Well I watched Monday night’s meeting from home. It wrapped up in just over an hour but the last 30 minutes or so for New Business……WOW!!!!! The first part of the meeting was quite boring. The last portion consisted of a lengthy grocery list of “new business” items from Councillor Pouget and one that became a motion based on something that somebody had “heard”……unbelievable. I got the impression that what was “heard” was basically gossip but that didn’t stop council from debating it, talking about and wanting to look into it…..it was like high school, in a formal, professional situation. Super strange. Anyway, more on that later. But if you want the scoop on the hearsay and rumours, it will be at the end of the blog. Honestly, I won’t be insulted if you skip through to the end, that’s where the meat is. LOL
First, there was a special meeting scheduled for 4:00 to discuss one item :
Development Charge By-Law Background Study – Watson and Associates
I did not watch that meeting.
Then there was a special planning meeting scheduled for 5:00. It was about the new Official Plan.
Here are the agendas for the 5:00 meeting for those that are so inclined.
Here is the agenda in PDF https://calendar.amherstburg.ca/council/Detail/2024-04-09-1700-Special-Council-Meeting/746d1a63-bb00-4aa0-b088-b14200ef5eb0 263 pages
And here it is in html https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=6f7836dd-f629-481e-803c-bf4153b41bde&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
I did not watch that meeting either.
I did, however, watch the entire regular meeting that started promptly at 7:00. And boy was it a show! Not in a good way though. It was embarrassing and I think certain members of council made Amherstburg look bad.
Here are the agendas for the 7:00 regular meeting :
This one has the video too if you’re so inclined to watch.
Or the PDF version : https://calendar.amherstburg.ca/council/Detail/2024-04-09-1900-Regular-Council-Meeting/ea50a95e-a586-4d3c-875e-b1470164c22b
2024 Mill and Pave Program – Tender Results
Looks like some more roads are going to be fixed up! The request for tender went out and the results are in.
Deputy Mayor Gibb asked that if the work were approved tonight when would it start. Administration said it would start in early May. Councillor McArthur seemed pleased that the price came in under budget by about $130,000 and asked if the funds could be redirected or used for another road. Ms Giofu, the Director of Engineering said that they wanted to wait until all of the work was complete, just in case any problems should arise and that money could be required. She noted that once the work is completed, more work could be looked at with the leftover money and that would come back to council. Councillor Pouget asked about the timeframe (duration) for the work and was told about 3-4 weeks in total.
Finally, Councillor Allaire made the motion for the administrative recommendation, Councillor McArthur seconded it. They voted and the motion carried. There is some more road work coming to Amherstburg! (Yes, it will be inconvenient….I will brace myself to read the complaints on social media…..We can’t have it both ways folks, either the roads get fixed and we are inconvenienced…..or they don’t get fixed and we complain about the potholes and condition of the roads…..)
Housing Enabling Water Systems Fund Grant Submission
It looks like the province has opened up some grant funding for water systems upgrades to support more housing. It seems that it’s to help municipalities repair and/or expand drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. It looks like the province will provide funding to eligible applications up to 73% of the cost of the work. The criteria for the grant applications are listed in the report and it looks like applications have to be submitted by April 19, 2024. I included the recommendation in my pre-meeting blog. It is extremely lengthy, so I won’t repeat it here.
Councillor Pouget spoke about an email she had received that she felt didn’t have any details or a time frame for reference. She wondered if this would be for roads or bridges. Mr. Hewitt, Manager of Engineering, said that the grant was strictly for the water and sanitary system infrastructure. Councillor Pouget wondered if there would be money for roads later on. Mr Hewitt had to explain to her that the 5 year capital budget includes funding for the Fryer St/Lowes Side Road area for development and that the roads have been identified. Ms Osborne, Director of Development Services mentioned that development charges would be collected from the developers.
Councillor Pouget then asked when administration became aware of the application for the grant. Ms Osborne noted that it was stated in the report that administration was made aware of the grant in February 2024. (Hmmmmm……so the answer to this question was in the report….) Ms Osborne said that administration had followed the due course for the application process and that the grant application is due April 19th. Councillor Pouget felt that 10 days ahead of time was not an adequate amount of time for council to make a decision. She wondered why council hadn’t seen this sooner and felt that council had to make knee-jerk decisions and too quickly. (OK folks….my inside voice is coming out…..that’s what council was elected to do. Make decisions. The easy ones, the hard ones and often quickly. Sitting on one’s hands and putting off decisions is generally not an effective strategy to run a large corporation right? Read the report ahead of time, ask your questions and make a decision council. The agenda comes out 10 days in advance now. Any member of council can be adequately prepared for the meeting and certainly prepared to make a decision. Since, well, that’s their job…..) CAO Critchley explained that it was a complicated grant application and that two workshops were held between the town and the Ministry during the month of March. She noted that administration had to get all of the information and that a grant application is not written overnight. Ms Osborne continued that meetings had to be scheduled with the developers and that administration did not have all of the information in front of them until the third week of March, therefore the April 9th meeting was the earliest time they could get the report and recommendation before council.
Councillor Crain asked in layman’s terms….if the town did not apply for this grant that it would be a decade before the south/east quadrant of town could be developed. Long answer, but basically, yes. Councillor Crain also asked that if the town receives the grant for 73% of the money are the developers ready to build. It seems that one of the developers already has a draft plan of subdivision for over 700 homes and the other two developers are preparing. Councillor Crain also asked if, aside from staff costs, were there any other costs to submit the application for the grant. The answer was a clear no.
Councillor Pouget hemmed and hawed some more, more back and forth…..
Finally Deputy Mayor Gibb made the motion as presented but added a section for council to direct the Mayor to write a letter to MPP Leardi asking for his support of this application. Deputy Mayor Gibb spoke of the current housing crisis and affordability crisis and felt that if the province is covering 73% of the costs to upgrade the water systems that council has to make this happen.
Councillor Crain felt that any time the town can apply for a grant, that they should apply and that this particular grant would help to reactivate the south/east quadrant of town.
Mayor Prue passed the gavel. He felt that the province often does this type of thing, opens up grant applications knowing that many municipalities won’t be able to prepare one in short order. He noted that the town has 700 homes waiting to be built and he was looking forward to additional homes. He said he had no issue sending a letter to MPP Leardi.
Finally, the motion carried unanimously.
Annual Treasurer’s Report – 2023 Council and Appointee Statement on Remuneration and Expenses
This is the annual report that council receives that shows their salaries and expenses. Included in the report are also residents that sit on committees that receive a stipend.
So, here is the link to the report for those that want to see how much, in total each person receives : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=14683
And if you’re looking for the breakdown for pay and reimbursements, it is all listed here : https://pub-amherstburg.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=14684
SIGH……big huge SIGH……members of council had over 10 days to ask their questions about this about their specific pay. But they didn’t. They waited until tonight. And the Treasurer was ill so she was not at the meeting. So this turned into a big waste of time, for everyone.
Councillor Pouget asked why her income showed $27,756.11 but that her T4 stated $26,000 (I didn’t get the exact number but she mentioned a $1600 difference). CAO Critchley said that she could have the Treasurer look at it but that the total of $27,756.11 includes expenses (communications allowance) and per diems. Councillor Pouget asked if this should all be in a full report in the future since the public couldn’t speak to it since they didn’t know she was having a discrepancy. (Again, ten whole days went by…..and now was the time to ask about her personal situation??…..and I’m going to take a wild guess that the T4 only included salary plus the per diems and that the communications allowance would be claimed differently than income since it’s a reimbursement. I’m not an accountant, so I’m not sure but looking at the numbers, if I add together her salary and her per diems it comes to $26,334.76, which may have been the number she cited. Anyway, I do not understand why a member of council wouldn’t have asked about this immediately if it was of concern…..)
Councillor Allaire also felt confused. She noted one of the reports had a figure in the $28,000’s for herself but the other had $29,000 ish. She noted she had attended a conference and she was assuming that her ERCA board income was in there too. CAO Critchley explained that there were per diems and mileage included in one section. Councillor Allaire did not seem to understand what a per diem was. Councillor Pouget felt that all per diems are the same. Mayor Prue interjected that the per diems are not all the same, that they differ for conferences.
Councillor Courtney’s zoom screen was dark for a while…..not sure where he was? But he came back later.
Councillor Crain made a motion to defer this report to the next meeting. Deputy Mayor Gibb seconded it. And it carried. Deferred to the next meeting. (Hopefully, the members of council that are confused or don’t seem to understand can take 5 minutes of their day to send an email to the Treasurer so that she can explain and break it all down for them. Or I guess we can sit through 30 minutes of it all in two weeks?)
Golf Tournament
It was mentioned that there was a supplementary agenda with a request for the Food and Fellowship Mission to sponsor a golf tournament. There was a lot of back and forth. It seems that in the past, members of council that participated paid out of pocket to participate in the golf tournament. Councillor Allaire asked about where the money could come from to make a motion to support a foursome. She asked if it had been taken from council per diems in the past. The Clerk explained to Councillor Allaire that per diems are paid if a member of council attends a meeting, for example a committee meeting that council had set or a meeting outside of a regular meeting schedule. There was more discussion that members of council had simply paid on their own to attend various golf tournaments.
Councillor McArthur felt that council shouldn’t pay for a foursome to attend but that they could do a hole sponsorship for $175. He made the motion to sponsor a hole. Councillor Crain seconded. Mayor Prue passed the gavel to say that the Food and Fellowship Mission comes to council each year for a large donation and that council should ask them next year if this could be included.
It was put to a vote and it carried.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Councillor Allaire asked about the boat ramp and if the archeological assessment was complete. Ms Baillargeon, Director of Parks and Facilities, said that a report was coming to council on April 22nd.
NEW BUSINESS
Councillor Allaire asked about an update on the removal of the old Boblo dock. CAO Critchley said that the DFO (Department of Fisheries & Oceans) had their construction documents ready and that they are awaiting the release of the federal budget (next Tuesday) to see if funding will be in the budget for the dock removal. It seems that funding was not there in the fall, but funding was requested for the 2024 budget for the dock removal. The CAO said that she had it marked in her calendar to get in touch with her contact at the DFO after the budget is released to see if they will have the funding for the project to remove the dock. Councillor Pouget then asked the CAO if she could expand on what Councillor Allaire was asking since she wasn’t sure. The CAO then re-explained everything and that they are waiting for the federal budget to be released.
Councillor Pouget then pulled out a laundry list of items for new business :
- Councillor Pouget asked about the money for the structure on Boblo Island for the fire truck and the title of the land….it’s being worked on, is the short answer.
- Councillor Pouget asked Fire Chief Montone about the removal of the sirens and if/when information would be given out…..short answer, pamphlets received, door to door campaign to begin in May and follow up with the schools in the fall
- Councillor Pouget said she had received concerns about the development on Brunner Avenue regarding parking problems and dogs going to the bathroom on people’s lawns….short answer, admin already dealt with the issue of a parking spot too close to the highway and admin will reach out in a good faith way about the dog issues….(really is it necessary for the issue about dogs to be brought up in a meeting? Could’ve been an email…..and ultimately, what is administration supposed to do if people aren’t scooping their dogs business? )
Some mysterious letter
I can’t summarize this one point form. It was like a merry-go-round ride. Councillor Pouget started talking about a letter she had discussed with Mayor Prue last week dated April 3rd and wondered where it was. Mr Fox, the Clerk, said that the public can submit letters to council and that he had already spoken to the resident and they were working through the process with them to resolve the situation. (It was hard to follow since I had no idea what letter Councillor Pouget was talking about or what was in it….) The Clerk mentioned something about council receiving a reply about this letter. Councillor Pouget felt that the letter should have been included as consent correspondence in the agenda. CAO Critchley spoke and said that Councillor Pouget had delivered the letter to the Mayor and herself. She thought that Councillor Pouget wanted her to deal with the situation and she did. She also noted that the Clerk had spoken on the phone twice with the author of the letter and had attended the property. She apologized for any confusion and thought that the matter had been dealt with. That was not good enough for Councillor Pouget. She pressed on and on and seemed to insinuate that administration had purposely withheld the letter from council. The Clerk mentioned he had received a photocopy of the letter in his mailslot and had assumed that everybody received a photocopy. (The back and forth was fast and furious and my hand just could not keep up….probably because I was also in disbelief at the blatant disrespect being shown to our town staff. ) Councillor Pouget continued to berate staff for not having distributed the letter to all of council. (It seemed clear to me that this was a miscommunication from the very moment that Councillor Pouget brought the letter to town hall, staff had apologized, twice.) Mayor Prue wondered if this could just be resolved with a staff report about the letter.
Councillor McArthur asked a question to clarify, since he felt lost. (Welcome to the club! I had no idea what was going on and it seemed that nobody else did either….) Councillor McArthrur asked if a resident had dropped off a letter addressed to the Mayor and Council and left it with town staff at town hall OR did a resident hand a letter to Councillor Pouget and say “give this to council” and if that were the case, why didn’t Councillor Pouget give it to council? Councillor Pouget said the letter was given to her. She was asked to bring it to Mayor Prue and to make sure that all of council received it. Councillor Pouget said she had met with Mayor Prue, he read the letter and then told her to tell Kevin to put it on the agenda. (This struck me as odd that the Mayor would tell a member of council to tell the Clerk what to put on the agenda???) Councillor McArthur said that Councillor Pouget could have just put the letter in their mailboxes and that that would have worked. Councillor Pouget went on and Mayor Prue interjected that he was unsure that this discussion was appropriate at this time. Councillor Crain felt that council should praise in public and criticize in private. He noted that this was a 20 minute discussion about a letter that should have been addressed privately. (Spot on Councillor! Spot on!) Councillor Crain felt that council was wasting staff’s time and the public’s time talking about this. (Just a side note, all but one member of council were listening and trying to follow along…..one spent their time on their computer during all of this….seemed disinterested and checked out?) Mayor Prue asked point blank to Councillor Pouget if she wanted staff to prepare a report for either public session or in-camera. She requested in-camera. The Clerk then read to council their procedural bylaw about consent correspondance….it seems that only letters from other levels of government or associations are included in consent correspondence. He also noted that members of council are free to bring up items as new business, which is what was being done. Anyway, long story short, there will be a report, possibly in-camera.
(My take on all of this??? It sounds to me like somebody gave a paper letter to Councillor Pouget. It was addressed to the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and all of council from what I gathered. It seems that this person asked Councillor Pouget to bring the letter to council. It sounds like she only brought it to the Mayor and the CAO. The CAO took that as direction to deal with whatever was in the letter. It seems that Councillor Pouget did not give a copy of the letter to the rest of council as asked by whoever wrote the letter…..Councillor Pouget seemed to infer that the CAO and Clerk purposefully withheld the letter from council….yet from what I could understand it seems that Councillor Pouget was asked to give the letter to council…..a big miscommunication and 20 minutes of discussion for what? Apologies were made, yet accusations flew. Unbelievable.)
Back to point form
- Councillor Pouget asked where we were at with the search for a new Fire Chief. Mayor Prue explained (again, like at the last meeting) that personnel matters are not discussed publicly. (Any bets if Councillor Pouget will ask about this AGAIN at the next meeting? Third time’s a charm right?)
I heard a rumour….or I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend….
Then, as if we weren’t traumatized enough about the mysterious letter and the rampant accusations…..Councillor Pouget brought up that…..
She said according to Anthony Leardi’s office, the Federal Government has provided $19,000,000 to the Town of Amherstburg over the last 5 years. She wanted to know what this money has been spent on and also if there were any of those funds left. She said she’d like to make a motion for a full report regarding this issue.
As everyone sat there looking bewildered, Mayor Prue asked her which funds. He mentioned that a whole bunch of funds come from the province and named a few of them. Mayor Prue then went on that as far as he knew almost all of it had been spent on roads, bridges and sewers. He told her she would need to be more specific in order for staff to prepare a report. Councillor Pouget then just repeated pretty much what she had said already. Mayor Prue then explained that the last six budgets would contain all of that information. He seemed bewildered and asked her if she wanted staff to dig through the last 6 budgets to see where all of the dollars were spent. (Ya, great idea……big waste of time and resources…..Councillor Pouget could dig through them herself I think.) Mayor Prue explained again that the money is used for infrastructure and that it has all been spent. He asked again if she wanted staff to dig through the past six budgets to look for every dollar spent. When Councillor Pouget spoke, her microphone didn’t work at the beginning but I heard her say “we’ll see if it passes or not”. Mayor Prue then asked her again for her motion. She again repeated herself and said that according to Anthony Leardi’s office, the Federal Government has provided $19,000,000 to the Town of Amherstburg over the last 5 years. She wanted to know what this money has been spent on and also if there were any of those funds left.
Mayor Prue said that the federal government has not given the town $19 Million dollars. Mayor Prue did not understand where Mr Leardi was getting this amount for federal funding, since he is the provincial representative. Mayor Prue explained that we do not receive that kind of money from the federal government. He explained that the town receives around $4 Million per year from the province and he wondered if Mr Leardi could be mistaken.
Councillor Courtney was confused. He felt that when we receive grant money that it’s all earmarked and accounted for in the budget. He felt that Mr Leardi should know all of these answers. He felt that Councillor Pouget needed to ask Mr Leardi to earmark and reference the $19 Million that he was speaking of for staff to then cross reference it. Councillor Courtney felt that Mr Leardi should know exactly what the funds were earmarked for since he was able to call out a specific amount. He also reiterated that it is money from the province since Mr Leardi is MPP and this is not federal money received. Councillor Courtney even offered that he could look at the past budgets if amounts were specified. Or that it could be sent to staff to cross reference but that more specific information would be necessary.
Mayor Prue advised Councillor Pouget that she should have Mr Leardi specify and pinpoint exactly where the money came from, whether federal or provincial. Mayor Prue felt that the reference to “federal” was in total error. He said he would need to pinpoint the money, the years and amounts given and what they were intended to be used for in order for staff to cross reference the past 5 budgets. Then staff could pinpoint which roads, sewers etc were done.
Councillor Pouget then changed her motion to direct staff to write to Mr Leardi to ask him for this information. Mayor Prue said that staff could write the letter but what are they to do if Mr Leardi doesn’t answer……That didn’t really get answered and the motion was on the floor. I was hopeful that nobody would second it, but Councillor Allaire did. The Mayor opened it up for discussion.
Deputy Mayor Gibb spoke and said that he did not understand why we would spend any time on this since all of this information is in the budgets. Everything is quantified in the budget every single year. Deputy Mayor Gibb found it “odd” and a little bit “unsettling” that council would ask our MPP what they did with the money since it’s in our budget every year. He said that he couldn’t support this motion.
Councillor McArthur spoke next. He felt that the motion was unclear on the face of it whether council was asking Mr Leardi to account for federal or provincial money. He also noted that any money received from the government is earmarked specifically in the budget documents. He felt that council could do this work to look into the spending but he didn’t feel that staff should spend their time on this. Also, he felt that council should be careful about how frequently they send letters to Mr Leardi, our MPP. He felt that council should pick the timing of any letters so that they have maximum impact so that we can get what Amherstburg deserves from the provincial government. He felt that if we send letters willy-nilly it lessens the impact.
Councillor Courtney asked how time consuming this may be. He wondered if council was calling Mr Leardi out or if he was calling out council. Councillor Courtney felt that Mr Leardi had made a statement to Councillor Pouget since she was referencing him and he was asking about what council had done with the $19 Million.
Mayor Prue explained that Mr Leardi did not state these things to council. Mayor Prue explained that Mr Leardi had purportedly said this to a constituent and the constituent is now asking if Mr Leardi is correct. He explained to Councillor Courtney that Mr Leardi has not initiated this. Councillor Courtney asked Councillor Pouget if it were true that Mr Leardi hadn’t contacted her directly.
And wait for it people…..
Councillor Pouget said that “I attended a meeting and that’s what I heard”. Mayor Prue asked : “With Mr Leardi?” Councillor Pouget replied : “No, with his, um, associate.” You can actually hear Mayor Prue sigh if you watch the video…LOL
Councillor Crain explained to Councillor Courtney (since he was on zoom) that each member of council had received a piece of paper with a few questions on it and that was what was being referenced tonight. (He had a piece of paper in his hand).
Councillor Pouget spoke again and wanted everybody to understand that she has the highest respect for Mr Leardi, that this is just for clarification since it was requested by a resident and she is raising the issue. (So get in line folks, bring forth everything under the sun that you’ve “heard” from somebody and council will waste everybody’s time looking for rumours and ghosts….)
Councillor Allaire said that she will always second for discussion since she thinks it’s important that they support each other. She said that she would not support the motion since she felt that it’s not necessary. Councillor Allaire said that :” We should only probe Leardi when necessary to get more out of him”. (Read that twice! I double checked the video to be sure I was accurate…..)
While Councillor Allaire was speaking, Councillor Pouget started putting her laptop away. It went to a vote for the motion. Only Councillor Pouget voted in favour. The rest voted in opposition. So, no letter to Mr Leardi to try to find out if what he said is true…..
(So this is how I understood this…..Supposedly Mr Leardi said to somebody that the town received $19 Million from the federal government. Somebody then talked about it at a meeting that Councillor Pouget attended with Mr Leardi’s associate? Now Councillor Pouget wanted town staff to spend time finding out if this were true? Anybody else getting flashbacks from high school here? Oh….somebody told me that somebody told them that (fill in the blank)……It defied logic that this became a 15 minute discussion at a council meeting all based off of something that somebody supposedly was told or supposedly heard. And it begs the question for Councillor Pouget…..How can you serve on council for that many years and not realize how much funding you get from various levels of government and how it is utilized in the budgets? And if any of this may be true, then I hope that Mr Leardi takes his “associate” to task for making such a statement. As a councillor, if a resident were to have told you that they “heard” this, shouldn’t a member of council be able to say “any and all grant monies received from either the provincial or federal governments are earmarked for specific projects and spent accordingly on those budgeted items.” Instead, this council member was ready to begin a wild goose chase and waste time and resources looking into past budgets? The whole thing was mind boggling. And frankly very concerning.)
Deputy Mayor Gibb then spoke and said he would be brief. (Councillor Pouget continued to pack up her things to get ready to leave while he spoke…..) Deputy Mayor Gibb referenced a recent media release about awards that were won in Amherstburg from Tourism Windsor/Essex & Pelee Island. He extended congratulations to the owners and staff of Amherstburg’s Salty Dog for winning the title of Best Lunch Spot and congratulated the owners and staff of Wolfhead Distillery for winning the Best Art of the Cocktail Award. He extended congratulations to Amherstburg’s Parks Department since the Kings Navy Yard Park won Best Park or Garden. And also, he extended congratulations to the Tourism Department since Open Air won the Best Street Event Award. He extended congratulations to everyone.
(Side note from me…..did Open Air just win ANOTHER award? Seems so! I hope that council is paying attention to this!!!!!! We’ll add another trophy to the shelf for Open Air!)
The meeting adjourned at 8:09 PM. The New Business section of this meeting was…..unbelievable! I have watched so many meetings during the last 9 years and just when you think they can’t outdo themselves, this happened……I don’t know about you but I have the song “I heard a rumour” by Bananarama stuck in my head now. (Yes, it’s a great 80s song! LOL)
On that note, I’ll be back before you know it with a preview of the April 22nd meeting and that’s no rumour! See you then! Have a great rest of your week Amherstburg!
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