WOW! I left tonight’s meeting at 9:30 and it STILL wasn’t over!
**Mayor DiCarlo was absent tonight**
It was a pretty full house tonight, which is always nice to see.
There was a report out from an in-camera meeting from July 25th. The motion was something about that the Clerk be directed to organize a public town hall meeting for residents to ask questions regarding town business.
Councillor Courtney then spoke and said that this motion was Facebook related and was about Facebook groups. He said something about that he received an email on July 26th from a resident and he spoke with a resident to address her concerns. Later, he saw a post on Facebook and he said that he does not speak on behalf of council. He said he sent an email to council and reached out to the Integrity Commissioner. I believe he said that this in-camera report out was from July 25th but the topic of these meetings was brought up in public…..Now I’m seriously confused…..I was at the last public meeting until the end and I never heard council discuss having public town hall meetings. I saw a post on Facebook where a resident said that Councillor Courtney told her that there would be upcoming public meetings to address concerns, but now I’m hearing about it as a report out from an in-camera meeting. I’m confused. I think I will listen to the audio recording of this meeting tomorrow when I have some time. If this topic was discussed in-camera on July 25th, how could the information have been put out publicly before now? Strange.
Anyway, Councillor Simone made the motion and Councillor Courtney seconded it …that the Clerk be directed to organize public town hall meetings for residents to ask questions regarding town business.
Councillor Prue then wanted to amend the motion. (This seems to be becoming a pattern…..I’m not sure why he just doesn’t make the motion himself if he wants the motion to be different and amended…..but I digress). Councillor Prue felt that there should be multiple meetings scheduled every other month to allow people to speak one hour prior to a regular meeting with any questions they may have for council.
Councillor McArthur said that he was all for public meetings. He felt that council waives the rules of order to allow people to speak. He felt that if council was going to embrace this idea, that they should be held in Malden, Anderdon, McGregor and River Canard.
Councillor Renaud pointed out that he has attended meetings for 4 years prior to being elected and that he’s never seen anybody turned down when they put up their hand to speak.
Deputy Mayor Meloche asked questions about the format…..would it just be council and the residents or would administration be present too?
Councillor Renaud suggested that the meetings could be held quarterly in the residential areas.
Councillor Simone agreed with the amendment (of Councillor Prue’s….) and questioned the style of the meetings…..if it would be open house style with just council present for the 4 quarterly meetings.
There was some back and forth with the Clerk to clarify wording and accuracy for the motion.
Deputy Mayor Meloche pointed out that at the most recent fire master plan public engagement session that only ONE person showed up. He just felt it was important for council to bear that in mind.
Finally, ideas were shared and the motion was decided to organize and publicize public meetings once every other month, one hour prior to a council meeting AND to have quarterly open house style meetings in Anderdon, Malden, McGregor and River Canard.
Everyone voted in favour and it passed.
I will reserve my opinion on this topic until I’ve seen how one of these meetings works out.
DELEGATIONS
Perch Pit – Bill Deslippe
It seems that Mr Deslippe is seeking relief from a bylaw in order to be able to operate a food truck behind the Waterfront Ice Cream Store. As it stands, the town has a bylaw that a food truck can not operate within 200 meters of an existing restaurant.
Mr Deslippe presented his idea to council along with Mrs DeLuca from the Waterfront Ice Cream Parlour. Mr Deslippe is looking to operate a food truck on private commercial property right behind the Ice Cream store. He said that people could eat at the Gazebo and that he would have a simple menu. The plan is to operate from Good Friday until Thanksgiving. It seems that this particular truck does not have an engine and would be more of a fixed structure. However, it can be towed if he chose to.
Councillor Courtney felt this was a good idea. Councillor Prue asked some questions regarding another food truck that he’s seen around town. Mr Galvin, Director of Planning and Legislative Services said that since the truck doesn’t have an engine that it’s considered a structure and that permits would be needed. Councillor Prue mentioned that there is an upcoming meeting on August 22nd regarding this bylaw for food trucks and wondered if it may be appropriate to defer. Mr Galvin seemed to concur since the upcoming meeting was to explain the changes to the public and to prepare a draft bylaw for council’s approval.
Councillor McArthur asked if they were given the green light tonight when they would be operational. Mr Deslippe said that perhaps in September some time. Councillor McArthur made a motion for the exemption to the bylaw for this situation to allow the food truck to operate behind the Waterfront Ice Cream store. Councillor Courtney seconded it.
There was quite a bit of debate and frankly I’m tired, so I’ll cut to the chase. The motion passed and hopefully we’ll be able to eat perch from the Perch Pit some time in September. 🙂 I’m looking forward to it!
PRESENTATIONS
Legion Noise Study Preliminary Findings – Colin Novak, Akoustik Engineering Ltd.
Mr. Novak presented his preliminary findings to council about the noise issue between the Legion and the property owners across the street. I am going to do my best here, but full disclaimer…..I am not a sound engineer…..I am not an engineer of any type…..and during most of the presentation Mr. Novak was speaking a language that I did not understand, so I will do my very best. (To be clear, not a foreign language, but a scientific language….) If I misunderstood anything, due to the language barrier, I will edit and correct it.
Mr Novak studied the noise levels in the area during a 4 day period during the July 1st weekend this year. He set up equipment that measures various types of sound. He explained that in general, for indoors, a 50 decibel level is considered adequate. A 40 decibel level is adequate at night. He said that decibels in the upper 60s or 70s can interfere with daily activities.
He provided a live demonstration with a machine to replicate the noise levels. During the beginning of the demonstration it was quite loud. I was unable to hear what he was saying over the noise (he wasn’t using a microphone but speaking loudly). Then he increased the volume quite a bit (I found it was extremely loud)…..he explained that that part was about half of what the residents hear when the music is playing across the street.
Mr Novak said that at times the music from the Legion hit 103 decibels. Councillor Simone wondered, in his professional opinion, what a comfortable sound level would be for the homeowner. Mr Novak said that the Ministry of the Environment considers 55 decibels indoors to be acceptable.
Councillor Courtney spoke of this being a residential building across from a commercial establishment. And felt that louder noise levels should be expected. Mr Novak said that downtown Toronto and other cities often have mixed use residential and commercial yet have guidelines at 55 decibels. Councillor Courtney felt that it’s a unique situation and that if someone is going to live downtown, they would expect sound levels would be higher than if they lived on a country road.
Mr Novak pointed out that people can often tolerate temporary exemptions (such as a one evening festival) because there will be a reprieve from the noise. However, when the noise happens regularly it gets more annoying. Councillor Prue then asked several questions about when the building was built if council had done their due diligence. (I’m not going into that part……it’s irrelevant now in my opinion, the building is built and done).
What is interesting to note in all of this is this……the town’s current noise bylaw does not allow any amplified music…….so, if the residents that live in that building did their research 3 years ago they would have found that no amplified music was allowed. One could assume they chose to live there based on that bylaw, I’m not sure. This year, this current council waived the bylaw for the Legion to play amplified music 3 nights per week for the entire summer…… and here we are……to me, it looks like council may have created a problem that now they’re stuck trying to fix.
Anyway, the discussions raged on, I’m tired, yada yada yada, council tried to get a recommendation from the sound engineer even though it was a preliminary report. Some on council seemed to wonder if 70 decibels would be okay. (It was now 8:05 PM….) Mr Novak played the noise machine for us again so we could hear 70 decibels. Finally, it was decided that Mr Novak will return to get more readings for the study and he said he’d be happy to attend when a band is playing to offer advice to the Legion, once a decibel number is established.
Finally, council received the preliminary report and the meeting continued. Many items went through with very little or no discussion.
Drainage Board Appointment
It seems that the drainage board is down to 4 members and needs 5. Council appointed Anthony Campigotto to the drainage board.
INFORMATION REPORTS
At every meeting, council receives some reports that are considered “information reports”. Generally, council receives them but they are always free to take action should they choose to.
If you read my pre-meeting blog you will have seen that there was a report that really stood out to me and caused me concern.
Unfinished Business Item – June 24, 2019
This report goes back to a question regarding the Audit and Finance Committee. Just a bit of background, the previous council had implemented an Audit and Finance Committee, then abolished it about 2 years later. This new council implemented an Audit and Finance Committee once again. Council had made the following motion :
“That Terms of Reference dated January 12, 2015, BE USED in the interim as the Terms of Reference for the current term of the Audit Advisory Committee; and, Administration BE DIRECTED to provide a report to Council regarding the cost of resources required if an expanded Terms of Reference and mandate for the Audit Advisory Committee are established.”
So it seems that this report has to do with council wanting to expand the terms of reference for the Audit and Finance Committee. This committee, like other committees, is formed of volunteers. In this instance, the volunteers do have to have certain financial qualifications to sit on this committee. Further, if you recall, the Deloitte report that came about in 2014 because of the financial mess that we were in at the time. The years from 2009 to 2013 were studied to come forward with recommendations to better our financial picture and future.
In my opinion, it looks like the committee is looking for expanded “powers”, rather than simply provide advice to council, they seem to be looking to be able to request things of town staff.
Councillor Prue said he had many questions about this report and expressed that he was disappointed with the report on several occasions.
I believe that everybody is on the same page that this committee is important and its existence is important to the town. What seems to be the issue is the terms of reference that will govern this committee. It appears that, for the moment, the Audit and Finance Committee is governed by the 2015 Terms of Reference when the previous council established this committee. However, it seems that the committee is looking for new and revised terms of reference which seem to give them authority over town hall staff.
Councillor Courtney felt that the Audit and Finance Committee is important and that their feedback is important. He noted he is not a CPA and finds some things confusing. The town already employs 2 CPA’s and there are 3 more on this volunteer committee. He said he’s gotten feedback that council members could get training, but he seemed to feel that that’s not feasible.
I don’t think anybody was in disagreement about the committee itself, the issue seemed to lie in the reporting structure. The CAO spoke at length that his report answered council’s question. The interim terms of reference were approved. He felt that the 2019 terms of reference would allow the committee to take an audit function and that expanding resources would be necessary to meet the extra workload. He pointed out that the town currently does not have the resources to provide extra services and that they’re trying to keep their heads above water with the current workload. He felt that if the volunteer committee was asking for more work from administration that they could not keep up with the current staffing level. He cited tonight’s water report and that it had been finalized at the last minute, since the Finance Department was tasked with so many things.
Councillor Prue said that he’ll attend the next Audit and Finance Committee meeting on August 29th and try to understand.
Councillor McArthur pointed out that this committee is another set of eyes, not another set of hands. He felt that they could look at things after the fact and pointed out that we are one of the few municipalities that have such a committee. He felt that the chair of the Audit and Finance Committee had asked for access to staff. He pointed out that the CAO is the boss….the staff answer to the CAO, the CAO answers to Council and council answers to the taxpayers. He recognized that the staff is very busy with a lot of demands. He said that council is the boss and any committee that exists is a creature of council. (Phew! So good to see that someone understands the organizational structure in town hall!)
Councillor Simone said she looked forward to working on the terms of reference with the committee at their next meeting. Councillor Renaud felt that the committee is important to have but that the structure has to be clear.
The Chair of the Committee (Jillian Hainz) addressed council. One of the committee members also addressed council (Gordon Moore). There was a lot of back and forth…..my take on all of it?? Basically, it appears that the committee is looking to take on an audit role (like KPMG) and seems to want to micromanage administration. In my opinion, this committee is there simply to provide opinion and advice to council regarding financial decisions (for example the budget). It seems that the committee is looking for quarterly meetings (with staff?) to ask questions, get reports and summaries etc.
The CAO explained that administration prepares quarterly reports to council as well as a detailed budget that they go through line by line. These are management’s responsibility. He pointed out that the quarterly variance report never existed prior to 2014 and that since 2014 things have improved drastically because there are lots of professionals on staff.
Deputy Mayor Meloche pointed out that town hall now has experts on staff and that internally, the right people are in place. Council can use the qualified staff to assist them. There is also training available.
While the committee is an excellent source for advice, ultimately council has to make the decisions, the big and the small…..In my opinion, a volunteer committee can provide advice to council, but should not be directing or dealing with staff. Town hall staff already have work to do. Mr Rousseau, the Treasurer, pointed out that all of the policies, processes and controls are all available to the public. He pointed out that most of the financial policies were built from the ground up and approved by the previous council.
We already have an annual audit. For 4 years straight we’ve gotten clean audits. Administration has worked hard to turn the ship around from where we were 5 years ago. We have outside auditors come in annually. I think expanding the terms of reference for a volunteer committee would be problematic. I think everybody needs to understand their role and stay in their lane for things to be smooth sailing.
Ultimately council just accepted the report. No motions were made about this (which is good! In my opinion), nothing was “amended” or changed for now. It looks like the committee will work on their terms of reference at their next meeting on the 29th and then they’ll be presented to council. I hope everybody can remember what their roles and responsibilities are and respect them.
And by this point it was 9:30. The meeting was not over. I left. My legs had almost fallen asleep from sitting there for 3 and a half hours……it was a really long meeting and strangely it seemed like not much was accomplished, but that could be my fatigue setting in……
On that note, there’s a planning meeting at the end of the month, not sure I’ll go to that, so the next regular meeting won’t be until September! After tonight, I think I’ll take the rest!
amherstburg2 