree planting, seedlings available for planting etc. Councillor Pouget was in her element and was very appreciative and receptive to this report. It is a well-known fact that she is a “tree lover”/environmentalist and she seemed pretty interested in all of this. Councillor Meloche questioned ERCA’s budget increase of 4.9%. He felt other government bodies are trying to hold the line at a 0 to 2% range. He acknowledged it is just 65 cents per household, yet he was questioning why ERCA has been running a deficit and has put a 4.9% increase in place. Mr. Wyma from ERCA explained they don’t have any reserves (sound familiar Amherstburg?) and they have a limited ability to increase revenue. Councillor Pouget then chastised Councillor Meloche and wondered why anybody would complain about 65 cents per household. Councillor Meloche defended himself but it was an unfortunate and unpleasant exchange. (I guess we can’t all just get along.) 

Plaque presentations

There were 3 plaque presentations for various historical buildings in Amherstburg.

Accounts payable 

Went through with nary a question….boring.

Director of Planning, Development and Legislative Services

The CAO presented Mr. Mark Galvin (hope I got the spelling correct) as our new Director of Planning, Development and Legislative Services. The CAO read a lengthy and impressive list of credentials and experience held by Mr. Galvin. It seems Amherstburg is taking a step in the right direction by hiring qualified, impressive people to our upper management team.

Information reports – The cost of the Ministry of Labour orders issued on June 23 2015

OK, I did my best here. I took notes so fast I thought my hand may fall off. There was a lengthy back and forth between Councillor Pouget and the Fire Chief. She had questions regarding the state of affairs that existed in the fire department last spring. The new Chief had few answers as he was not on staff at the time in question. At one point I felt that I was no longer in a Council chambers but rather in a Court of Law. Why you ask? Because it sure seemed like Councillor Pouget was looking to lay blame. Where you ask? It seems on the former fire chief.  Basically it seems that the town now has a Health and Safety Committee and is using a centralized approach. It seems in the not so distant past, the town used a decentralized process and each department took care of its own health and safety. The questions continued on and on and on. If this many problems were found in one town department, how may problems exist in other town departments? How many other issues are under the surface that we don’t know about? Our fire chief and two volunteer fire fighters lost their jobs over all of this and yet town council still does not seem to understand the importance of health and safety? I still can not understand why council did not support hiring a Health and Safety Officer in this year’s budget in light of these issues. It seemed like there was much veiled discussion and innuendo about the former fire chief, yet no mention as to the two volunteer fire fighters who were also dismissed. I have a gut feeling that the truth will never come out. About any of this.

The rest of the meeting

There was some discussion and questions about some other issues, but nothing of interest. At one point, Councillor Meloche said something insulting towards Councillor Courtney and the mayor told him he was out of line. I am honestly unsure what happened here as I was replying to a text on my phone. Darn phones. They really are distracting. After that, I zoned in and out for the rest of the meeting. The meeting finished around 8:20. Nobody threw their hands up in the air and left early. Nobody had a mysterious hacker trying to access their computer. Nobody clapped when I left. I guess I’ll call tonight’s meeting a win.

In preparation for Monday February 8th Amhertburg town council meeting

Well, once again, it’s that time….I skimmed through the 122 page agenda for Monday’s meeting. I found a few points of interest that I will keep an eye on.

Every two weeks, council goes over the accounts payable for the town. They are available to the public on line as well. They can range from $5.00 for office supplies on up to tens of thousands for various items. I always try to watch how much we are paying out in legal fees. For this bi-weekly payables, it is only $4900 approximately. Things are looking better.  Only spent $4900 on lawyers these past two weeks.

I have also noticed that council will be receiving a report regarding the town’s insurance policy. The report outlines how many claims have been recorded against the town each year since 2008 (no specific reasons shown) and in 2011 it reached an all-time high of 107 claims. Wow! It appears the previous council reviewed and revamped the insurance policy to try to find cost savings. (I wonder if the current council will give them any credit for this? They like to give them credit for our debt. It should work both ways right? ) Until 2013 all claims were dealt with by the insurer. It seems that it was changed at that point and that since then, in 2014 and 2015, some claims have been handled “in-house” to try to offset premium costs. Will be interested to hear what, if anything, any of our councillors have to say about litigation and how it affects our town’s insurance premiums. (hmmm….mentions trip and fall claims right in the report, any one else find that interesting?) See chart below.

There was a report requested in November that administration explain why they changed cell phone providers and the cost savings involved. The report is in. Seems clear. They changed companies and achieved cost savings.

There was also a report request in September regarding the Ministry of Labour orders issued in June against the fire department. Seems that all of the changes recommended to correct all the health and safety issues will cost us around $160,000. I can only ask myself why was this report requested and then council rejected hiring a Health and Safety Officer for this year? If there were issues to be dealt with why would council not want to hire a Health and Safety Officer? I must note that I know in advance it will be very difficult to follow the discussion about this on Monday night. When it comes to discussion surrounding last year’s fire department dismissals, some matters are public and some are not. Therefore, it is almost like trying to follow a conversation that is taking place in a foreign language of which you only have partial comprehension. I will do my best to hear what is said but also what is not said. Sometimes it’s the things unsaid that give the most powerful statements.

Finally, council had requested administration send an invitation to the local Trustee regarding the closing of St. Bernard’s elementary school and possible amalgamation with Stella Maris. The Trustee has respectfully declined the invitation as he feels it would be in violation of the Education Act and the school board’s policies for him to address council at this time during the accommodation review process. He has, in turn, invited any council members to attend the school board’s meeting later this month.

So, all in all, doesn’t appear to be too much excitement coming up Monday night, but you truly just never know. Sometimes the most mundane things get really interesting really quickly. Will keep you posted.

Monday February 1st Amherstburg Town Council Meeting

Before, I begin with the details of tonight’s meeting, I just want to follow up on my last blog. I had wondered out loud about the Council Code of Conduct policy since I recalled it being discussed last spring/summer yet I did not recall it being passed. I said I would follow up and I did. I sent an email early Sunday afternoon to the Mayor and all of Council asking about this policy and what the status was. Mayor DiCarlo replied to me this morning (Monday). He was the only person that replied. His reply was courteous and to the point. He said that the second time it was presented to council, they requested more amendments to the policy. He said the policy has been forwarded to Mr. Swayze (I believe he is the Integrity Officer) and as of yet, no other amendments have been suggested.

Some would say I’m kind of detail oriented, others would say obsessed or obsessive-compulsive (lol). So I went back in my notes to see what I could find. I will admit in the spring I was still a lamb walking into, what felt like the lion’s den, so I wasn’t always sure what was going on and my notes reflect that. However, I did clearly note that at the meeting of Monday May 11th 2015, Councillor Fryer specified that he wanted the Code of Conduct for Council and the Mayor to be the first policy brought forward.

Tonight’s meeting

There were 7 policies being reviewed tonight. (Electronic Funds Transfer, Revenue Recognition, Bank Accounts, Investment, Loans and Borrowing, Reserve and Restricted Funds, Tax Stabilization Reserve) I won’t go over each one because, well, because. There’s just not much to say.

Tonight’s meeting lasted 40 minutes. That could be a record. The meeting was very, very dry. It was almost as boring as the clean water meeting. I was one of only 2 members of the public (just like the water meeting hmmm), although another member of the public came in minutes before the meeting ended.

Overall observations, Councillor Meloche was first to ask questions almost every time tonight. (I wonder if Councillor Pouget was taking it easy tonight.) I think he’s an accountant so he probably found the policies interesting, maybe even fascinating. I did not. I don’t think the others were too intrigued either. I have to give Councillor Courtney credit tonight, I think she could get a job as a proof reader. She found 2 maybe even 3 typing/spelling errors. Quite impressive. I wonder if she’d be willing to proof my blog before I post it?

They went through the policies one at a time and they all passed. Just when I started to doze off, the meeting was over.

I left within a few minutes of the meeting being adjourned. As I walked out the door, I heard somebody clap behind me. Coincidence? Maybe they were clapping because the meeting was over so quickly? Maybe they were clapping because they checked their scratch ticket and they won? Maybe they were clapping because I left the room?  I don’t know.