This week’s blog is brought to you by guest blogger Lori Wightman who graciously stepped up to help me out. Thanks so much Lori for putting in the time and effort to help keep Amherstburg informed. đ
The council meeting started at 6:17
There were reports out from the in camera meetings – minutes from the June 28th meeting and
Delegations
There was a delegation of Mackenzie Porter and Sarah Aubin who represented Better Laws for Paws, an organization that is lobbying for better bylaws in Essex County municipalities regarding animal welfare, specifically dogs.
The organization is looking to have bylaw language updated regarding tethering laws, more background checks for animal control officers, kennel conditions, ability for exercise, supply of fresh water, when puppies can be taken from their mother, etc. They are asking for support from all municipalities.
There were a number of questions from council members clarifying portions of the presentation. And it was asked if staff/admin would do a report, possibly in conjunction with other municipalities, to see if we can get an idea where our bylaws sit in comparison.
It seems Nicole Rubli did a report with comparisons not that long ago.
Councillor Prue made a motion, seconded by Councillor Simone, to receive the delegation and ask for a report on where our bylaw can be improved. The motion carried.
(Thatâs report request #1, for those keeping scorecards and the time is now 6:40pm)
Infrastructure Report – Fryer St. Reconstruction
Administration is recommending approval for an overexpenditure of $472,450 on the reconstruction of Fryer St. and the tender for the reconstruction is awarded to Sherway Constracting and Dillon Consulting.
Councillor Courtney said that we tried to budget for these things and is there a better way to budget for these âexplosive tenderingâ amounts.
Someone named Todd (Iâm assuming Todd Hewitt – Manager of Engineering) answered that some things were not available design-wise at budget time and that everything incorporated in the increases are value added items in that the extra cost either saves the town money on future items or paves the way for future items.
Councillor Courtney said he received questions about notifications that went to residents in regards to drainage. It was revealed that the notifications went out to everyone who was on the 2nd Concession Drain and that it was just notification of the changeover with no cost to residents
(As an aside, Iâve noticed a trend recently of councillors referring to individuals in administration by their first names only during the course of meetings. While Iâm fine with council meetings being a little less formal so that residents can understand the meetings better – this habit by certain councillors seems a bit disrespectful to the administration of our town.)
Councillor Prue was troubled that the procurement policy was not followed – it was explained by Mr. Hewitt that somethings came up through the design and agreed that it should have come to council sooner.
Councillor Prue then pointed out that in his view we were out almost a million dollars with the overexpenditure and the extra amount for the project. Mr. Hewitt explained that the tendering process included two options – plastic piping and cement piping – both items were carried on the tender but the town ultimately only goes with one or the other. It was a provisional item.
Councillor Prue questioned whether the rest of the project with full details would be in front of council for the 2022 budget process.
Mr. Hewitt said that the design for Phase two has already been done so the situation will not repeat.
In answer to questions by Councillors McArthur and Renaud it was stated that the value added item like the infrastructure for the long term care home is better done all at once because in the long run it saves time, money and eliminates the need to tear up a newly done road in the future. Because the town is doing some of that infrastructure there will be some recovery costs. With regards to start date – the contractors hope to be on site by Aug 1. Residents in the area will get a notification about a week prior.
Deputy Mayor Meloche asked about the length of time Richmond will be closed. There is no set schedule but the contractors have 70 business days to complete the project and the Richmond/Fryer intersection which will remain a 4 way stop.Â
Planning and Development Services Report – Heritage Tax Rebate
There are six properties over the course of the last 3 years who have applied for the heritage tax rebate – 2 in 2018, 3 in 2019 and 1 in 2020.
There was some questioning of what is a permissible home improvement with regard to this heritage tax rebate. Councillor Courtney asked âAngeloâ if any kind of roofing is included, can homeowners just redo their bathroom and get a rebate? Mr. Angelo Avolio, the Chief Building Official responded that the policy does not specify what kind of work qualifies but that the new Heritage Planner will be looking at the policy.
Councillor McArthur asked if this shouldnât be a line item on the budget. These particular rebates added up to approximately $6100 but that that amount could fluctuate wildly
The report was accepted and Councillor McArthur put forward a motion to make the heritage tax rebate a line item. Councillor Prue wants to move it forward after the Heritage Planner has taken a look at the policy and after the Heritage Committee gives their recommendation.
Councillor Courtney said he has no issue giving rebates for historical features but things like shingles donât seem historical.
(But wouldnât the roofing be pertinent to protecting the historical things? Just a thought that itâs only actual heritage designated buildings that qualify for these rebates so almost anything that protects the integrity of the building envelope is important – especially since these home are usually designated not at request of the homeowner but by the town)
CAO Miceli pointed out that a line item could be added for a placeholder amount and when that limit is met, Administration can go to council.
Motion was passed to make the Heritage Rebate a budget line item.
(It is now 7:13 for those keeping track)
Reports from CAOâs office- Provision of Fire Dispatch Services
The recommendation here is to procure the fire dispatch service through Windsor again.
Councillor Prue said that 5 out of the 7 municipalities in Essex County do dispatch through Windsor, he wanted to know why the other two didnât.
(I do not have any idea why it would matter what 2 of the 7 are doing?)
Chief Montone said he (also LOL) had no idea why they werenât but that the two, Lasalle and Kingsville, do theirs through Lasalle at a cost of $2.36 per capita and Amherstburg is currently $1.85 and will go to $1.94 per capita when renewed.
This motion carried.
(itâs 7:16 – that one only took 3 minutes – Woohoo!)
Information Reports – Provincial Job Site Challenge Update
This report updates the application for the Honeywell site and the Howard Avenue site for the Job Site Challenge. âThe Challenge is an opportunity for municipalities, economic development agencies, private landowners and other interested parties to submit proposals to the Province identifying mega sites (i.e. large job sites) for consideration.â It appears the Honeywell site has been declined and only the Howard Ave one will move forward in the challenge.
There was a long discussion about how disappointing this was as some had hoped Honeywell would be the spot for an industrial tax base for the town. It seems that some of the reasons that properties are less attractive is that there are numerous owners of a tract of land or that there is contamination. The Honeywell property is obviously in the contamination category.
Councillors Prue and Courtney talked at length about the contamination and what Honeywell should do with regards to it, that perhaps they could sever portions. Someone even used the phrase âthey walked awayâ. Mayor DiCarlo clarified that Honeywell didnât walk away, General Chemical did and that Honeywell has been extremely transparent and done everything to remediate the majority of the property (100 acres or so at least). They have been great to work with and have already severed the property into smaller parcels.
(I think council has to be careful of assuming and pointing fingers – Honeywell has done us a good deed in taking over the property and, at some expense, doing what they can and working with the town to get the property into good shape and available for other uses. Pointing fingers at them for perceived and incorrect inaction or worse blaming them for the sins of others is not good)
The settling ponds will have to be naturally remediated and that will take time but various parcels are available for various levels of usage.
The report was accepted.
(Itâs now 7:32 – in my opinion there was a lot of time with this issue spent saying things that were somewhat untrue, talking about things that were not fully understood and getting those things corrected)
Consent Correspondence
All was received with motion to send letter of support to Prime Ministerâs office and local MPâS with regards to Inclusion of the PSA Test in the National Health Care System at No Charge – Town of Cochrane Resolution
Correspondence
The recommendations was that: The Proclamation received by Ryan Doyle, Author of Tears of Loneliness: The Angel Within regarding Bullying Elimination Week – September 20-26, 2021 BE RECEIVED; and, 1. 2. September 20-26, 2021 BE PROCLAIMED as Bullying Elimination Week in the Town of Amherstburg.
(This seemed to be a no brainer – there was no harm in it and I thought it would be another quickly passed thing but no…no it wasnât.)
Councillor Prue wanted to know where this person was from. Mayor DiCarlo said he spoke to the manâŚ.
(And thatâs what you do sometimes when you have questions – you go to the source and ask them instead of asking and taking up time during a council meeting. I did a simple Google search and found out that yes, Mr. Doyle was from Oshawa, he is a bullying survivor and is campaigning to get a province-wide Bullying Elimination week – but I digress…)
Mayor DiCarlo said he spoke to the man and found that he was not being successful at a provincial level and so changed tacks to go after the municipal level instead.
Councillor McArthur saw no harm in it and that every week should be Bullying Elimination Week. Councillor Courtney professed that he got it but that we were running out of weeks.
In the end the motion carried. (after 6 minutes which should have been 6 seconds)Â
Meeting Minutes to be received
Inclusive Community Program Advisory Steering Committee Minutes – June 23, 2021 Seniors Advisory Committee Minutes – May 11, 2021
Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee Minutes – May 12, 2021
Economic Development Advisory Committee Minutes – June 3, 2020
All received quickly and painlessly.
Drainage Board minutes
Lots of specific drainage minutes, requests etc, they were all approved. ( but to be honest I kind of zoned out dreaming about being able to go to bed at this point because things seemed to be moving along a little quicker – see that? That was the moment I jinxed myself)
Environmental Advisory Committee Minutes
This is the recommendation from the Environmental Advisory Committee Minutes:
It is recommended that: The Amherstburg Environmental Advisory Committee Minutes of June 9, 2021 BE RECEIVED;
and,
1. Administration BE DIRECTED to REPORT on the potential tree planting locations in the Town of Amherstburg, not limited to but including, municipal right-of-ways, parkland, outstanding development requests and other municipally owned property.
Okay, so this gets complicated and long – 30 minutes or so spent discussing planting trees and getting administration to do a report on planting trees.
Deputy Mayor Meloche and Councillor McArthur made the same point – we can ask all for all the reports we want but if when it comes to budget time we donât allot the funds for it then weâve wasted the time, money and staff morale for nothing.
Councillor Courtney talked about taking advantage of ERCA bulk tree saplings and such and using them for creative reforestation. (reforestation is one thing but thatâs not what the recommendation is speaking to)
There was talk of tree farms and reports with costs added in.
CAO Miceli said there was a tree farm in Windsor on vacant municipal property at significant expense. Right of ways fall under subdivision development and canât be reforested. Reforestation can be done in parks but maintenance must be kept in mind.
Councillor Prue reiterated that getting the plants from ERCA, figuring out where to put them and then doing so is what we are talking about.
Councillor McArthur pointed out that that is NOT what the motion says, that perhaps a more targeted one on parks and reforestation would be preferable.
Mayor DiCarlo stated concern about resources that will be used for this. We have a Master Tree Plan that we could perhaps use (Iâm curious if the council reps on the Environmental committee brought forward the Master Tree Plan for the committee to look at prior to making the recommendation)
Councillor Courtney said that these reports give Admin âa chance to say yay or nayâ (Um…what??)
Councillor Simone wanted to know if the environmental committee could be asked to make a more targeted request.
Councillor Courtney asked if the CAO could outline where we could get trees, where they can be planted within the parks (this is not an exceptional use of the CAOâs resources…sigh) CAO Miceli said if that is what council wants, it will get done.
Everyone voted yes
(another report #2)
Audit and Finance Committee Minutes
Here we go againâŚ.
It is recommended that:
The Audit and Finance Advisory Committee Minutes of May 26, 2021 BE RECEIVED;
1. Administration BE DIRECTED to PRESENT the Q4 year end budget to actual summaries and transfers inclusive of a schedule of reserves;
2. Administration BE DIRECTED to BRING TARGETS with the revised Reserve Policy for the medium and long term plan of Town Reserves; and,
3. Administration BE DIRECTED to INDICATE which of the Audit and Finance Advisory Committee recommendations provided in the review of the last years budget were approved.
Councillor Prue made the motion as the recommendation was written..
Deputy Mayor Meloche made the points that council should make requests of admin, not advisory committees, that Item 3 is already being done and that #4 the advisory committee should already know if they are following the budget process. He spoke of calls he received from residents concerned about committees directing staff.
Councillor Prue wanted to know why people arenât calling him, the chair of the committee, instead of other councillors (seemed an odd flex – people can call whoever they are comfortable with or…whoever gets back to them in a timely, if any, manner)
Councillor McArthur made the point that things like this take up staff resources and staff time when the service delivery review told us the town was already understaffed. He asked the CAO and Ms. Horrobin how much extra work does this involve.
Ms. Horrobin spoke quite eloquently and (unnecessarily) apologetically about how this kind of thing – the summary of transfers – takes significant time with low value to council, it doesnât provide a complete picture. The reserve policy and targets is already planned but the challenge is to find the time to do it. The town has lost staff in financial services, with a small team any turnover has a big impact. She reiterated (like was stated at a previous council meeting) that it is a struggle for the team with Covid, family struggles and trying to take vacation time to recharge. We want to be a credible employer, supporting staff and keeping them healthy.
(So now weâve had at least twice that staff have said they are overworked and understaffed and still council denies new positions, tries to reduce filling vacancies and heaps extra work on the staff that are there – that is a recipe for high turnover and low prospects for new employees)
CAO Miceli reminded everyone that while the committee does have accounting experience, our staff has MUNICIPAL accounting experience and have faced many challenges since 2014.
Councillor Prue then said something that shocked me âIf council doesnât want it then we just have to go back to the committee and tell them council doesnât want them to knowâ. (that is not at all what it means and saying something like just increases the animosity between groups)
Anyhow…lots of back and forth about the same things over and over until it went to a recorded vote.
The motion was to receive minutes, and to bring the targets with reserve policy and to advise which recommendations were approved (1, 3, & 4)
YES – Courtney, Prue, Simone
NO – McArthur, Meloche, Renaud and DiCarlo
The motion failed.
A new motion to just receive the minutes passed.
New Business
The CAO introduce the new town solicitor Susan Hirota.
A very long discussion on the Centennial Park/Jack Purdie park concepts plans.
Some councillors didnât seem to know that the reason the Senior assisted living building was included in every option. It seems that on May 13 2019, this very council entered into a letter of intent for that building. It was in an in camera meeting that presumably all councillors attended
There was talk about the track that is in the site plan of the highschool. Apparently the school board is willing to house the track but not pay for it. Councillor Courtney wanted to know if a joint use agreement could be entered into with other schools, if we could change the property line in order to add a track (weâd have to buy the property to move the line)
( I seem to recall Councillor Courtney declaring a conflict on the school decision but suddenly now heâs all over it. Odd.)
There were long (looong) discussions of the Talk the Burg survey that lead me to believe that a couple of councillors have not so much as glanced at that survey.
(To clarify – the concept drawings are just that, concept drawings, what is in them is just ideas. Nothing in those drawings is something that is a done deal – other than the building which falls under the letter of intent right now. So if there is not something in the drawings that you think should be in the park – add it to the comments on the survey. If there is something IN the drawings that you think is not good, let âem know. )
Councillor Prue asked when in person council meetings will take place.
CAO Miceli said that it will likely be the next meeting that will have council together but public will still be virtual as only 4-6 would be allowed in the room.
Councillor Prue got a call from a resident about a hole by the fence by the river at the base of Alma near Laird. It seems its covered by a piece of plywood and presents a danger. Coundillor Prue wondered when it would be remediated.
CAO said they didnât have a timeline but would touch base with staff about the plans.
Councillor Courtney again brought up the letter of intent and said that âthe innuendo was that this was a done deal.â And that â2019 was two years ago so as far as Iâm concerned there is no more intentâ
(What the heck?Do we really want to be known as the town that reneges on our intentions??)
There was a motion to make another concept that was all park.
(Sort of a report, #3)
(Around this time I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, but I had fallen for that before so I didnât get my hopes up but then there were no notices of motions, Bylaws passed super quick and Mayor DiCarlo said the most beautful words in the English language – Motion to adjourn
3 hours and 23 minutes later.)
Thanks Sarah for letting me be guest blogger and next time you ask, I think Iâm busy. LOL
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