Year end review 2017

Well, here I am. I thought about deferring the year end review of the public council meetings until after Christmas, but I decided to do it now. Get ‘er done. This will allow me to focus on everything other than local politics until the end of the year. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a very focused and determined person. My husband better run and hide.

I have been blogging since January 2016, so it has been almost 2 full years now. I was attending the meetings and taking notes before that. I will be honest and say that this blog has truly taken on a life of it’s own. I must take a moment to thank those that follow via email, read and share on social media, comment on the blog or on social media and even a few fans who have given me some small gifts of appreciation. And a true, profound thank you, once again, to those who “get” my humour. Okay. Enough sappiness. 2017 proved to be yet another eventful year of ups, downs and sideways with our town council.

Attendance 2017 

So, I know 2017 proved to have some “attendance issues” according to some, in particular with certain councillors. I have dutifully poured back through my notes from 2017 and counted up the absences. (Disclaimer, if I have made a mistake, I will gladly correct it and even apologize if need be. It’s really not necessary to call the lawyers.) There was a total of 26 town council meetings this year (less than last year, council had 32 meetings in 2016….) so that’s some very good news right off the hop.  Some meetings involved a planning meeting, followed by a regular meeting. Any meetings that happened on the same night, counted as one meeting for my intents and purposes.

Here it is from worst to best attendance:

Deputy Mayor DiPasquale missed 35% of the meetings.

Councillor Courtney missed 15% of the meetings.

Councillor Fryer missed 12% of the meetings.

Councillor Lavigne missed 8% of the meetings.

Councillor Pouget missed 4% of the meetings.

Mayor DiCarlo missed 4% of the meetings.

And…The perfect attendance award goes to Councillor Meloche who missed zero meetings this year! Kudos to you and thank you!

As for me, Amherstburg2, your local blogger, I earned a perfect attendance award too! I missed zero meetings this year! Kudos to me! (*disclaimer, always read the fine print…..I actually did miss one planning meeting in March, since it was only a planning meeting and an in-camera meeting…..I don’t attend the planning meetings, just the regular ones and the special ones…..) Therefore, based on my criteria, I think I still earned a perfect attendance award. And considering I receive zero pay to attend meetings, and council members are paid whether they attend or not……well……draw your own conclusion.

As I read through my notes, I noticed there were a few late arrivals, however, overall it seemed less than last year.

Only 42% of this year’s meeting had all 7 members of council present. That means less than half of the council meetings had the full compliment of our elected representatives in attendance!!!!

So there you have it folks, I think the attendance or lack thereof speaks for itself. You are always welcome to draw your own conclusions.

In-Camera meetings

During the previous council’s term, Mr. Lavigne (now Councillor Lavigne) kept a close eye on the number of in-camera meetings. I often read articles in the local paper or letters to the editor from him about this subject. So, as the new, unofficial “council watcher” (lol, this name makes me laugh for real) this term, I decided to tally these secret in-camera meetings again this year.

I counted any meeting where there was either an in-camera meeting before, during and/or after the regular meeting.

Brace yourself, here is the grand total: Twenty-two (22) in-camera meetings for 2017. To me, this seems like a lot of in-camera meetings, but what do I know? So out of 26 meetings, 22 of the meetings had an in-camera meeting either before, during and/or afterwards.

I would love to hear Councillor Lavigne’s thoughts on this, since it was sure an issue he had with prior council.

2017 Highlights and memorable moments as I see them

Well, like last year, just for fun, I decided to summarize the highlights and memorable moments of 2017 for town council. Some were great, some were embarrassing, some were somewhere in between. It all depends on your perspective. I was going to do to a Top 10, but unfortunately there were more than 10, so here are they are, in no particular order:

The budget – January 2017

The year started with budget deliberations for the 2017 budget since the meetings had been deferred in November due to one councillor’s inability to attend. The budget deliberations did eventually proceed without Councillor Courtney or Deputy Mayor DiPasquale in attendance and nobody on council expressed any concern. These budget meetings included quite a bit of arguing, sometimes yelling. There was much anger expressed by council that $100,000 had not been removed from the by-law department as council had instructed. Administration had explained this to council before, that they had to do restructuring in order to remove the $100,000 from the budget. Council even went in-camera during budget deliberations about this issue. The year before council had cut $100,000 from the arena budget. (It seems $100,000 seems to be some type of magical number for this council…..)

Councillor Fryer made a “joke” motion about a 30% raise for council. We laughed. He laughed. They all laughed. It was so, so funny. Little did we know ……

Councillor Fryer also made a motion at the budget deliberations (seconded by Councillor Pouget) about making a $100,000 donation to the ERCA Foundation for the trails. Councillor Lavigne was somewhat upset and wanted numbers and more information. The public wasn’t too thrilled either and those in the gallery seemed happy that Councillor Lavigne questioned this motion. (Again, had I had a crystal ball…..)

Ultimately, the budget was approved and passed later in January with a recorded vote. The lone dissenter was Councillor Fryer. Was it because the budget didn’t include a $100,000 donation to ERCF ? I guess they could just take it a little later from a tax surplus…..

The sign by-law

In 2016, council passed a very restrictive by-law regarding signage to advertise businesses and events. Businesses could no longer advertise off-site and events were held to tight time-lines for advertising. There were many delegations that came before council in 2017 requesting variances and permission around these restrictions. Some delegations were treated very nicely, some were treated poorly. Some received the permission for a variance, some did not. I can’t begin to tally them all up, but I’m sure the Rib Fest will always stick out as a sore spot. The Rib Fest is run by volunteers and wanted to put their signs up 2 weeks earlier than the allotted time, but nope. No signs early for you.

Joint Police Advisory Committee Consultant Recommendation

Early in the year, the pricing time line for the policing issue was coming near. The Joint Police Advisory Committee (JPAC) needed some direction from council about moving forward with various pricing possibilities.

Here is part of the motion that was voted on :

The Joint Police Advisory Committee BE DIRECTED to do all of the following:
a. Develop an RFP for costing for Windsor and LaSalle to respond to
b. Explore and analyze the possibility of amalgamation of police services with LaSalle and/or Windsor
c. Work with the OPP on the OPP Costing
d. Report back to Council with the Joint Police Advisory Committee findings and recommendations.

Here are the results of the recorded vote :
Support : Councillor Courtney, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale, Councillor Lavigne, Councillor Meloche and Mayor DiCarlo

Opposed : Councillor Fryer and Councillor Pouget

I will discuss the policing issue more in depth later, however, I was surprised to see that all members of council voted on this when the Windsor Police Department is clearly named in two parts of the motion, considering later in the year, when push came to shove, Councillor Pouget and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale would later declare a conflict? There didn’t seem to be a conflict in January 2017, yet 11 months later…..

Canuck It Up

I still remember sitting in the meeting when Ms Rota presented the concept of Canuck It up and presented it as being a premier event right here in Amherstburg. Well, premier event it was! This event drew around 80,000 visitors!!!!! Incredible! I visited the event on both days and was truly impressed. It was a fantastic event! It was wonderful to see the streets of downtown Amherstburg as well as the Navy Yard Park filled with people. The Mayor was there. I think he attends darn near every event this town has to offer. I’m not sure if any other members of council were in attendance or not. I know Councillor Meloche attends many events too. The shows were great, there was a fantastic energy and lots of fun to be had! For those who were there, you know exactly what I mean! What a great event and what a fantastic opportunity for Amherstburg.

Canada 150

On July 1st, there were extra special celebrations held to celebrate Canada’s 150th Anniversary. There were medals handed out to 150 Amherstburg residents for various volunteer efforts. I was also one of the fortunate recipients! Who knew my efforts towards this blog would land me among such a fantastic group of people who have all helped to make Amherstburg such a wonderful place to live? I was honoured and I extend a big congratulations to all! The Canada Day festivities included the annual Canada D’Eh run, the annual fireworks and lots of other entertainment to be had at Fort Malden and Toddy Jones Park. Another kudos to Amherstburg!

ERCA Foundation donation

In April, Councillor Fryer brought forward his motion once again to make a $100,000 donation to the ERCA Foundation for the trails. This money would come from just over $700,000 of a tax surplus. I was horrified. Still am. I emailed council on the Sunday before the meeting expressing my concern and telling them that I feel any excess tax money should only go into reserves and/or be used to pay down debt. Obviously, council didn’t listen, or didn’t care what I thought. Because in literally less than 3 minutes, they voted to give away $100,000 to the ERCA Foundation for the trails. The people were not pleased. At all. There were letters to the editor, social media commentary and I even wrote a special edition blog about what I felt was a very poor decision made by our council. The only single positive comment I saw about this giveaway came from a relative of one of our councillors. I don’t intend to rehash it all here. For those who feel the desire or the need for a complete refresher, here is the link to the special edition blog about this tax money give away:

https://amherstburg2.wordpress.com/2017/04/

Backyard chickens

A young boy addressed council in May with a request to have backyard chickens. He wanted the town’s by-law to be changed in order to be able to raise backyard chickens to have a fresh source for healthier eggs. Well, council didn’t seem to know what to say, so they asked for a full report. (I should have counted how many full reports this council has asked for during their term…….that’s probably a scary number…….wonder how much that costs?) Anyway, the public debate got heated. There were letters to the editor once again, social media commentary, people did not seem to like the idea of neighbours having back yard chickens. As it stands, the report has yet to come back to council. So no decision has yet to be made. I wonder if this will come back to council any time soon in 2018?

Open Burn By-law

Just as the public was settling down from the backyard chicken issue, Councillor Fryer made a motion for administration to investigate a new open burn by-law to allow residents to have back yard bonfires. Holy explosion Bat Man! The residents went wild! When Councillor Fryer made the motion, he made it seem that people would be happily roasting marshmallows before summer’s end. That definitely did not happen. There were 3 public consultation meetings. I attended one of the meetings. Chief Montone explained the proposed changes and received resident feedback. I took note of council’s attendance as reported in the River Town Time’s articles, since I only attended one meeting to see for myself. Out of the 3 meetings, 5 members of council attended either one, two or all three meetings. Guess who attended none? Councillor Fryer and Councillor Lavigne. This is another hot (ha ha, get it?) item that has yet to come back to council for a decision.

Plans, plans and more plans

While council was worrying about chickens, fires, tax money giveaways, sign variances and other such matters, administration delivered several plans to council to help with decision making going forward. I doubt I have them all here, but here’s a taste :

• Asset Management Plan
• Parks Master Plan
• Community Improvement Plan and Urban Design Guidelines
• Roads Needs Study

All in all, I saw the presentation for these plans, I skimmed over the reports about them and they were impressive! Super crazy impressive! I hope they prove to be useful to guide council through the various decisions that still remain to be made before the end of their term.

Civil Marriage Ceremonies

This is something I personally found a little amusing. People can now apply and get married at town hall and it can be officiated by a few certain people from town hall staff, including, I believe the clerk and the deputy clerk. I’m already married, so I don’t see myself needing this service. However, who knows what the future holds? I’ve had a lot of odd, really very odd, experiences in town hall. Maybe I could add a wedding to that list? LOL

Ice Rates

Leading in to this year’s budget, there were some fairly hefty ice rate increases proposed. Amherstburg Minor Hockey, Skate Amherstburg and the Amherstburg Admirals joined together and prepared an alternate proposal for council in regards to how to more equitably handle the needed increase. Alas, it was not to be. Council upped the rates and that was that. Then, in the next breath, council waived just over $12,000 in arena rental fees for the Rose City Gymnastics to hold a gymnastics tournament at the arena. Guess which councillor has an affiliation with this group?

The 2018 Budget

The budget preparations all happened in a timely manner for the first time ever on this council’s watch. The budget was prepared and presented on time to council. Council debated the budget according to the predetermined schedule and they even passed it on time in December. The budget deliberations, overall, did not include much arguing or bickering, they seemed to hold more of a tone of confusion this year. The two evenings were filled with confusion, questions and more confusion. But hey, the Mayor was included in the deliberations and the meetings didn’t get deferred as in the past, so I guess that’s a win.

To me, two things stood out :

First, council voted themselves a 30% raise, when in March 2015 they had decided to take a pay freeze. Here’s the article, if you need a refresher

Amherstburg councillors vote for zero pay increase for next four years

So, low and behold, Councillor Fryer’s joke in January 2017 became reality before 2017 saw her way out. Perhaps this is why the budget meetings went so smoothly, well, at least compared to years past? LOL

Second, it seems council had agreed to a new position of a Supervisor of Roads and Fleet during the second day of budget deliberations. Then, they took a dinner break. When they returned from said dinner break, they reconsidered the motion and undid it. No more Supervisor of Roads and Fleet. At best, this stinks. How could it get voted on and then undone within 2 hours when the only thing that happened was that they had dinner together. I don’t believe members of council are supposed to discuss town business among themselves……..some weird type of coincidence, right?

Conflicts, pecuniary interest and more conflicts

This term of council seems to have been riddled with conflicts of all sorts. Councillor Pouget and Councillor Lavigne with the Belle Vue House. Mayor DiCarlo with the library Board. Councillor Meloche with the Fire Department. Now, most recently, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale and Councillor Pouget about the Windsor Policing Proposal. Councillor Pouget said she had a letter stating she could not vote on the policing issue. Who wrote the letter and who paid for it? Did we the tax payers pay for a letter that allows a member of council to walk away from a ridiculously important vote?

In general, it concerns me to see conflicts declared by members of council. We only have seven people who were elected to represent approximately 21,000 residents of the Town of Amherstburg. I feel they were elected to represent the people and to vote according to the people’s will and best interests as issues come before them. When they don’t vote (for whatever reason), we are not being represented.

I have seen a few questions and comments on social media about this recent conflict declared by Deputy Mayor DiPasquale and Councillor Pouget. Deputy Mayor DiPasquale said that the he has a daughter who works for the Windsor Police Department. Councillor Pouget said she has an in-law who works for the Windsor Police Department. So, someone questioned why Mayor DiCarlo hasn’t declared a conflict since he has an in-law who works for Amherstburg Police Department. Here is the Mayor’s reply (I found it on Amherstburg Election Project on Facebook ) :

“The answer is simple, the Act is narrow on conflicts of interest for a reason, to ensure elected representatives can remain accountable to the voters. First the Act only stipulates immediate family, such as my wife and children, not brothers, sisters or associated in laws. In order for me to have a conflict, my brother in law would have to be my son, working for APS or WPS, and receiving financial gain simply because Amherstburg might switch to Windsor. From what I know of the RFP and contract, no one working for WPS will be getting any financial gains or raises if we switched. If it helps, I’ll include some links that might help: ….After reading the Act, it should be clear I do not have a conflict of interest.”

Here are the links the Mayor provided as well :

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90m50

http://www.osum.ca/OSUM-Docs/Conference/2016/Presentations/APrimeronMunicipalConflictofInterest.aspx

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90m50

From what I can tell, financial gain seems to be the only conflict under the act. How will Councillor Pouget and Deputy Mayor DiPasquale’s relatives be getting any financial gain whether or not the police proposal goes through?

How could the development of Belle Vue cause any financial gain for Councillor Pouget of Councillor Lavigne’s parents?

I hope the Mayor doesn’t mind that I quoted him. I did find it on Facebook. I guess if I get a letter from a lawyer, then I’ll know LOL.

Regardless, this whole “conflict” issue has plagued council throughout their term. It’s been used so far on two huge, important votes. I think it’s something to consider at election time.

The Policing Proposal

Well, the price came in and the next step will be public consultation. I took a peek at the numbers. It seems annually, the town would save $567,802 with a 5 year total savings of $2,839,010. (Just think, with this savings, we could make five $100,000 donations to the ERCA trails! Every single year!…LOL) 

I’ve had time to read through the whole report and plan to attend one of the upcoming public meetings. I hope that as many residents as possible attend these meetings. I think it’s very important to be informed especially on such a big issue.

Here are the dates, places and times for the upcoming meetings :

• Wednesday January 17 – 6:00 to 8:00 Amherstburg Town Hall
• Thursday January 18 – 6:00 to 8:00 McGregor Knights of Columbus
• Thursday January 25 – 6:00 to 8:00 St. Peter’s School
• Saturday January 27 – 11 AM to 1 PM The Libro Centre

Present at the public consultation meetings will be CAO Miceli, Mr Mitchell from the consulting firm, Chief Berthiaume, Chief Frederick and Mayor DiCarlo.

From what I understand, there is a deadline on the contract proposal, therefore administration is bringing this to council for a vote at the end of February.

The police pricing was an election issue leading up to this term of council. The people had wanted prices, options and information. Well, now the prices, one option and the information is in and will be delivered. This issue will probably be a highlight of this coming year’s council term. Just remember those who stepped up and voted, even if you don’t agree with their vote.

Heading into 2018 election

Well, if you’ve made it to the end here, I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on all of 2017’s quirks, twists, turns and fun at town hall. October 2018 will see a municipal election. I’m not sure which members of our current council may be seeking reelection. I’m also not sure which new people may put their names forward for council (including myself?). I do know that I intend to continue to blog until the end of this council’s term. I really enjoy having company at the meetings, so I really hope to see more members of the public at the meetings in order to become informed and involved. I guess you could say that that’s my wish for 2018.

With that, Happy New Year Amherstburg! See you on the flip side. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Monday December 11th Regular town council meeting

Well, I had thought 2017 would go out with a bang, and the meeting started with one! LOL The gallery was very full tonight. I loved that.

**Councillor Courtney was absent tonight.**

The meeting was called to order by the Mayor and then our Town Crier, Frank Gorham, came in ringing the bell, in full costume and began to talk (or speak very loudly?) about the volunteers from the Provincial Marine in our wonderful town of Amherstburg. He presented a picture of Belle Vue to the volunteers in recognition of their efforts. Mayor DiCarlo was also dressed in period costume and remained so for the duration of the meeting.

Mayor DiCarlo then showed a video of our Town Crier announcing the birth of the Mayor’s daughter on their front porch. She had been the first Amherstburg baby of the year (I think 1996?).  Mayor DiCarlo then presented Mr Gorham with his Canada 150 medal that he so richly deserves. It seems Mr Gorham was out of town this summer for the presentation.

It was fun seeing several people in period costume. Makes me wonder if that’s what town council meetings looked like 100 years ago or more.

DELEGATIONS
Rumble Strips in Front of Residential Property – Dino Gidillini

Melissa Gidillini addressed council on behalf of her parents. She expressed concern about the rumble strips in the Third Concession and Middle Side Road area. She said that the noise has affected their sleep and has increased their anxiety. She also felt that they have decreased their enjoyment of their property and even decreased their property value. She said they had been installed with no consultation with the residents. She pointed out that there is already a red flashing light and gave other possibilities about increasing safety, for example lowering the speed limit. She wants council to reconsider the rumble strips.

Councillor Pouget said they had received several emails and that administration had acted quickly when they asked for the rumble strips on Alma Street and wondered if there was anything else that could be done to keep residents safe. Administration said there are different options, but that the rumble strips had been there a long time and the police department had decided to re-do all of the rumble strips when they did the Howard/Alma Street ones. Ms Gidillini pointed out that in the United States, they use a thick base paint so that the cars feel the vibration but there’s little noise. Mr Galvin, the Director of Engineering and Legislative services (I think I mess up this guy’s title every time!…..it’s so long….and I’m too lazy to look it up……sorry…..we’ll just call him Mr. Galvin, the man who wears many hats), explained that the rumble strips were there before and that they’d have to go back in the history of Amherstburg to see why they were installed. He also felt that the paint would be problematic in our area because of the plows, the snow and ice etc. He explained that the rumble strips were a council directed motion and that administration took action. (Funny, administration usually gets flack for acting too slowly, now flack for acting too quickly LOL.) Some residents spoke from the area spoke and they seemed to want the speed limit in the area reduced. The Deputy Mayor recalled that a few years ago, when rumble strips were first installed, that people had expressed concern, but eventually got used to them and didn’t notice them anymore. Councillor Fryer was concerned about the depth of the strips. (Here we go……who’s going to have to go out and measure these things now?) Administration offered that they could look at the depth of the strips. (I wonder if I’ll see them out there measuring tomorrow on my way home?) Then, another gentleman spoke about the rumble strips being installed on the corner of the Eighth Concession and Middle Side Road, since that location was new, it had never had rumble strips. He felt he has lost the peace and quiet of country living. The Mayor clarified with the residents…..they wanted no rumble strips at all. The CAO mentioned filling in the rumble strips…….hello…..Pandora’s Box just flew open.

Mr Galvin, the man who wears many hats, spoke of the legality and that they’d have to look at why they were there in the first place. Deputy Mayor DiPasquale said he remembers there being a number of accidents at those corners, many involving injury and death. Then, the discussion began to center around liability and legal talk about the rumble strips, should they suddenly be filled in. At some point someone made a motion for a full report about the rumble strips, but I’m not sure who, since several people in the gallery were talking around me. A few of the councillors tried to say that the motion had only been for Alma Street, however administration pointed out that rumble strips had been on the other roads for many years, had worn down, and were there based on previous motions, therefore needed maintenance. (Phew. Did you catch all that?) Anyway, long story short, administration was directed to prepare (yet another) full report about the rumble strips.

It was now 6:55, just some perspective on how long the rumble strips were discussed.

Grant Request for The House Youth Centre – Ashley Marchand, Activities
Co-ordinator

Ms Marchand spoke and presented a history of The House and the services they offer to our local youth. She explained the various partnerships they’ve entered into and the numerous volunteer hours put in by many devoted volunteers. Council gave them the grant money and took the money from the contingency fund. (Not sure exactly what that is, must be like fun money, I don’t know…..)

Presentation of Game Used Hockey Stick from the November 1-5th, 2017
Championships in Quebec City – Erica Fryer, U18 National Women’s Hockey Team

Ms Fryer addressed council and expressed her pride of her hometown of Amherstburg. She shared her recent accomplishments and how she was able to represent Amherstburg and the province of Ontario at the recent National Women’s Hockey Championships. Her team, Team Ontario blue came home with the silver medal at the National level. She took a picture with the Mayor, gave him her hockey stick and he held a team jersey with “Fryer” on it. Everyone smiled, applauded and then she signed the stick for him too.

Cat Control

As you may recall, (I know I sure do!), there was extensive discussion about the cat control issue during the budget deliberation meetings.  There were 2 different organisations that trap and release feral cats. Due to my exhaustion, I’m not sure if I mentioned in my post-meeting blog that administration would be coming back with a report about possibly donating vouchers for spay and neuters. It appears that administration is proposing giving each organisation 30 vouchers to get the cats spayed or neutered. It also appears that administration is looking for council to enter into an agreement with the Windsor-Essex Humane Society in regards to a cat intake service program. It also seems that administration wants council to direct them to create a by-law about feeding wildlife and feral cats. (Who’s going to police that???)

Once again, council has 3 options to choose from (or, of course, they can always come up with a new one if they wish) :

Program Option 1: Do Nothing and Continue with the same level of funding and
programing as approved in 2017. (Fund the Municipal Spay and Neuter Program and
CAT program)
Program Option 2: Fund the Municipal program and the CAT and SNAP Program
(funding levels subject to Council)
Program Option 3: Fund the Enhanced Municipal Program as presented in the report
inclusive of 30 vouchers for each CAT and SNAP and a CAT Intake Program (WECHS).
In addition, the Manager of Licensing and Enforcement will have the delegated authority
to reallocate resident program vouchers to CAT and SNAP should the need arise.
Option 3 is the Administrative Recommendation.

So, tonight, the very first thing that Councillor Fryer wanted to do, was defer it all. (Does he know how many kittens unfixed cats can make? Deferring? The next meeting is a month away! Sure…..give the cats more time to reproduce……) Councillor Fryer seemed concerned if people were using the vouchers for their household cats. He also wanted a policy for ear tipping. The CAO explained that it’s all in the report, including the ear tipping. Ms Rubli explained that the veterinarians that will ear tip will be named on the back of the voucher. Nobody seconded the motion for deferral. Councillor Pouget had some questions about cat control. Finally, the Mayor pointed out that he needed a motion. (Loooooong awkward pause…..tick tock, tick tock…..no motion was forthcoming…..) Finally Councillor Lavigne made a motion for the recommendation. However, nobody seconded it. (How is fixing cats such a problem for council???) Then Councillor Pouget made a motion to defer. She also had concerns about house cats getting the vouchers and that it would only be Amherstburg cats getting the vouchers (I wonder how they would provide proof of address? Hydro bill? ) The Mayor explained that all of the information is in the report. The CAO explained that the program provides controls and that he would need different direction from council if they were not to go forward with the motion. (I was having budget meeting flash backs…..the cat talk was never ending……) Finally, Councillor Fryer made a motion to approve it all, the vouchers etc, however, NOT the part about creating a by-law to address the feeding of wildlife and feral cats. This carried. So, the cats will get trapped, fixed and released and those who are feeding them, well, continue on, I guess. (Will we need to hire someone to ask the cats if they live in Amherstburg?)

2018 Final Approved Budget

As probably most are aware, the budget was debated two weeks ago and is now up for final approval from council. Interestingly, the recommendations have been broken down within the overall budget, mostly, it seems to try to avoid the various conflicts that some members of council have with different parts of the budget.

So, overall, the budget was cut up into tiny pieces and was passed as such. Councillor Pouget and Councillor Lavigne declared conflict on the Belle Vue portion and that passed. Councillor Fryer declared a conflict on the Rose City Gymnastics portion and that passed. And the rest of it, where nobody had a conflict, well, that passed too. Ironically, this may be the first of this council’s 4 budgets, that nobody voted against. Interesting.

Police Request for Proposal (RFP) Update

Councillor Pouget declared a conflict on the police request since she has an in-law that works for the Windsor Police Department. She said she had a letter stating that she can’t vote on this issue. Deputy Mayor DiPasquale also declared conflict and said he has a daughter who works for the Windsor Police Department.
It appears that administration is looking to move forward with public consultation in regards to the policing proposal received from the Windsor Police Department. Took a quick peak at the numbers. It seems annually, the town would save $567,802 with a 5 year total savings of $2,839,010. (Just think, with this savings, we could make five $100,000 donations to the ERCA trails! Every single year!) 

CAO Miceli presented Mike Mitchell who is the consultant in charge of the Joint Police Advisory Committee (JPAC). The CAO provided an overview of their findings. Basically, the town would see the elimination of the Police Chief and the Deputy Police Chief positions. These would be replaced with a special staff Sargent stationed in Amherstburg. There would also be a Police Reserve fund of $380,680 that could be re-purposed. (Do I smell yet another give away to the ERCA Foundation? LOL, well, sort of lol) Here are the dates for the 4 public consultation meetings :

• Wednesday January 17 – evening
• Thursday January 18 – evening
• Thursday January 25 – evening
• Saturday January 27 – late morning or early afternoon

Present at the public consultation meetings will be CAO Miceli, Mr Mitchell from the consulting firm, Chief Berthiaume, Chief Frederick and Mayor DiCarlo.

At this point, council called a 10 minute break. It was 7:50.

At 8:00, council resumed. The rest of the agenda flew through. One thing of interest though was the Heritage Committee had put forth a motion to declare certain properties on Boblo Island as properties of interest. It was interesting since the list of properties included various names for each one building. For those of you who are Amherstburg born and bread, you will completely understand this. For example, the Carousel/Theater/Roller Rink…..all depends which generation you’re from. It’s all the same thing, different names. Also, the bathroom near the Power house and Theatre was named etc. The space needle (which I think must be the Tower??) was named. Anyway, it was decided that the names of the properties will have to be clarified but that they can be considered properties of interest.

Councillor Meloche wished everyone, including the residents in the gallery Happy Holidays.

The meeting wrapped up at about 8:20.

Overall, the meeting was interesting and different. It was the final meeting for 2017, but it’s not over for me yet. 😉  I plan on bringing you a year in review for your reading pleasure……maybe I’ll have it ready before Christmas or maybe I’ll defer it until before New Year’s. Either way, wait for it. And in the meantime, if you see a non-Amherstburg cat trying to get neutered in town be sure to call your town councillors and report it!!

 

 

In preparation for Monday December 11th Regular town council meeting

Monday’s meeting will be the last council meeting of 2017! When they return to meeting in January, it will be an election year. I think things are gearing up already.

Monday’s agenda is a whopping 340 pages plus a supplementary agenda of 15 pages. But, believe it or not, there is no in-camera meeting scheduled for Monday night. Please note the word “scheduled”, council has been known to have last minute, impromptu in-camera meetings on occasion.

Please note, there are a lot of hot topics on Monday’s agenda, including the policing proposal from the City of Windsor. I strongly suggest if this issue interests you, or any other issues you see here,  try to make it out to the meeting. I would enjoy the company. 🙂

Since there are many lengthy reports on the agenda, I’m including the link to the regular agenda for any one who wants to read the full report (rather than my very brief summary.)

Click to access 2017%2012%2011%20-%20Regular%20Council%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf

I’ll start with the 15 page supplementary agenda items :

Presentation of Belle Vue Print to Jennie Lajoie, Member of the Provincial Marine,
for Fundraising Efforts for the Belle Vue House Restoration.

It looks like Ms Lajoie will be receiving a print of Belle Vue in recognition of her fundraising efforts. Congratulations!

Presentation of Game Used Hockey Stick from the November 1-5th, 2017
Championships in Quebec City – Erica Fryer, U18 National Women’s Hockey Team

This appears to be a presentation to the town of a hockey stick used during the Championship games in Quebec this year.

Sidewalk Winter Control

The town used to enforce a bylaw that required residents and businesses to clear the sidewalks in front of their homes or businesses. As part of a pilot project, the town bought (or rented? not sure) a couple of small, in my opinion, funny-looking machines to clear the snow from sidewalks. The pilot project was well received. It appears that administration is looking for some money in the budget to continue this project this year. I pulled this from the risk analysis of the report : “Once the program is implemented and the equipment purchased, the equipment will be outfitted with GPS units to track location and attachment operations (i.e. plow: up/down and salter: on/off). This will provide data that can be used by the municipality during litigation procedures in slip and fall claims.” It seems to me, unfortunately, everything always comes down to potential lawsuits and liability, they fall on a sidewalk and they sue. It appears that administration is looking to have the previous by-law that put the onus of snow removal on the property owner repealed. Then, would proceed with the purchase of some equipment and continue the program. Will have to wait and see what council decides.

Meadowview Estates – Relief from Subdivision Agreement and Development
Manual regarding the Issuance of Additional Model Home Permits

This appears to be good news. The developers are looking for 4 additional permits to build some model homes. It appears that the development will receive approval for services sometime in January, however they want to get started sooner as the weather changes are looming. Will have to see what council decides to do.

RECOGNITION
Canada 150 Medal – Frank Gorham, Town Crier

More recognition to be had! Congratulations!

DELEGATIONS
Rumble Strips in Front of Residential Property – Dino Gidillini

It appears that Mr Gidillini will be addressing council about the rumble strips that were recently installed on the 3rd concession near Middle Side Road. It seems they are loud and he has questions about other options.

PRESENTATIONS
Grant Request for The House Youth Centre – Ashley Marchand, Activities
Co-ordinator

It appears that The House missed the deadline for the grant application, therefore did not present 2 weeks ago. They have submitted and are being allowed to still make their request since the budget has not been officially passed yet.

Charity, Heritage, Legion, COAHP and Vacancy Rebates issued in 2017

It appears that under the Municipal Act, the town must offer tax rebates for charitable organisations, heritage properties, the Legion etc. It appears that council has to approve the by-law in order for it to remain in effect.

2017 Write-Offs Issued

This appears to be the breakdown for the write-offs of 2017 :

2017 Write Off County Portion            $- 218,250.35
2017 Write Off Municipal Portion      $- 440,997.01
2017 Write Off School Board Portion $- 265,320.68
Total 2017 Write Off                             $- 924,568.04

Here’s the conclusion of the report since I’m not exactly sure how these write offs work. :

“The write-off of taxes is permitted under the Municipal Act. Administration spends a
considerable amount of time and effort ensuring each write-off is being done for
legitimate reasons. The write-off of property taxes gives the Town a more accurate
position of the status of the overall tax accounts of the municipality.
Although Municipal tax write offs processed in the 2017 tax year totalling -$440,997
were substantial, they were partially offset by the new assessment (supps and omits)
totalling $298,389 processed in 2017, resulting in a net amount of $142,608.
In 2017 the Town has budgeted $200,000 for write offs and have experienced a
$240,997 negative variance to date. We have also budgeted of $220,000 in new
assessment (supps and omits) and have experienced a positive variance of $78,389 to
date. The effect of both issues has a negative variance of $162,608.”

It appears that a lot of the write offs have to do with MPAC appeals and adjustments.

2018 Final Approved Budget

As probably most are aware, the budget was debated two weeks ago and is now up for final approval from council. Interestingly, the recommendations have been broken down within the overall budget, mostly, it seems to try to avoid the various conflicts that some members of council have with different parts of the budget.

For example, there is one recommendation simply for a municipal tax increase of 0.83%.

Then, another recommendation for the Gross Operation budget of $26,888,488 and a net tax levy of $20,743,562 excluding funding for Rose City Gymnastics within the
Budget Document.

Then,  Funding for Rose City Gymnastics within the Budget Document. (Since Councillor Fryer declared a conflict on this item, I presume that’s why it’s separate.)

Then, another recommendation for approvals of everything excluding Belle Vue.

Then, a recommendation for approvals just for Belle Vue. (Councillor Pouget and Councillor Lavigne have a conflict, so again, presuming why this is separate.)

Anyway, the recommendations for approvals have been sliced up like a pie, 12 pieces all together. I have a feeling passing the budget may take a while LOL.

Special Benefit Cost of Driveway Hard Surfaces

This really, really long report appears to have to do the drainage work and driveways. There are 3 options being presented to council. Here they are, summarised :

Option 1 – Council direct Administration to draft a Grant Policy that will provide a grant to offset the costs that landowners have been assessed to pay for all driveway surfaces over any culvert that is installed, replaced or improved, within a municipal drain or road side ditch.

Option 2 – Council direct Administration to draft a Grant Policy that will provide a grant to landowners to offset the costs of the restoration of pre-existing hard driveway surfaces within a municipal drain or road side ditch.

Option 3 – Council direct Administration to forgo any further investigations into the establishment of a Grant Policy to address special benefits for driveway surfaces.

Option 3 is the recommended option and keeps the status quo. Options 1 and 2 will cost money and option 3 is free.

Will have to see which option council decides to go with.

Cat Control

As you may recall, (I know I sure do!), there was extensive discussion about the cat control issue during the budget deliberation meetings.  There were 2 different organisations that trap and release feral cats. Due to my exhaustion, I’m not sure if I mentioned in my post-meeting blog that administration would be coming back with a report about possibly donating vouchers for spay and neuters. It appears that administration is proposing giving each organisation 30 vouchers to get the cats spayed or neutered. It also appears that administration is looking for council to enter into an agreement with the Windsor-Essex Humane Society in regards to a cat intake service program. It also seems that administration wants council to direct them to create a by-law about feeding wildlife and feral cats. (Who’s going to police that???)

Once again, council has 3 options to choose from (or, of course, they can always come up with a new one if they wish) :

Program Option 1: Do Nothing and Continue with the same level of funding and
programing as approved in 2017. (Fund the Municipal Spay and Neuter Program and
CAT program)
Program Option 2: Fund the Municipal program and the CAT and SNAP Program
(funding levels subject to Council)
Program Option 3: Fund the Enhanced Municipal Program as presented in the report
inclusive of 30 vouchers for each CAT and SNAP and a CAT Intake Program (WECHS).
In addition, the Manager of Licensing and Enforcement will have the delegated authority
to reallocate resident program vouchers to CAT and SNAP should the need arise.
Option 3 is the Administrative Recommendation

2018 User Fees as Amended

It seems that the User Fee list needs updating to allow for civil marriage services that can now be performed at town hall. Depending if you want to get married at town hall or the Kings Navy Yard Park, the fees range from $250 to $350. In case you change your mind, there’s a cancellation fee ranging $62.50 to $175 depending if 24 hours notice is provided or not. Let’s just say it’s a lot cheaper to change your mind before the wedding, than after, just sayin’.

There is also a fee basis change only for open burns. There are also some new fees in regards to ERCA, for example special hearings, review fees etc.  Oh, and all the new user fees for the arena are in there too.

So, I guess it wasn’t just marriage ceremonies…..there are various “new” fees or fees going up.

Medical Tiered Response

This is a VERY lengthy report about ambulance services and fire service responses. Here’s the recommendation from the report :

Two (2) changes BE IMPLEMENTED as a pilot programming change to ensure fire services staff and resources are available for core mandated fire services and those medical assist calls where there is value added to patient outcomes:
a) That specifically Amherstburg’s participation in the Medical Tiered Response Agreement between the Essex Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EWEMS) and the County of Essex be amended to reflect a change to the circumstances surrounding limited EMS resource deployment (Significant Delay section).
b) The deployment model within the AFD properly ensure, the availability of sufficient staff resources for calls not requiring large numbers i.e. Medical Calls, CO alarm calls with no symptoms, spill control, other Priority 2 responses, Etc.

I’m guessing there will be lots of discussion and many questions surrounding this issue, since it has been discussed at length in the past.

Additional 2018 Grant to Community Group Request

This has to do with The House (see above) presentation for a grant approval. Since the deadline has passed, but the budget has not been officially adopted, council will have to decide what to do. If they use the money from the contingency fund, the tax rate won’t change. If they just up the amount in the budget, the tax rate will increase slightly. (The same principle applies about the cat voucher situation.)

Police Request for Proposal (RFP) Update
It appears that administration is looking to move forward with public consultation in regards to the policing proposal received from the Windsor Police Department. Took a quick peak at the numbers. It seems annually, the town would save $567,802 with a 5 year total savings of $2,839,010. The report is VERY lengthy once again. For those who have following this issue closely, it’s worth a read. I don’t feel right trying to summarise it.

Accounts Payable

Took a quick look through what we paid out. We paid about $9,100 in legal fees on this week’s report. Nothing else caught my eye.

Overall, there are a lot of big issues on Monday’s agenda. 2017 will be going out with a bang, I bet.