January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 amherstburg2

Budget meeting #1 January 26th 2022

Have you ever watched a TV episode more than once? Maybe even twice, three, four, five times? You know what’s going to happen….and it’s really hard to stay focused….so you get distracted with other things? Well, that was me during budget meeting #1 last night! I watched the meeting from 6:00 until 9:00 when they took a recess until 1:30 today. I took notes, most of the time. Sometimes I doodled. Sometimes I texted with some friends who were also watching. Sometimes I stared at the wall…..and to make it even more strange, I couldn’t see the members of council on the screen (most of the time), I could only see the shared copy of the budget document. I can recognize all of council’s voices….and I used to be able to recognize town staff’s voices….but with the massive turnover, I often had no idea who was speaking and what their title may be…..bear with me. So, here is what I hope to be a brief summary of a long meeting, with (for the most part) unnecessary discussion, since, well, each of the budgets presented were adopted in principle, with only a few minor changes. (Again, this is a summary of Wednesday night’s meeting only – I did not watch Thursday afternoon’s meeting and likely won’t. LOL)

Here is the budget document for reference if you’re interested : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5473

As in the past, council debated each department’s budget, one at a time. First up was :

Council & Committees

There was a motion made to adopt the budget in principle. Then the questions began. Councillor Prue noted that council had voted last year to freeze their salaries due to COVID. CAO Haddad said that the salaries reflected the annual CPI (Consumer Price Index) increase in accordance with policy. Councillor Prue seemed unsure if council would want to take a pay increase this year or not. Councillor Courtney felt he was willing to keep the wage freeze in effect even though it’s a lot of work with emails and phone calls but he felt it sent a good message. (Ironically, it appeared that Councillor Courtney was at his full time job during this council meeting, but I can’t be 100% sure.) Anyway, there was a friendly amendment made to remove the 2% CPI increase for council members salaries.

Then the council and committees portion of the budget was adopted in principle.

CAO’s Office

Councillor Courtney inquired about the $30,000 that was in the budget to cover the audit that council had requested. He wondered if there was an emergency reserve to draw on should the audit cost more than $30,000. CAO Haddad explained that it was just a placeholder since no amount had been received yet from KPMG. He said if it were not a sufficient amount he would come back with a recommendation for council. Councillor Prue said that the Audit and Finance Committee felt very strongly that KPMG should not do the audit since they do the general review as well. He said that the committee felt that the auditors would be reviewing themselves. He said that the two auditors (on the volunteer committee) were “aghast” about this. CAO Haddad felt that he had responded to this issue and explained that there were no conflicts, that KPMG can be engaged to provide other services. He suggested that engaging another firm would cost a lot of time and likely more money too. However, he said that it was the prerogative of council.

Councillor Simone wondered if a part-time Communications Officer would be sufficient, since that was specified in the budget. However, CAO Haddad explained that it is one person, holding two part-time roles. That person would be a Communications Officer as well as work in the Tourism Department. He said that he would continue to monitor the workload of the individual.

And then council adopted the CAO’s Office budget in principle.

Police

From what I can see, the amount for policing remained the same however, there is an increase of $75,000. In the CAO’s report, it said : ”For the 2021 Operating Budget, Administration recommended a decrease to the Provincial Offences Act Fee Revenue due to COVID-19 and the fire at the Court Offices Building in Windsor. The City of Windsor recently provided their Budget for 2022 POA Revenue distribution. The Town of Amherstburg weighted average portion has been budgeted at $75,000.”

Deputy Mayor Meloche felt that even with this change, there is still savings to be had with the change to Windsor Police for Amherstburg. There was some discussion about the money that was put into reserves should Amherstburg decide to go back to having their own police department.

Ultimately, the police budget carried in principle.

Clerk’s Services

Councillor Courtney questioned the extra $10,000 requested to cover overtime in the Clerk’s department. He acknowledged that council has a lot of committees but he wondered if, in order to avoid over-time, the employee’s hours for the day could be changed. Ms Critchley, the Clerk said that there is almost one committee meeting per week, which is a lot. She also explained that there is work to be done during the day and then work to be done for and during the meeting. If shifts were changed for employees, their regular work would not get done. Councilllor Courtney did not seem to understand this and pressed on. He suggested that instead of working 8 – 4 for example, the person could start late and stay late in order to mitigate the overtime cost. Again, Ms Critchley explained that the same amount of work would be there and would still need to get done. Councillor Courtney said that he wasn’t nickel and dining this (it seemed to me like he was ….. But what do I know?) but he felt that somebody would work from 12-8 and stay for the committee meeting, rather than work 8-4 and stay late for the meeting. He felt that he wasn’t trying to tell them how to run the department, he was just trying to be “creative”…..he also couldn’t recall how the former Clerk used to do it. (Oh I remember the former Clerk talking to council repeatedly about how the committee meetings were a surplus and were causing overtime….and they even hired a committee liaison and still had overtime costs….maybe council should have given more thought to how many committees they created back when?) So, Deputy Mayor Meloche tried to explain it to Councillor Courtney that whether a person works 8-8 or 12-12, there is work to be done. Simply shifting the 8-4 to 12-8 (to include the meeting time) would mean that 4 hours of work from the morning would not get done.

Councillor Prue questioned an increase of $136,500 to the town’s insurance premium. Councillor Prue went on and on and on about investment returns that the insurance companies ought to have received. He felt that the report said that the insurance companies had had low investment returns yet the stock market had been good this past year. CAO Haddad said that the comment originated from the insurer and that he had no idea how they run their business. The CAO also noted that surrounding municipalities had all seen a 10% increase in their insurance premiums. Councillor Prue again went on that it can not be true that the insurance companies are not making money in the stock market and that they shouldn’t be telling people that they’re not making money. (What does this have anything to do with the budget????) Councillor Courtney felt that the town can go to market and shop the rate around.

So, after an odd 10 minute commentary about insurance companies, the Clerk’s budget was approved in principle.

Licencing and Enforcement

There was a lengthy discussion about body-worn cameras which were being requested for the bylaw officials. Ms Critchley advised that the issue was in motion before she arrived, however she felt that Mylar vests should be purchased instead at a cost of $3,000 (Versus $9,100 for the body worn cameras). So, instead of rapidly being happy about cutting $6,100 off of one of the budget centers, the discussion raged on. Councillor Courtney wondered if a bylaw official had ever been threatened and that once a homeowner had a gun. The new Manager (I did not catch his name) said that that was the only incident he was aware of but that he had only been here since the beginning of the month. (Bear with me, so much staff has left, only some positions have been replaced, I don’t know anybody’s names or what their titles are……I did have to laugh a little that he was so new….I think we’re going to be hearing that for a while…..new staff everywhere…..)

Eventually, the Licencing and Enforcement budget was passed in principle.

Financial Services

Woo hoo! No discussion. Passed in principle.

Human Resources

There was some discussion surrounding this item :”Administration is requesting a budget enhancement to the Recruitment Expenses account in the amount of $5,000. Advertising costs are rising and Administration posts for new or vacant positions to numerous websites (within reason) to reach a broad applicant pool, sometimes on a national level for management level positions. In 2020, the actual recruitment costs were $21,839 and as of July 26, 2021, the actual recruitment costs are $18,620 with half a year to go. Administration is beginning to see a trend in its inability to recruit qualified applicants for mid to upper level positions within the municipality. Some jobs are being posted two to three times before finding a suitable candidate, which is increasing recruitment costs.”

Councillor Prue wondered if this could be an expense going forward. He acknowledged the “rather large” staff turnover this year. He felt he did not know why this was happening and that he couldn’t imagine that it would be continuous. The CAO also felt that he can’t imagine that it will continue and that he hopes not but that it could be reviewed in 2023 if necessary. Councillor Courtney felt it had been a crazy year and that he can’t see recruitment expenses like this again, but that they should do whatever they can to get staff to stay. (I am working so very hard to tame my inside voice on these comments…..so very hard…..let’s just say that perhaps some people’s self-awareness needs some work…..) Councillor Prue talked about how the Audit and Finance Committee wanted some items moved to one-time instead of base budget.

Eventually, this budget center also passed in principle.

Information Technology

Some more long-winded discussion about a Fire-Staffing Notification Tool (a $3,000 request). (At this rate, I think my readers can see…..a long winded discussion about $3,000 in a multi-million dollar budget…..this was three hours and going nowhere…..)

Ultimately, the IT budget was also passed in principle.

Fire

The Fire Department Budget had a very small amount of discussion and then was adopted in principle.

Parks, Facilities, Recreation & Culture Budget Centre: Facilities

I had an internet connection problem for a few minutes, so I missed the beginning of this. When I was able to get back into the meeting, CAO Haddad and someone else from administration (maybe the Deputy Treasurer?) were talking about reserves. Councillor Courtney wondered what the ceiling was for reserves. He wondered if council should just keep putting money in and how much money do we need in reserves. (I can remember so many discussions about this….in fact I believe that the Service Delivery Review addressed this…..). CAO Haddad gave a mini lesson in Reserves 101 for council. He went on to explain that there are benchmarks with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs that are reviewed and comments are offered. Reserves and assets are compared. The Capital Asset Management Plan is a good tool to be used and is currently being revised. He mentioned that there is a gap going into the life-cycle reserve. He mentioned that various councils will look to draw on reserves for capital investments or for future needs and therefore minimize their reliance on debt. He mentioned that there is no magic number but that most towns do not have enough money in reserves and will have an appetite for assets. He said that it takes prudent financial planning and how council wants to fund expenditures. Councillor Courtney felt that that was very well explained and even felt that he had understood most of it. There were questions about the Park Land dedication fund and the Hub and more reports will be forthcoming.

Councillor Prue noted that there was nothing for Belle Vue or Duffy’s. CAO Haddad said that a business plan was needed for both properties.

Eventually, this budget centre passed in principle.

At 7:59 PM council took a recess.

Parks, Facilities, Recreation & Culture Budget Centre: Libro Centre

There was A LOT of discussion about this :

“Libro staff are often working alone and travelling to various locations during the day and at night. For Health & Safety reasons, staff should be provided radios to communicate with other staff. During Town events such as Open Air, Uncommon Festival and River Lights (Tree Lighting Ceremony) staff need to communicate with each other to ensure a smooth operation from start to finish. Use of a reliable radio system will help staff troubleshoot and resolve issues in real time rather than using the current cell phone communication tool. Adding radios to the existing KEL-COM radio use agreement will meet both the communication needs and health and safety issues.

Communication Needs:

12 radios
12 extra batteries
2 multi-radio charging stations
2 single radio charging stations

Cost per radio per month: $85.00

Total Cost per month: $1,020.00

Total Annual Cost: $12,240.00”

Councillor Simone wondered about the costs of the radios versus the use of cell phones. Ms Baillargeon, Director of Parks felt that the radio is easier to use and that it saves time. Multiple people can be using them at the same time and they are generally more efficient. There is constant communication and everyone hears the same message at the same time.

Councillor Prue questioned the cost percentage increase on various items included in the budget. Ms Baillargeon explained that there has been a substantial increase for materials and some items are in short supply.

There was a pause for a few minutes since Councillor Courtney did not have audio and could not hear the meeting. Once that was corrected….

Councillor Courtney felt that if there is an emergency, someone can just use a cell phone to call 911 and he wondered if the radios were a need or a want, since he felt we have survived without them. Ms Baillargeon said that they need efficiency and safety. There was some back and forth about employees using their cell phones. Mayor DiCarlo asked if cell phones had been given to staff. Ms Baillargeon said no, they often use personal cell phones and yet they try to encourage them to stay off of their cell phones. Mayor DiCarlo felt that as it stands, staff don’t have a form of communication and that the radios would be a good option.

Yada, yada, yada…..

The budget centre was also passed in principle.

Parks, Facilities, Recreation & Culture Budget Centre: Parks

There is an amount of $5,500 being given to the town for a property maintenance contract with Indigenous Services Canada Ontario Region to provide weekly maintenance at the Wyandotte Cemetery.

Councillor Prue questioned this money. Ms Baillargeon explained that it was money being received by the town. Councillor Prue wondered what the budget impact was and Ms Baillargeon explained that it was money being given to the town to cut the grass and maintain the property. Councillor Prue felt that no rationale was given in the report. Ms Baillargeon explained that the town did not receive this money last year since a private company had been hired to maintain the property.

Councillor Prue then went on to question this part of the budget : “ Material costs for basic maintenance have seen a substantial increase with some as high as 35%. This request represents a 25% increase in general supplies such as wood, concrete, steel and plastic that Parks depends on to beautify the Town’s greenspace.” He felt that everywhere else was using a price increase of 8% yet this portion of the budget was using 25%. Ms Baillargeon explained that prices have gone up tremendously and that this can also include playground equipment, for example a slide could cost $15,000 to $20,000 just for one piece. She also mentioned the delays at the border to be able to receive items as well due to shipping.

Councillor Prue felt that everywhere else an 8% increase had been used by the CAO and felt that the rest of staff should have taken note of that in order to be more consistent. Mayor DiCarlo said that the increases depend on the material and noted wood in particular has increased a lot in price. He noted a 2 X 4 costs $12 now. (It may have even increased as I type LOL)

CAO Haddad pointed out that he used an AVERAGE price index but the supply and demand has skyrocketed. He mentioned how drywall has doubled and even tripled. The CAO pointed out that administration is responding to costs and that they had been told to expect this. Councillor Prue felt that this was difficult to accept and hard to do with a budget since some departments showed an 8% increase and others showed a 35% increase and that makes it very difficult. (If any of my readers have done any type of home renovations in the past two years….or built a house….I’m guessing you don’t have much sympathy for council right now……ya, it’s difficult……costs have gone up exponentially for so many things…..no different for town administration purchasing things for the town…..)

Councillor Courtney questioned an item about clothing : “Parks clothing budget is dictated by the collective agreement and includes safety boots, winter gear, rain gear, gloves, hats and operational uniform allotments for 2 Administration, 6 FT staff, 3 PT staff and safety vests for 9 summer students.” He again mentioned that he wasn’t trying to nickel and dime….(well…..it sure seemed like that….but maybe discussing a few thousand dollars in a multi-million dollar budget isn’t nickel and diming ?) He mentioned sharing equipment but Ms Baillargeon explained that due to COVID employees were not allowed to share any clothing items.

So, after yet even more long discussions, the Parks budget centre passed in principle.

Parks, Facilities, Recreation & Culture Budget Centre: Recreation Services

This budget was adopted in principle after a very short discussion.

Tourism

Councillor Prue noted that it was almost 9:00 and that the meeting was scheduled to finish at 9:00 and resume Thursday at 1:30. He felt that the items relating to Open Air may be contentious so that perhaps they should recess until tomorrow. (Why an item like Open Air that was passed 6-1 would be contentious is beyond me???? But I digress…..)

Council recessed at 9:00 and were set to resume today (Thursday) at 1:30.

After watching this meeting for three hours I realized…..there was a whole lot of talking but very, very little change…..what was the point? And for the record, all members of council spoke, some just spoke a lot more than others…..and just because someone speaks does not mean necessarily that they’re productive….

The proposed rate increase was 3.55% going into the meeting…..

I just checked some news sources to see what happened today. Seems that the tax rate increase is now at 3.11%, which is $31.24 on $100,000 of assessment. And the capital budget will be tabled in February. I guess that will be Act II in As Amherstburg Turns, the series.

See you in two weeks for the next regular meeting! Lockdown is almost over folks! Stay safe!

January 25, 2022 amherstburg2

Monday January 24th Regular town council meeting

Well, well, well….the stars aligned in Amherstburg tonight! Tonight’s meeting wrapped up at 7:37 PM so here I am writing up the post-meeting blog on the very same night! Ah….reminiscent of the good ol’ days LOL!

First, council had met in-camera at 5:00 to discuss :

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA MEETING

That Council move into an In-Camera Meeting of Council pursuant to Section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001, as amended for the following reasons:

Item A

Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,

Section 239(2)(d) – Labour Relations or employee negotiations.

DELEGATIONS

247 Brock Street, St. Anthony School – Vince Rosati, Tony Rosati and Jackie Lasalline

St. Anthony School – Alterations; and Repeal and Replace Bylaw 2021- 079 (Report brought forward since it was what the delegation was there to discuss)

This is the former House of Shalom building, for those of my readers who don’t date back far enough to remember it as St. Anthony’s school LOL. The building is being developed into gorgeous condominium units. If you recall, the last time this property was before council, there were some questions about the elevator / stairwell that were being added onto the outside of the building.

Ms Lasalline addressed council first. She pointed out that the elevator is a necessary feature for the structure and is being located away from the street view. Three options were presented and the Heritage Committee had chosen option #1. The elevator has a reduced size and mass of 16% which has allowed the shaft to be reduced by just over 10 feet. As well, option #1 will visually minimize the necessary feature of the elevator. She went on to describe the stones and tinted windows that would be used to make it esthetically pleasing. She hoped that council would concur with this change and that they would then proceed with the development.

Councillor Prue felt that the change was marvelous. He asked about the Rosati Groups initial concerns about dealing with council at each step of the development process. Ms Lasalline said that the town staff had been excellent to deal with as well as the Heritage Committee. She said that their concern of possible opposition did not come to fruition and that the staff was a wonderful help. She pointed out that she was there tonight as a conclusion to the process. She felt that they could satisfy the Heritage Designation and that all had gone smoothly.

Councilor Prue asked if she would recommend this process for others that may be looking to develop other buildings. Ms Lasalline said that the staff were very helpful and that she did not want to burden council with the minutia of details of the development. She felt that staff had taken good care of everything in the process. (I kind of chuckled a bit…..she was very complimentary about town staff and said nothing about council….draw your own conclusion I guess…. 😉 )

Here is the recommendation and it passed :

It is recommended that:

1. Option 1 of the proposed interventions BE APPROVED;

2. Administration BE DIRECTED to issue the Notices required to repeal By-law 2021-079, which designates St. Anthony School, and to issue the Notices to concurrently re-designate the property to include a new legal description, making the designation registered upon only the portion of the property containing the heritage building, and to update which attributes of the building are regulated.

Decision of the Drainage Tribunal – Charles Shepley Drain

It looks like this issue went to the Drainage Tribunal. Here’s the order from the Drainage Board :

“The Tribunal orders that:

1. The appeal by Grondin Farms Ltd. under Section 54(1) of the Act is granted. All costs assessed upstream in the Report for the construction, engineering and future maintenance of Culvert 8 shall be eliminated. The costs for Culvert 8 shall be fully assessed to the lands identified as 5 and 8 in the Report under Section 24 of the Act.

2. The non-administrative costs of the Municipality incurred with respect of these appeals shall form part of the cost of the drainage works.

3. There shall be no other Order as to costs and all parties are responsible for their own costs.”

Considering this is ordered from the Drainage Tribunal, I would have though that council will quickly and quietly pass the recommendation :

1. By-law 2021-016 being a by-law to adopt the revised engineer’s report for the Improvements to the Charles Shepley Drain be given a THIRD AND FINAL reading and the Mayor and Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to sign same; and,

2. Administration BE DIRECTED to prepare tenders for the improvements to the Charles Shepley Drain and Branch Drain

Deputy Mayor Meloche immediately made the motion and Councillor McArthur seconded it. But Councillor Prue had questions….yadda yadda yadda, and the motion passed. (Anyone just think of that Seinfeld episode?)

Heritage Designation of 65-67 Richmond Street

The above noted property (the new River Bookshop) is slated to be designated as a heritage property. It has been through all of the steps and processes to get to this point. Here’s the recommendation :

It is recommended that:

1. Council DESIGNATE the “Thomas Drug Store” at 65-67 Richmond Street by municipal by-law under Part IV the Ontario Heritage Act.

This passed with no discussion at all!

Municipal Street Name Inventory Update

Well, council asked last March for the Street Name Inventory Policy to be updated and some names to be added. The list of unused names is included as well as seventeen new names to be added.

Councillor Prue made the motion and Councillor Simone seconded it.

Councillor Prue felt that he agreed with the report, in particular the part that mentioned paying attention to aboriginal names. He felt that maybe it didn’t necessarily have to be aboriginal names but could be words that have an impact. He used the word “skana” as an example which means peace. (Personally I think we should be getting far far away from names and should be using words or theme words…..in Aboriginal languages, French and English….using people’s names is the easy way out and can lead to so many problems down the road…..but I digress. For now.)

Councillor Simone mentioned that the Heritage Committee wants to bring additional names forward in the future.

Mr Robertson, The Heritage Planner, explained that this report is coming back from a council request in March of 2021. He said that the Heritage Committee had some Indigenous names proposed but that they need to consult with the Indigenous Community. He was hopeful that they could bring those names back later this year.

Councillor McArthur cited this portion of the existing policy. “6.6.3. Street names that represent specific themes are encouraged as they are recognizable for Emergency Services and provide consistency in large developments.” He mentioned how CrownRidge, Monopoly and Pointe West subdivisions came to mind as themed subdivisions where everybody knows where to find those streets. He wondered with a new subdivision coming if it could be themed or do they have to choose names from the existing list.

Mayor DiCarlo explained that when a subdivision is being developed there are a number of streets to be named at once and that they are often themed. The developer will often have ideas, however if they don’t have any ideas, they can use names from the approved list.

Mr Gerardo, Manager of Planning Services said that the inventory just provides a list for choosing from however the developer can come up with their own ideas and bring them to council.

Councillor Renaud mentioned that the Fox brothers’ names are on the Cenotaph but that the Third Concession was renamed. He felt it was important to get a Fox Road back in place to honour the Fox brothers who are Amherstburg veterans. He also noticed that there are about 80 names on the list and wondered what warranted somebody’s name getting onto the list.

Mr Robertson said that Fox Road was not included in error in 2017 but has since been rectified and that the name is a priority. Councillor Renaud felt that adding people’s names onto the list left it open to interpretation and did not provide structure. Mr Robertson said that the names can be geographic in nature, events or any other possibility.

Councillor Courtney mentioned receiving a couple of emails and he felt that sometimes history can rear its ugly head. He wondered how the names were vetted. He wondered if history was checked. (Wait for the reply here…..oh boy….) Mr Robertson said that the names are researched by himself and is limited to reading obituaries and history books. He admitted that it is not a very in-depth research. The Marsh Collection reviews the names but only for accuracy. He admitted that the names are reviewed on a very cursory level.

And then the motion passed. The list of names were all added to the list……

My thoughts…..oh my…..As Canada and the rest of the world is learning hard lessons about naming things after people and are looking to rename buildings, streets, parks etc…..Amherstburg is moving backwards and adding yet more names to a list for potential future streets. The list seems to be, for the most part, made up of names of white men. The report does acknowledge a lack of indigenous representation, yet does not address an overall lack of balance of gender or culture.

Why oh why is Amherstburg continuing down a path of naming streets after people? Rather than just deal with the remaining names on the list (most of whom I believe are Amherstburg war veterans), council has requested that names be added to the list….when we live in a time that has glaringly shown us that maybe, perhaps, we should be moving away from naming streets, parks, buildings, anything….after people.

Some members of council skirted this issue a little bit tonight, but nobody had the fortitude to stop it. While there are 80 names or so of people who contributed to Amherstburg in some way, I am sure that thousands of people have also done so. Where does it end? It should end after the names from the Cenotaph are used in my opinion. Council, sadly, just added yet more names of people to a list. What a shame. Even after it was publicly acknowledged that the names are vetted on a cursory level. Amherstburg is an historic town, but must we maintain an old-fashioned way of naming things? Seems everywhere else has learned their lesson on this front, but not Amherstburg.

2022 Special Events Approval – Part I

There are a few special events coming up that need some approvals. Here they are :

It is recommended that:

1. The following events BE APPROVED:

a. The House Youth Centre-Coldest Night of the Year Walk-February 26, 2022

b. The IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s-May 14, 2022

c. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

2. An exemption from table number 3-1(2) of Noise By-law #2001-43 with respect to the operation of any electronic device or group of connected electronic devices incorporating one or more loudspeakers to allow for music BE GRANTED for the following events:

a. The House Youth Centre-Coldest Night of the Year Walk-February 26, 2022

b. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

3. The following events BE EXEMPT and PERMITTED for road closures to begin prior to 5pm: a. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

4. The fee waiver requests BE APPROVED as follows:

a. The IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s: $419.64

b. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration: $1,871.00

5. The Public Events Committee BE DIRECTED to confirm that the requirements identified by the Committee are met prior to the event.

There were a few minor adjustments made to the above recommendations (waived the $250 for the House as well, which was good). Councillor Prue had questions about decibels and the noise bylaw and yadda yadda yadda, the motion passed.

Site Plan and Development Agreement – 72 Murray Street

This is beautiful!!! This is the site plan and the development agreement for the old Two Way Automotive building at the corner of Murray Street and Ramsay Street. It looks like it will be retail units on the main floor, with AirBnB units on the upper level. This is such a fantastic investment in Amherstburg! How fortunate are we? This will be a fantastic development for our downtown and provide some economic development for us!

Mayor DiCarlo mentioned that the developer was online if any members of council had any questions.

Councillor Prue had a question for staff…..it had to do with East/West/North/South around the building…..if I try to summarize that, it will be like a “Who’s on First” episode. So yadda, yadda, yadda…..Councillor McArthur felt it was a fantastic project. He inquired about the boutique hotel and how many rooms it would have.

The developer (I didn’t catch the name) said that the second floor would be made up of eight themed rooms. People can book the rooms on-line and then get a code on their phone to be able to access the rooms. The intent is to theme each room individually. They’re still working on ideas and are open to input.

Councillor McArthur wondered what the timeline would be for the development. It was shared that the intent is to apply for the building permit tomorrow, work on tendering the project with the hope of beginning construction in the early spring.

Mayor DiCarlo also expressed how this is a great development for Amherstburg!

Here is the motion :

It is recommended that:

1. The Site Plan and Development Agreement with 2787763 Ontario Limited for 72 Murray Street BE APPROVED subject to being satisfactory in technical content to the Director of Engineering and Public Works, financial content to the Director of Corporate Services and in form and legal content to the Town’s legal counsel; and,

2. By-law 2022-004 being a by-law to authorize the signing of the Development Agreement be taken as having been read three times and finally passed and the Mayor and Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to sign the same.

And the motion carried!! What a wonderful development for Amherstburg! Exciting things are happening right here and right now!

Adoption of the Public Petition Policy

It looks like the town is creating a petition policy in order to be able to properly deal with presentations presented to council about various items. From the report : “An additional method of civic engagement is through the creation and circulation of a public petition. The Town does not currently have a stipulated process or template for such a petition that is adopted by Council and communicated to those who would wish to make their will known to Council. The adoption of a policy in this regard would strengthen this process by ensuring that there are communicated standards to what 2 of 3 should be in a public petition and how the Town shall deal with those it receives. The Town has received a couple of petitions that were created and circulated during this term for various initiatives and interests within the community, and it could be expected to see greater utilization should the process be made clear and a template provided to assist those seeking to garner support for their cause. Additionally, in at least one instance, it was not clear from the petition received how the Town would be able to act on the petition and who the Town should communicate a response to. Without establishing a template for such purposes, those created by others may lack some elements which could be of assistance in ensuring that the petition created can be actioned.”

I read through the proposed policy and I was very happy to see the following provisions :

“6.1.6. For paper petitions, each petitioner must print and sign his or her own name directly on the petition, and provide his or her full address.

6.1.7. For electronic petitions, petitioners must provide name, full address and a valid email address.

6.1.8. Any petition must clearly disclose on each page that it will be considered a public document of the Town of Amherstburg and that information contained in it may be subject to the scrutiny of the municipality and other members of the general public.”

Councillor Prue had many, many questions. He felt that every petition should be recognized and part of the public record. He was concerned that a petition wouldn’t come forward in a public way. He felt that in order for it to be transparent, if people initiate a petition, it needs to be received.

Mr Fox, the Deputy Clerk, felt that maybe Councillor Prue was focusing on some of the language in the policy in the wrong way. If there were an agenda item, the petition would be there relative to that item. He also explained that even non-compliant petitions will still be distributed with explanations of why it was not compliant.
Councillor Prue felt that the petition should be part of the public record whether it was compliant or not. (And after much back and forth it seems that any petition received will be publicly available.) Here is the link to the policy : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5446

Deputy Mayor Meloche said that he supports the recommendation. He mentioned that he remembered chairing a meeting when a delegate referenced a petition but the Clerk advised that the petition had not been submitted. He felt that this policy would make the process official and uniform.

Councillor Courtney then brought up the “biggest petition” of the 4,000 signatures in regards to H. Murray Smith Park. He felt that he was scrutinized at that meeting for bringing it up. (And he was, and rightfully so! He didn’t actually provide the petition! There was no way to verify if the people that signed said petition were actually Amherstburg residents. In fact, there was no way to verify if the people that signed that petition were actually real, live people….it was a change.org petition, which are not very solid platforms for accuracy….and I believe that the wording in the petition was changed after some people had already signed it…….but I digress….) He wondered how an electronic petition would work.

Mr Fox noted that the policy has both options for a paper petition or an electronic petition. He said he was not familiar with the Centennial Park petition but mentioned receiving another petition that didn’t have a point of contact in order for administration to be able to follow up with the organizers. He noted that there is a template for a petition in the policy (I saw it and I thought it was very clear……am I the only one who read the report and the policy?..…) Councillor Courtney felt that education is bliss and that the River Town Times is the only source in Amherstburg to convey information to the residents. Mayor DiCarlo noted that there is Talk the Burg as well as other forums as well, not just the River Town Times. (I have to give a big shout out to Councillor McArthur for educating the public! He writes excellent, factual blog pieces based on all kinds of decisions being made by council! Kudos to him! And well, the town’s website also has tons of information available for those who want to look for it. And, some say that this blog is informative too…..just a thought….some use other words to describe it LOL To each their own! )

Councillor Simone requested that the template be easy to find on the town’s website.

Mayor DiCarlo confirmed that petitions can be done either on paper or electronically on-line. He also mentioned that this policy will confirm the validity of the petition. He said, for example, if someone were to hand him a petition with 1,000 names on it, he would want to confirm how many of those names are Amherstburg residents. He felt it was important to know who was signing the petition. (100% SPOT ON!!!!! The signatures must be Amherstburg residents if it’s an Amherstburg issue that will affect taxes……I should not be signing a petition about a park or a street in Kingsville would I? No, I would not….and Kingsville council should not give any weight to a signature from somebody who does not pay taxes there…..works the same way in The Burg…..I think anway…...)

And finally, the motion carried and we will now have a petition policy! It’s about time!

(Side note…..it’s funny, when I was a kid, every once in a while I would see a paper petition when I was out with my parents around town…..the 70s and the 80s….I remember my parents almost never ever signed them…..I asked them once why they didn’t sign them……and they said that petitions often only had partial information and that there was often a lot more to the situation than what was on the petition….so they didn’t sign it……I didn’t think about it much at the time…..but looking back now, I think my parents were onto something…..)

Changes to the Conservation Authorities Act and Municipal Representation

It looks like there have been some changes as to how representatives are chosen for the ERCA Board. If I’m understanding it correctly, 70% of the representation has to come from a municipal council. Therefore, the layperson that council appointed would need to resign and another member of council would need to be named to the ERCA Board. (Councillor Courtney is already a representative.) Here is the recommendation :

It is recommended that: 1. The resignation of the ERCA Board lay member appointee BE ACCEPTED; and, 2. __________ BE APPOINTED to the Essex Region Conservation Authority Board of Directors.

There was a lot of discussion about this, but ultimately the Ministry changed the legislation so it was necessary for Ms Morrison to resign from the ERCA Board. A member of council needed to be appointed. Councillor Prue volunteered and he got it! He and Councillor Courtney will be the Amherstburg representation on the ERCA Board.

New Business

Councillor McArthur asked if administration was looking into a recent announcement that Essex PowerLines is funding 50% of the cost to install electric vehicle charging stations. (They are). Councillor Simone asked about the flood light at Centennial Park. Seems it was removed this summer by Essex Power when they were doing some work and is being reinstalled shortly. Councillor Prue asked about lowering the speed limit on a section of Front Road (from 70 km/h to 50 km/h). Seems that is a county road so it has to be dealt with at the county level. Councillor Courtney asked about any feedback, questions or concerns brought forth regarding the budget. CAO Haddad said that the information was summarized today and would be available to council tomorrow. He said that 135 people had responded which is significantly higher than the number of people that attend public meetings. He said that generally the responses were positive, there are some services people want to see enhanced and some services that people want to see reduced.

And all of a sudden it was 7:37 PM and the meeting was adjourned!!! Woo hoo!!!

Council will meet again this week on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon for budget deliberations…..which means that I will be back again later this week!!! I’m not sure if I will summarize both budget meetings or just one……We shall see…..

Thanks for reading!!!!

January 22, 2022January 22, 2022 amherstburg2

In preparation for Monday January 24th Regular town council meeting

Well Monday night’s meeting will start out with a 5:00 in-camera meeting and then a 461 page agenda that’s on the docket for the regular meeting. Here are the highlights :

The 5:00 Special in-camera meeting is set to discuss :

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA MEETING

That Council move into an In-Camera Meeting of Council pursuant to Section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001, as amended for the following reasons:

Item A

Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,

Section 239(2)(d) – Labour Relations or employee negotiations.

DELEGATIONS

247 Brock Street, St. Anthony School – Vince Rosati, Tony Rosati and Jackie Lasalline

This is the old House of Shalom Building. There is a slide presentation in the agenda and it looks like the developers are presenting the revised stairwell and elevator finishes options to council. It looks like there are three options for materials for finishing this area. The development of the building was approved a few months ago and the drawings are absolutely gorgeous! I can hardly wait to see this building once it is finished! Will council welcome this openly, accept it and move on…..or will they force everyone to endure questions about minutia…..? Tune in Monday night to As Amherstburg Turns….

Decision of the Drainage Tribunal – Charles Shepley Drain

It looks like this issue went to the Drainage Tribunal. Here’s the order from the Drainage Board :

“The Tribunal orders that:

2. The non-administrative costs of the Municipality incurred with respect of these appeals shall form part of the cost of the drainage works.

3. There shall be no other Order as to costs and all parties are responsible for their own costs.”

Considering this is ordered from the Drainage Tribunal, I would think that council will quickly and quietly pass the recommendation :

2. Administration BE DIRECTED to prepare tenders for the improvements to the Charles Shepley Drain and Branch Drain

Heritage Designation of 65-67 Richmond Street

It is recommended that:

1. Council DESIGNATE the “Thomas Drug Store” at 65-67 Richmond Street by municipal by-law under Part IV the Ontario Heritage Act.

Municipal Street Name Inventory Update

Well, council asked last March for the Street Name Inventory Policy to be updated and some names to be added. The list of unused names is included as well as seventeen new names to be added.

Frankly, just reading this report was very disheartening. As Canada and the rest of the world is learning hard lessons about naming things after people and are looking to rename buildings, streets, parks etc…..Amherstburg is moving backwards and adding yet more names to a list for potential future streets. The list seems to be, for the most part, made up of names of white men. The report does acknowledge a lack of indigenous representation, yet does not address an overall lack of balance of gender or culture.

2022 Special Events Approval – Part I

There are a few special events coming up that need some approvals. Here they are :

It is recommended that:

1. The following events BE APPROVED:

a. The House Youth Centre-Coldest Night of the Year Walk-February 26, 2022

b. The IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s-May 14, 2022

c. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

a. The House Youth Centre-Coldest Night of the Year Walk-February 26, 2022

b. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

3. The following events BE EXEMPT and PERMITTED for road closures to begin prior to 5pm: a. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration – May 14, 2021

4. The fee waiver requests BE APPROVED as follows:

a. The IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s: $419.64

b. The General Amherst High School 100 year Anniversary Celebration: $1,871.00

5. The Public Events Committee BE DIRECTED to confirm that the requirements identified by the Committee are met prior to the event.

I did notice that there is a typo regarding the Amherst celebration being in 2021. Hopefully, somebody is reading this blog and can contact administration before Monday night so that they can fix this small typo. You know, before certain members of council try to embarrass staff for making a mistake……

Site Plan and Development Agreement – 72 Murray Street

This is beautiful!!! This is the site plan and the development agreement for the old Two Way Automotive building at the corner of Murray Street and Ramsay Street. It looks like it will be retail units on the main floor, with Air BnB units on the upper level. This is such a fantastic investment in Amherstburg! How fortunate are we? This will be a fantastic development for our downtown and provide some economic development for us! I can only hope that council welcomes it with open arms and passes it quickly! Awesome news for Amherstburg!

St. Anthony School – Alterations; and Repeal and Replace Bylaw 2021- 079

This report seems to have to do with the delegation at the beginning of the meeting regarding the elevator and stairwell at the old St. Anthony School / old House of Shalom building. Here is the recommendation :

It is recommended that:

1. Option 1 of the proposed interventions BE APPROVED;

Adoption of the Public Petition Policy

I read through the proposed policy and I was very happy to see the following provisions :

“6.1.6. For paper petitions, each petitioner must print and sign his or her own name directly on the petition, and provide his or her full address.

6.1.7. For electronic petitions, petitioners must provide name, full address and a valid email address.

There are far too many inaccurate petitions flying around the internet with no way to verify if electronic signatures are authentic. This is very good news to keep data legitimate.

Kudos to administration on this new policy. I don’t know whose idea it was, but this was a long time coming. Good job!

Changes to the Conservation Authorities Act and Municipal Representation

It is recommended that: 1. The resignation of the ERCA Board lay member appointee BE ACCEPTED; and, 2. __________ BE APPOINTED to the Essex Region Conservation Authority Board of Directors.

And well folks, that’s about it. There is some consent correspondence, unfinished business and new business that could bring forth any number of surprises.

As well, budget deliberations are set for Wednesday January 26th from 6:00 until 9:00 and Thursday January 27th from 1:30 until 5:30. If members of council are looking to save energy for the big budget production, maybe Monday night they’ll be able to do the town’s business efficiently and in a reasonable amount of time? See you next week Amherstburg!

January 12, 2022 amherstburg2

Monday January 10th Regular town council meeting

Well, Monday night was the first meeting of 2022. Due to the COVID restrictions, everybody was on line, including members of council. If tonight’s meeting sets the tone for the year…..well, we are doomed. I just can not see how Amherstburg will manage to recruit (let alone retain) a permanent CAO nor any qualified senior administrative staff. In my opinion, last night’s meeting was a spectacle of council members that don’t understand their roles, donèt understand the processes and quite frankly, treated our town staff very poorly. What an absolute shame.

PRESENTATIONS

2022 Operating Budget

Monday night, CAO Haddad (who is not only the interim CAO, he is also the acting Treasurer) presented the budget. I have watched and attended many budget presentations. They’ve all been the same…..the Treasurer and CAO present the budget, council tables it and then the budget goes public either that night following the meeting, or right away the next morning. I understand this. Anybody who has ever watched or attended past budget presentations would understand this. Council did not understand this. It was as if this was their very first budget presentation, not their fourth!!!!! What a fiasco.

The nitty gritty: (I have not had a chance to read through the budget document yet, this is simply a summary of my notes from last night’s presentation.)

CAO Haddad explained that he had received input from all departments and that the proposed budget was based on service levels that currently exist in Amherstburg. The purpose of the budget was to set priorities, use as a tool for financial management and for taxation purposes. He presented some graphs with various data that I could not write down all at once. Basically the priorities were to maintain services, prepare to return to full capacity operations (post-COVID), a new organizational chart, contributions into reserves and some re-engineered solutions.

CAO Haddad said that the department requested budget increases totalled 9.34%. He did an administrative review and he was recommending an increase of 3.35% to council. (I know this is the ultimate number that everybody is looking for…..so the proposed tax increase is 3.35% at the moment…..)

He presented the dates for public input (January 11-18), the council debate meetings (January 26th and 27th) and that the budget would be adopted on February 14th. (This is the same time line that has been used as long as I’ve been watching meetings, which has been, gulp, seven years now…..so this should not have been a surprise for council…..yet it seemed to be? weird)

The budget is based on the four Strategic Pillars that council has adopted (I’m not sure they remembered those?) Marketing and Promotion, Economic Development, Investment Infrastructure and Fiscal Sustainability. CAO Haddad expressed more than once that the recommendations stem from the Service Delivery Review that was presented to council in October 2020. (Council never did adopt that document…..just like the Libro Master Plan…..I guess they find it wiser to sing and dance around reports and recommendations and plans rather than adopt them and start planning but I digress…..) Of note, CAO Haddad did mention that as far as financial sustainability that we are tracking well. (Some small good news there I guess). He also gave an overview of how he arrived at a proposed increase of 3.35%.

Deputy Mayor Meloche made a motion to table the budget and Councillor Renaud seconded it. (Normal procedure…..but far from over, folks….) Councillor Prue wanted to make an amendment….he noted that the CAO/Treasurer did not send a copy of the budget to the Audit and Finance Committee and he felt that it “behooves” council to send it to them to benefit from their expertise. He moved to make a provision to seek comments about the budget from the Audit and Finance Committee. The CAO felt that it would have to be done during the seven day public consultation period in order to be feasible. Deputy Mayor Meloche and Councillor Renaud agreed to the amendment as long as it fit the CAO’s timeline. (I kid you not….I kind of chuckled at home during this part of the meeting….if or when the former CAO had not included the Audit and Finance Committee, council was up in arms….it was the end of the world! It was some type of conspiracy! And here we were…..the interim CAO did not include them, and well….ok, and we’ll do it on your timeline LOL). Councillor Prue asked if Mr Fox (The Deputy Clerk) could arrange a meeting. Mr Fox replied that Councillor Prue, as chair of the committee, can call a meeting at any time. There was a bit more back and forth…..but ultimately, the motion carried, the budget was tabled and the Audit and Finance Committee will have seven days to look over the budget…..but this was far from over…..hang on….it comes back full circle later…..council was far from finished talking about the budget…..

2022 User Fee By-Law

The user fees are reviewed annually. This year’s recommendations included no longer selling maps, pins and flags, since it seems that they’re obsolete. There is a list of some of the fees….some are increasing and many seem to be staying the same. There are a couple of new ones in the report too. I didn’t find anything that jumped out at me.

Councillor Prue had questions. He wondered about the eliminations of the pins, flags and maps….would we be giving them away or are they no longer for sale? Well, it seems that we have thousands of them…..and well, maps aren’t quite what they used to be (you know GPS, computers, phones and all those other things that have moved us past 1982….) Then Councillor Prue wondered about the increase in the fee for children under 14 to use the indoor soccer field. It went from $3 to $10. Ms Baillargeon, the Director of Parks and Recreation said that that is the current market rate and is what other municipalities around us are charging. Councillor Prue wondered if it would cause difficulty for families and if they had looked at the impact on families and what would kids do that wanted to “kick a ball around”. Ms Baillargeon again said that that is the current market rate and our fee was too low compared to other municipalities. She also pointed out that the town has other facilities and parks which children can use to “kick a ball around.” (Maybe Councillor Prue missed those reports and meetings when former Treasurer Justin Rousseau repeatedly pointed out that we have more parks per capita than any of our neighbours….?) Then Councillor Prue questioned some water and wastewater increases and requested that they be deferred to the budget (which ultimately is what happened.) Of course it turned into a Q&A and yada yada yada first….but I’m saving myself some key strokes here.

Rain Barrel Program

This report stems from a motion made by council in September 2020. It looks like the town would purchase rain barrels in bulk at a reduced cost and then, in turn, would sell them for this reduced cost to homeowners in order to make use of rainwater for gardening, washing cars etc.

Deputy Mayor Meloche questioned why the town needs to get involved with this initiative. He felt that the rain barrels would just become another administrative task. (Personally, I kind of agree….especially considering we are down and out in the staffing levels at the moment…..and likely for the foreseeable future…..)

CAO Haddad explained that this report and program stem from an unfinished business item and that the report is a response to this current council’s question and motion. Ms Gioffu, Director of Engineering also said that the report was in response to council discussion.

Deputy Mayor Meloche wondered why the town was looking to get involved if the Essex County Solid Waste Authority was already offering this program. Ms Giofu said that it was an environmentally friendly initiative to promote Earth Day and extra promotion for the Environmental Committee.

Councillor McArthur moved the recommendation and Councillor Courtney seconded it.

It is recommended that:

1. A rain barrel pilot program BE APPROVED; and,

2. That $6500 BE ADDED to the 2022 draft budget for the purchase of 100 rain barrels for resale under the Public Works budget centre, miscellaneous expense to be funded from taxation, offset by the proceeds from resale.

Councillor McArthur reminded council that they had asked administration for this report in September. Mayor DiCarlo also pointed out that this was not an administration recommendation, rather it stemmed directly from council. Councillor McArthur thanked administration that they had done as directed, even though they are stretched thin. He felt that the rain barrels save time, prevent flooding, reduce strain on sewers and grow better plans. He pointed out that we declared a climate emergency and that council wanted to encourage residents to make responsible choices. He felt that there was also a public relations aspect to the program that the Horticultural Society and Environmental Committee could get involved with and that he fully supported this initiative.

Councillor Courtney started out by saying that he agreed and had nothing to add. Then he started to add…..and add….and add some more. He felt that the program is cost neutral and that council is trying to get creative. He said it might take 2 or 3 years to get rid of the rain barrels but that it’s $6,500 and it’s cost neutral. He cited examples of what the water can be used for and pointed out that he supported this initiative and that he had made the original motion.

Councillor Prue and Councillor Simone also offered some commentary in support of the rain barrels. There was some more discussion, but ultimately, the motion passed…..we’re getting some rain barrels!

(Side note…..just throwing my thoughts out here…..I get it that rain barrels are a great environmental initiative…..but I think this is telling of where council’s priorities are and what seems to be a real lack of vision and planning…..We’ve got some pretty big issues at the moment – severe staffing shortage – multiple plans presented yet never adopted – major projects sitting idle – the list goes on…..but we’ll have rain barrels…..what’s that saying about arranging deck chairs on the Titanic? By the way, that’s a rhetorical question….I know the saying….)

Briefing Note on Staffing and 2022 Organizational Chart

Remember the Service Delivery Review? I blogged about it. A lot. I provided links to it on several occasions…..it talked about the low staffing levels in town hall….it talked about the lower than average pay received by our town employees…..…it was another planning study and document that council hemmed and hawed about but never adopted. In fact, some members of council denounced it. Not too long ago, this council even made a motion and removed merit / performance pay for our town staff. Talk about lack of vision and quite the message to give to town staff. Here we are, once again, right back to square one. Mr Haddad’s briefing note is worth a read : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5144

Here are the recommendations based on the above briefing note:

It is recommended that:

The recommendations contained in the Service Delivery Review of October 2020 BE ACCEPTED;
A Compensation Plan Review currently underway for 2022 BE ACKNOWLEDGED;
The revised Organization Chart for the Town of Amherstburg BE APPROVED;
The above noted recommendations being advanced within the current budget allocations BE ACKNOWLEDGED; and,
The CAO BE DIRECTED to report back to Council in Q2 2022 on the progress of these recommendations and related recruitment.

There’s a new organizational chart proposed. I don’t see a lot of differences, some title changes and shifts of roles somewhat, but overall, not much different from what I can tell, from a big picture perspective.

So, here we were. A new organizational chart prepared by the CAO, since, well that’s his job, to manage staff. Council only has one employee, the CAO. I know that, you know that, they do not know that. Some on council think they control the organizational chart….

Before I begin, it was pointed out on multiple occasions by CAO Haddad that all of the changes in titles and responsibilities etc were all cost neutral. Which means that they would not affect the budget.

Councillor Prue had a question. He felt that this chart should be in the body of the budget with the costs listed etc. CAO Haddad pointed out that this report is a briefing note about staffing levels since his arrival and addresses multiple vacancies. It addressed the filling of staffing positions and recruitment that is taking place at the moment. He said that the note was to apprise council about the filling or shuffling of the positions but that it did not impact the budget. (OK, great….we’ll move on right?…..um, no…..)

Councillor Prue wondered if it would not be possible to wait two weeks to approve the organizational chart. He wondered what would happen if it were approved now and then council gets to budget deliberations and then approves the positions. CAO Haddad again pointed out that all of the positions work within the existing budget except for one.

Deputy Mayor Meloche pointed out that since all of the positions fall within the budget and that it is the responsibility of the CAO to hire and structure staff charts, all was in order. He pointed out that council can only hire or fire the CAO, no other members of town administration. (At least somebody understood how these things work…..if only one…..)

Councillor Courtney commended the CAO for the “good stuff” and the good things in the document. He knew that Mr Haddad was part of the Service Delivery Review but he felt that it was not delved into enough. He felt that council didn’t get all of the details from Mr Haddad’s “group” (company I think he meant?) at the time. There was extensive back and forth between Councillor Courtney and CAO Haddad at this point of the meeting. Councillor Courtney sat and analyzed positions in an organizational chart that he really has no purview on. CAO Haddad said that the compensation review was a 5 year refresh and needed to be done. (I can still remember the old council doing the compensation review…..um, not fond memories, just sayin’). At one point, Councillor Courtney told the CAO he wasn’t telling him how to do his job…..and then proceeded pretty much to tell him how to do his job. LOL Councillor Courtney then seemed to have concern about accepting the report and what the difference was between accepting and adopting the report. CAO Haddad pointed out that Service Delivery Review had multiple recommendations and that portions were implemented but that this current report is acknowledging the problematic staffing levels and the low pay for positions compared to surrounding municipalities. Councillor Courtney then noted that our staff is getting “poached” and that we have multiple vacancies. He wondered if the CAO could simply look at what a Clerk earns in other surrounding municipalities, look at job titles and wages for cross reference. He felt that this wouldn’t take long to do. I guess he felt it would be a quick Google search?

(Side note…..just for reference on how council views the pay for our town staff…..I am going to share here a portion of my blog from the June 28th 2021 meeting where council actually voted to remove merit pay from our town staff : “Councillor Courtney said he would support the recommendation but that he had talked to administration about the recognition pay and wondered how often it is used and how it’s used. Ms Horrobin explained that it is used sparingly and that the policy was developed by a previous administration. She explained that it had been used twice and is only used as needed. She explained that the recognition pay was used if it was in excess of the top pay if the employee had gone above and beyond and really exceeded expectations on all counts. She said that in the two instances, the CAO was able to support why it should be used based on prior years performance reviews.

Councillor Courtney felt he had concerns with recognition pay since it could be subjective and could show favouritism. He felt that it should be across the board. He then made a friendly amendment to remove recognition pay from the policy. The mover and the seconder accepted the amendment. It went to a vote…..it wasn’t recorded but I watched…

In support : Councillors Prue, McArthur, Courtney and Simone

Opposed : Deputy Mayor Meloche and Councillor Renaud”

Back to present day now…..CAO Haddad pointed out that they can’t just ad hoc compare pay levels, that a 5 year refresh needed to be done. Councillor Courtney wondered if the comparison would be possible during the budget period. Mayor DiCarlo pointed out that council have the numbers to reference but last year’s numbers of what people earned won’t necessarily be accurate due to hours worked and other variables. He pointed out that the data is not necessarily current and that they’ve learned the hard way, staff were offered more money in other municipalities. (I really really wonder how staff is treated in other municipalities?)

Deputy Mayor Meloche pointed out that some jobs are hybrid and that you can’t just look at the job title and the wage. He felt that council needed to be mindful and do a full compensation review. (At least one member of council was making sense tonight.)

CAO Haddad felt that the organizational chart, job descriptions, compensation and many things had to be looked at.

Councillor Simone expressed that there were some recommendations in the Service Delivery Review with which she disagreed. CAO Haddad felt he was not recommending that the entire Service Delivery Review be implemented but that the budget and organizational chart were coming from findings in the Service Delivery Review.

Finally, Deputy Mayor Meloche moved the recommendation (noted above) and Councillor McArthur seconded it. Councillor McArthur felt that there is a perception that there is a lot of staff at town hall. The Service Delivery Review pointed out staff burnout and that Amherstburg has 15% less staff than other peer comparators. He noted that CAO Haddad’s briefing note painted an even more grim picture of overburdened staff, stress and burnout and that town hall is short on staff.

CAO Haddad said that he 100% stands behind his comments both from the briefing note and the Service Delivery Review. He said that consultations had been done with staff and council and there were comparisons with municipalities of the same size. He mentioned reports and inaccurate numbers circulating on the internet but that he does not know where they come from. He reiterated that town hall is understaffed.

Councillor Courtney felt that “be approved” makes it look like council is acting. (Oh my…..council, act? In the sense of taking action or performing in a play or in a theater? I know which one I see more often…..) He wondered if the CAO can add positions in an organizational chart…..(oh my…..has he ever heard of the Municipal Act? Or read it?…..)

Mayor DiCarlo shared some things that he has learned both as Mayor as well as in outside roles. First, the employees work under the CAO. It’s a difficult situation right now,, with a lack of staff leading to burnout and being even more shortaffed. The Service Delivery review was done. It had findings and recommendations. Work in town hall has to get done somehow. He felt that the CAO had done the reorganization without it adding to the tax base. He pointed out that council does not approve every last job at town hall. (Reread that sentence, especially if you’re a member of council reading this blog.) He also pointed out that titles do not dictate a job, and there is a lot of work to be done. He also pointed out that council has to allow administration to do their job and IF it were above and beyond the budget, then it could be looked at, but when it is all happening within budget, the CAO has to do their job. He felt that council would never be done with this if they were to look at each job. (Amen. Not only would they never be done with it, they would not be within their roles and responsibilities…..the old council had multiple lawyers advise them to step away from managing employees and getting involved in personnel issues…..but I digress….)

Councillor Courtney still went on anyway about the paralegal position….it’s like he wanted to tell the CAO how to do his job?…..but finally, the motion carried as stated above. (Recommendations in Service Delivery Review be accepted, compensation plan review be acknowledged, revised organizational chart be approved, acknowledge recommendations are within budget and that the CAO report back in second quarter about these items.)

From Vision to Results – 2021 Municipal Accomplishments

This was basically an information report/presentation for council about the 2021 accomplishments in Amherstburg. In some parts, it almost reads like a tourist brochure, in other parts, it gives some raw data about permit requests, marriage licenses, dog tag licenses among others. It does highlight some veritable success (the success of Open Air is noted!). Here’s the link if you’re interested : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5148

Councillor Courtney made a motion to receive it and Councillor Simone seconded it. Then Councillor Courtney gave recognition to the CAO and staff for this “feel good report”. He noted it’s been turbulent waters, with the pandemic aside, staffing issues and just “everything”. He felt that he appreciated our staff working hard (yet 6 months ago voted to take away their merit pay….hmmmm…..I guess his thanks is enough? lol) He said he had been thinking of saying no to a couple of the positions in the organizational chart (guess he still didn’t realize that they were within budget?) but there have been a lot of good and a lot of accomplishments. He thanked the CAO for his report. (It’s quite interesting to watch how certain councillors treat the new interim CAO versus the previous CAO.)

Councillor McArthur also expressed positivity about this report. He felt it was such a great story and great reading. He felt that CAO Haddad was a great guy to have around.

Councillor Prue then spoke and said he supported the report but was concerned about an item on page 9 with outstanding items, something about finalizing Stillbrook.

There was a lot of confusion. Nobody could find the wording to which he was referring. (I had opened the document on my computer and was trying to find it too.) Councillor Prue then asked the Clerk to project the document on the screen and he would show us. So she did….then he proceeded to say “next page”, “keep going”, “more”, “more”, “now go back slowly”….as she proceeded through the 20 page document. She got to the end of the document and he told her to keep going….. I could hear administration asking “Is it in this section? That section?”…..Nobody could find it…..Then Councillor Prue said that it was in the budget document on page 10 and asked if this information was now public. CAO Haddad pointed out that that was not the document in front of council at that moment. (So Councillor Prue was talking about a different document….created all kinds of confusion, all because??? Was he unaware of which part of the meeting council was debating? The budget was way, way back at the beginning…..they had moved on long ago…..weird…..) Councillor Simone spoke up and felt that Councillor Prue should ask about this under new business since this did not address the business that they were currently discussing. (Right on! Basically, Councillor Prue was out of order I think? Or at best, lost? I guess?)

After that, the report was received.

Council dealt with Consent Correspondence. And Councillor Prue reminded us that he was the initial speaker in the legislative about accessibility. He also pointed out some mistakes in one of the committee meeting minutes. I’m sure staff really appreciate that…..not like it could be emailed in advance I guess.

Then council took a 10 minute lifestyle break.

Unfinished Business

Councillor Prue wondered where the all park plan was for Centennial Park. The CAO said it was on the outstanding list and due to the holiday season there had not been time. Ms Baillargeon said she anticipated it would be ready during the first quarter of this year.

New Business

Councillor Prue then said he had been reading the budget document all day as well as the agenda. He started to read from the budget document. Mr Fox, the Deputy Clerk, quickly cut him off and said that there was an error in the document and that it was fixed. Councillor Prue said that he found the information on line. Mr Fox said that the document was not yet public and that administration had corrected the error. Councillor Prue questioned why the budget document was not public. Mayor DiCarlo said that the budget docs provided to council in advance on the town server are not the document that will go public. There was a lot of back and forth and scrambling…..Councillor Prue seemed determined to read whatever it was even though administration repeatedly said it was an error and had been fixed. Councillor McArthur interjected and wanted to know what it said. (I had the distinct impression that it was likely confidential information – possibly in-camera information – that had been erroneously included in the budget report.) Councillor Prue again said that he would read it. Mayor DiCarlo blatantly said not to and that council will get the updated document. He again said that the public document does not refer to what Councillor Prue had brought up. CAO Haddad said that it was an error, it had been brought to their attention and had been corrected. He said that the document was not public. Councillor Prue asked if the document was no longer in the public domain. The CAO said that it never was, it had only been provided to council.

Councillor Courtney inquired if in previous years, people didn’t see the budget until after the presentation to council. The CAO answered that yes, it’s presented to council and then afterwards published publicly once council has tabled it. (Oh my……unbelievable….this is council’s 4th budget and they don’t know this????) Councillor Courtney then felt that it was not specified that it was confidential and he seemed to feel that nothing is confidential and that council has lots of folders full of documents. Mayor DiCarlo pointed out that all of the documents that council can access are not public. This was done in error and it was not a public document. Mayor DiCarlo again pointed out it was an inadvertent error and was corrected.

Councillor Courtney said that he had a hard copy of the document. He felt that nobody had said that it was confidential and that he could have shown it to his neighbour, he then claimed that he didn’t…..He then asked why the public didn’t see the budget tonight. (Oh my…..this is a councillor finishing his final quarter as a councillor and he does not understand that the public does not see the budget until AFTER council does and tables it? Oh my….I just have no words….it’s almost reckless…..a councillor doesn’t realize they receive documents that aren’t public information????) Mr Fox explained that tonight was the budget tabling process to allow council to table the budget and then present the budget to the public afterwards for feedback.

Councillor Courtney said that he was at work at the moment but had grabbed a copy on Sunday and did not think that it was confidential. (This entire discussion almost blew my mind….)

Finally, Deputy Mayor Meloche spoke. He said he found it very concerning that administration said that this was included in error and that council continued to berate them and tried to embarrass town staff. He felt that an error had happened and that council needed to move on. He said that we all make mistakes and that we need to be adults. The error was fixed.

Mayor DiCarlo said it would not be discussed anymore.

The meeting adjourned at 8:22 PM

The first half of the meeting, council seemed to recognize that town hall staff are overworked and underpaid. The second half of the meeting, the same council seemed to gleefully point out mistakes by the same overworked, underpaid people. I just cannot fathom how Amherstburg will be able to attract and retain top administrative staff if council continues down this ugly and reckless path…..the last 20 minutes of Monday night’s meeting said it all. And then some.

And here we are…..a new year….2022…..tonight seemed far more reminiscent of the Amherstburg of 2013. How disappointing.

See you in two weeks Amherstburg!

January 8, 2022 amherstburg2

In preparation for Monday January 10th Regular town council meeting

Well Monday night’s agenda is a slim 131 pages to welcome in the new year. Here are the highlights of what’s to come on Monday night :

PRESENTATIONS

2022 Operating Budget

Monday night, administration will be presenting the proposed 2022 budget. All it says is “Presentation to follow.”

Here is the recommendation :

It is recommended that: The 2022 Operating Budget BE TABLED for consideration and adoption after budget deliberations are complete.

Budget deliberations are set for later this month. I’m guessing that the public meeting that council wanted will have to be canceled, since, well, everything is closed due to lockdown #357. Anybody want to make a bet on what kind of number we’ll be looking at for a tax increase? I’ll bet a coffee with anybody that’s interested, just to keep things interesting. I’m of two minds on this year’s budget…..it’s being presented by an interim CAO (Tony Haddad). The key word is “interim”. It could go one of two ways…..either he’ll come in soft with a very low proposed rate increase just to keep the peace and keep the seat warm for a “permanent” CAO…..or a higher one to actually get some projects started, because, well, we want to move forward? That would take vision…..(and guts and gumption). But this seems to be a populist council, so I’m guessing they’ll make a big production about keeping it “low”……

2022 User Fee By-Law

The user fees are reviewed annually. This year’s recommendations include no longer selling maps, pins and flags, since it seems that they’re obsolete. There is a list of some of the fees….some are increasing and many seem to be staying the same. There are a couple of new ones in the report too. I didn’t find anything that jumped out at me.

Rain Barrel Program

This report stems from a motion made in September 2020. It looks like the town would purchase rain barrels in bulk at a reduced cost and then, in turn, would sell them for this reduced cost to homeowners in order to make use of rainwater for gardening, washing cars etc. This is a very environmentally friendly initiative and I am guessing that council will support this. The question really lies in how long will they talk about it? LOL Here is the recommendation:

It is recommended that:

1. A rain barrel pilot program BE APPROVED; and,

Briefing Note on Staffing and 2022 Organizational Chart

Remember the Service Delivery Review? I blogged about it. A lot. I provided links to it on several occasions…..it talked about the low staffing levels in town hall….it talked about the lower than average pay received by our town employees…..…it was another planning study and document that council hemmed and hawed about but never adopted. In fact, some members of council denounced it. Not too long ago, this council even made a motion and removed merit pay for our town staff. Talk about lack of vision. Here we are, once again, right back to square one. Mr Haddad’s briefing note is worth a read :

https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5144

Here are the recommendations based on the above briefing note:

It is recommended that:

The recommendations contained in the Service Delivery Review of October 2020 BE ACCEPTED;
A Compensation Plan Review currently underway for 2022 BE ACKNOWLEDGED;
The revised Organization Chart for the Town of Amherstburg BE APPROVED;
The above noted recommendations being advanced within the current budget allocations BE ACKNOWLEDGED; and,
The CAO BE DIRECTED to report back to Council in Q2 2022 on the progress of these recommendations and related recruitment.

From Vision to Results – 2021 Municipal Accomplishments

This is, um, well, “interesting”? It seems to be an information report/presentation for council about the 2021 accomplishments in Amherstburg. In some parts, it almost reads like a tourist brochure, in other parts, it gives some raw data about permit requests, marriage licenses, dog tag licenses among others. It does highlight some veritable success (the success of Open Air is noted!). Anyway, if you’re interested, take a read.

https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5148

I wonder if council will try to take credit for this? I wonder why it was written?

CONSENT CORRESPONDENCE

Council has 12 consent correspondence items. They can simply receive them, or support and action them. Here is the list, but I’m not going to summarize each one.

Ad Request “Mental Health Matters 2022” – Windsor Star
Annual Report on Drinking Water 2021 – Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks
Catch and Release Justice – City of Sarnia
Conversion Therapy – City of Kitchener
COVID to Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) – Town of Kingsville
Multi Year Accessibility Plan – Linda Saxon
Province-Wide Assessment Update – Township of Tay
AMO Policy Update
2021 Municipal Partnerships Report and Communication – Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)

Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes of December 2, 2021

The Economic Development Advisory Committee has a recommendation for council:

That:

The Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes of December 2, 2021 BE RECEIVED; and,
Council SUPPORT and ADVOCATE to the Province of Ontario the need to locate an urgent care facility in the Town of Amherstburg that is open on a 24 hour basis.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Council can inquire about any items on the unfinished business list if they wish.

NEW BUSINESS

This part of the meeting often brings random thoughts to the table…..could be anything really. An email, a phone call, a bad dream, who knows? I’ll have to wait and see if anything “new” is really brought up Monday night LOL.

And with that, that’s it, that’s all. Any takers on a bet of what the proposed tax increase will be? 🙂 I’ll be back after Monday night’s meeting…..could be Monday night, could be Tuesday night…..will all depend on how much pontificating we will have to endure…..welcome to 2022! Election year!

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Thoughts, opinions, concerns, kudos before and after Amherstburg Council meetings.

Month: January 2022

Budget meeting #1 January 26th 2022

Monday January 24th Regular town council meeting

In preparation for Monday January 24th Regular town council meeting

Monday January 10th Regular town council meeting

In preparation for Monday January 10th Regular town council meeting

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