In My Humble Opinions

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, August 21st, 2017

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Through the summer months, council meets much less frequently with only one meeting in July and one meeting in August. Monday’s meeting had only 4 members in attendance (Mayor Williams and Councillors Garisto and Campbell were absent). The meeting was chaired by Deputy Mayor Maycock in the Mayor’s absence.

When Deputy Mayor chairs a meeting, you can quickly see which Councillors have come to the meeting unprepared. Councillor Kidd was unable to keep up with the agenda and lost his place several times before abruptly picking up his laptop and storming out of council chambers mumbling that the Deputy Mayor will just have to wait until he gets his laptop caught up. This instantly halted the meeting – without Councillor Kidd in chambers, council didn’t have quorum to continue.

The Never-Ending Piano Saga

If council could put as much time and effort into bringing new business to Town or finding ways to reduce the tax burden on residents as they do on things like pianos and backyard fires, Orangeville could be a very different place.

Remove the piano. Keep the piano. Leave it as it is until it causes a problem. Remove it again. No, keep it. But only have it out for 1-2 weeks before Blues & Jazz and 1-2 after.

At Monday’s meeting, they did vote to keep the piano (again)…for now (again)….with the provision that a bylaw addressing community pianos will be in the making. Councillor Don Kidd was the only one to vote against that motion stating that he didn’t support the piano from the get-go and he won’t start now. “I don’t think anyone will miss the piano” he stated exclaiming that he is downtown everyday and never sees it in use.

Councillor Wilson is {somewhat} in favour of the piano staying, but he would like a restriction on the length of time it can stay suggesting that just a few weeks around Blues & Jazz Festival would be appropriate but that having it from June to Sept is excessive.

So, the piano stays…for now. (again)

Here is my humble opinion about the piano. I think the piano is one of many creative ways that Orangeville could show its support for the arts. Let’s promote music, visual art, poetry, culinary arts and celebrate culture in a creative (INEXPENSIVE) way! When you have a business owner willing to put a piano outside his store for the Town to enjoy and he is willing to take the responsibility of maintenance and liability (AT A COST OF ZERO DOLLARS)…..let him! Rules? Sure. Allow the piano to be there from May to October. More rules? Not needed – he has already assumed the responsibility. We are a community full of talented artists, musicians, chefs, writers & dancers…we need to celebrate that!

Next Meeting

The next meeting of Council is scheduled for Monday, September 11th and at that time, Council will resume it’s regular bi-weekly meeting schedule.

 

Council Votes to Reject the OPP Costing…..For Now

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The long wait is finally over. On Monday night, after much discussion and debate, Council voted to decide whether Orangeville Police Service (OPS) would continue to police the Town of Orangeville or if a change over to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) would occur.

The recommendation that was printed in the agenda was that of the CAO, Ed Brennan, to accept the OPP costing as a cost saving measure to the Town. Councillor Wilson moved the motion and it was seconded by Councillor Bradley. Before the vote was taken, Deputy Mayor Maycock, who has been tight-lipped throughout the process, decided it was time to weigh in. I don’t usually quote an entire speech in my blog posts, but in my humble opinion, this one was quote-worthy.

“Let me start by saying that both the OPP and OPS are excellent police services and both provide excellent service. I also want to thank both services and Town Staff for providing all of the information that was requested of them. As we all know, this issue is very important and the decision we make could have long term consequences. During my time on Orangeville Council and Dufferin County Council, I have had to make many difficult decisions. I have had to make unpopular decisions. I voted in favour of making Dufferin County a single-tier municipality. I voted against purchasing the railway. I voted against borrowing $15 million to fund infrastructure projects. I voted against numerous budgets due to the burden on the taxpayer. I voted to enact the bylaw to ban the use of pesticides on your lawn. But I can assure you that every one of those decisions, like every decision I make at Council, I make based on what I think is the best decision for the community. I come to that decision by reviewing and pondering all of the information that is available at the time of the vote and I can assure you that I spent considerable time weighing all the facts on this critical issue. For all of you who have been following this issue, a lot of information and facts have been rehashed time over and over again and I will not bring them up again. But, there are a few facts and pieces of information that I used to help me make up my mind on this issue that I think have been ignored, or hardly mentioned that I want to share with you.

  1. During the past several months, policing has been front and centre on our Council agenda and in the media, but actually this issue started back in 2014 when then Councillor Williams, Councillor Wilson, Councillor Bradley and Councillor Rose voted to have an OPP Costing.
  2. During the 2014 municipal election, only 3 candidates made policing a key issue in their campaign. One didn’t get elected and 2 are sitting around this table, although one has changed his views, none of the rest of us addressed policing.
  3. Once Council finally received the long awaited OPP Costing, the current members of Council have read hundreds of pages of reports, heard many hours of presentations, and have received many emails and phone calls about this important issue.
  4. By broadcasting our meetings, and making available our reports, council has attempted to keep our residents informed. The media has also played a role in informing the public, but like almost everything this council deals with, it turns into a circus.
  5. There are only 16 months in this term of Council, thankfully.
  6. Although this current OPP costing expires this August, another request can be made at any time and the Town would be put in the queue to receive another costing
  7. During the 16 months left of this Council, the OPP transitional contract and the one-time cost associated with that contract, would provide the Town with no savings
  8. No matter how the vote goes tonight, this issue, policing, will be the number one issue come the October 2018 election.

As many of you know, I have put forth my name in 6 municipal elections. I have worked on numerous provincial and federal election campaigns. I have worked on leadership campaigns and I have been a political columnist. But more than that, I am a big believer in democracy. Even though I believe the electors got it wrong during the election of 2014, they got what they voted for. So I say, let the citizens of this great town decide. Let the candidates running in the October 2018 municipal election take a stand on this very important issue. And by doing so, the residents of Orangeville will get to decide.”

I appreciated the Deputy Mayor’s sentiments and I agree that this issue is bigger than these 7 people. It wasn’t a cop-out on his part (pun totally intended)…In my humble opinion, this was him listening to a great number of residents who believed this is an issue that needs to go to the people of Orangeville. His speech was met with a roar of applause and cheers from the gallery inside council chambers.

Councillor Garisto echoed the Deputy Mayor’s sentiments believing that a referendum during the next election is necessary. Councillor Kidd, who showed up at council wearing an OPP hat, spoke in favour of adopting the recommendation made by the CAO. Councillor Campbell spoke passionately in favour of keeping OPS. She did not support a costing from the get-go because she believes that a costing should have only come to fruition if we were unhappy with the level of service we were getting, which was not the case. “I’m voting for the Orangeville Police Service and I will not support this motion.”

Councillor Bradley, who has been vocal with her support of the OPP, listed all of the resources that OPP could bring to Orangeville. As for the cost, she compared OPS to being like a private school. “We all pay education tax, yet some people opt to send their children to private school and pay the hefty fees for that privilege. It’s the same with OPS. Taxpayers already pay for the OPP through the provincial taxes and yet we opt to have a private police service and we pay the extra fees. Unfortunately, the taxpayers don’t have that choice because if they want to send their kids to a private school, they make that choice. The politicians make the choice of spending their money on a more expensive police service and frankly, I don’t think we can afford the private service.” She also doesn’t think that this can wait until the next election because if we do, it would be at least 6 years before we would see savings. Councillor Wilson continued to show his support of the OPP because of the savings. “For me, it has never been about the (level) of service.”  Councillor Wilson said, “My interest has always been in the cost savings because the cost savings can be translated into more infrastructure or tax savings.”

The Vote

A vote of YES means supporting the OPP Costing while a vote of NO rejects the costing from OPP

Councillor Wilson – YES
Councillor Bradley – YES
Councillor Campbell – NO
Councillor Kidd – YES
Councillor Garisto – NO
Deputy Mayor Maycock – NO
Mayor Williams – NO

With a vote of 4-3, Council voted to reject the OPP costing and carry on with OPS handling the policing in Orangeville.

What Happens Now?

What happens now is that business will carry on as usual for OPS. While the debate of policing in Orangeville is done for now, I get the sense that this is far from over. This has been an issue that has torn apart the community for several years now with passionate arguments from both sides. Could this be the hot topic for the 2018 municipal election? Could it be put on the ballot during the election?

For now, I am happy that the vote is done. This is a prime opportunity for our elected officials to start showing some leadership by finding other ways to save on the next budget without relying on policing to get them there. This is also a great opportunity for the Orangeville Police Service to continue the path they’re on and continue to find ways to reduce the amount they’re spending every year and to find additional revenue streams to further save.

In Non-Policing News….

At the start of Council, a few awards were presented. Congratulations to Bob Burnside who accepted an award for ‘Senior of the Year’. Congratulations are also in order for Christine Patton of ‘Fromage’ who won the ‘Accessibility Award’ for working hard to make her store accessible to all residents. Councillor Gail Campbell was presented with an inaugural Municipal Accessibility Award from OMSSA for being a pioneer and champion for Accessibility. CONGRATS to all the Winners!!!

 

 

OPP Billing Explained – Town of Orangeville Council Meeting Monday, May 15th, 2017

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Thank you to the OPP for coming to Orangeville Town Council to explain how the billing model works after the initial transition contract. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that this explanation answered a lot of questions that I had about the inner workings of the cost recovery – especially is years 4 and beyond.

After the presentation by the OPP representative, there was still question from some council members on how it all breaks down…so I will try to explain it as simply as possible.

The cost to run OPP for the year is approximately $1.1 Billion. Of that $1.1 Billion, $400 Million is the cost of municipal policing, while the other $600 Million is monies used for provincial policing and as such is paid for by the provincial government. Of the $400 Million for municipal policing, a portion of it is recovered by base service (Every municipality policed by the OPP in 2017 has a base service cost of $191.84 per household). The rest of the $400 Million (roughly $150 Million), is recovered by cost for service calls. To make this part make sense, I am going to use made up numbers to keep them easy. If your municipality accounted for 10% of all of the calls that the OPP receives for municipal policing, your municipality would be responsible to pay 10% of that $150 Million. On the flip side, if your municipality accounted for 0.5% of all of the calls for service, your municipality would only be responsible for 0.5% of that $150 Million – Make sense?

The other thing that was explained by the OPP is that the way they determine your percentage of calls for service is by averaging out your last 4 years of service history. Because we don’t have history, the ‘occurrences’ that were reported by OPS through a different program would be used for our costs.

The OPP also provided the Town of Orangeville with the tool needed to determine the costs more accurately in year 4 and it was determined that the initial numbers reported by the treasurer in April, were extremely accurate and that the cost savings by switching to the OPP would be over $4 Million per year. Councillor Wilson noted that now the concerns of costs can finally be put to rest.

Questions from the Residents

A number of questions from the gallery were permitted during question period following the presentations from OPP, OPS & CAO Ed Brennan. From the questions asked, it was very clear to me that this issue has divided the community. One resident, Sandy Eastman, passionately spoke up in support of OPS to say “You (council) work for us. You have to listen to what the people of Orangeville want.” Ms. Eastman went on to say “I don’t believe that our taxes are going to go down half. When you say $4.5 million (in savings), are my house taxes going to go down half? They are probably going to remain the same and if they remain the same, I’d like you to vote and keep what we have because the taxpayer is not going to have any savings.” Another resident, Chris Thompson, spoke up in favour of moving to OPP “I can’t remember an opportunity for such a tax savings in as long as I have been following the municipal politics here. The opportunity is here now. Please seize it.” Another resident asked council to consider a referendum either now or as part of the election in 2018 to make the decision rather than simply allowing the 7 members of council to have the final say. If a referendum was held at the same time as the municipal election, the cost would be minimal according to the Town Clerk. The suggestion of a referendum was met with concern from several councillors including Councillor Bradley who said “When we do have an election, we are lucky to get 35% of the people out – it’s usually less than that. So even if we do have a referendum, it would be a very small voice in the community. I’m not sure it would be representative of the entire community anyway. That’s just the reality.” Following that, I did see a very interesting reply to Councillor Bradley’s remark on Facebook that I felt I needed to share!

What is your thought on holding this issue off until the next election? Should this be in the hands of Council or in the hands of the people?

A question of politics

I can’t even put into words how disheartening it was to watch this council meeting. I can’t reiterate enough what a HUGE decision this is for the Town of Orangeville. I would even be so bold to say this is the biggest decision that I have ever seen an Orangeville Council be required to make. This decision shouldn’t be one with political motives attached. This is a decision that requires each member of council to carefully analyze all of the data: Both financial AND the service levels and make a decision that they feel is best for Orangeville. My concern is the lack of respect and understanding and what appears to be a lack of willingness to listen to and digest the data that both sides have to offer. There are definitely benefits and downfalls to both sides and regardless of where your opinion lies, there is a need to respect and embrace the opinions of others. I cannot grasp why this is such a hard concept for our current Town Council to understand. The utter disrespect that was shown to the representative from the OPP on Monday night by implying that she was simply providing “hypothetical numbers” and scoffing out loud at some of her responses was utterly embarrassing. You represent the 30,000 people that live in this Town and that is not a professional representation of our community.  The level of disrespect that is consistently shown amongst members of council and now even to Town Staff has proven to just be “norm” in the last 2 1/2 years and it seems as though it is now perfectly acceptable to have no regard for professional decorum.

If you weren’t able to attend the meeting or to watch it on Rogers, please do – click here for the link – I’d love to hear what you think about the conduct in chambers.

June 12th – Decision Day

It was decided by council at Monday’s meeting that the CAO, Ed Brennan will prepare a report for Council with a recommendation of which police force should be policing Orangeville which he will present to council on Monday, May 29th. Council will then have 2 weeks to review all of the data and the recommendation and they will be voting on Monday, June 12th to decide the fate of policing in Orangeville.  If you wish to have your voice heard before “Decision Day”, please send an email to all of your members of Council.

  • Mayor Jeremy Williams – jwilliams@orangeville.ca
  • Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock – wmaycock@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Scott Wilson – swilson@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Sylvia Bradley – sbradley@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Gail Campbell – gcampbell@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Don Kidd – dkidd@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Nick Garisto – ngaristo@orangeville.ca
  • Town Clerk Susan Greatrix – sgreatrix@orangeville.ca

Regardless of which side you are on with this issue…I would love for you to share your thoughts, opinions, frustrations in the comments. Have a healthy (respectful) debate! That’s what democracy is all about! I look forward to hearing your opinions.

 

 

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, May 8th, 2017

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This post should be fairly short and sweet as there wasn’t a whole lot to report on from Monday’s Council Meeting. I would like to start off by saying “Welcome Back” to Councillor Garisto – after a lengthy leave of absence due to illness, it was nice to see you back and I genuinely hope you are feeling better!

Notice of Special Council Meeting

A date has been set for a Special Meeting of Council – Monday, May 15th at 7pm at Town Hall. The purpose for this meeting is to have the OPP do a presentation explaining how the new billing model will work if Orangeville makes the decision to go ahead with OPP for our policing service. Over the past few months, there has been much confusion as to how much OPP will actually cost the residents of Orangeville in years 4 and later and the hope is that this will provide more clarity.

Councillor Campbell expressed that she would like OPS to be invited to present at this special council meeting as well. Councillor Campbell felt that by including OPS in the May 15th meeting, it would give Council all the information that they need to make their decision on policing before the end of May.

Councillor Kidd was also in support of the meeting on the 15th as he believes that a big part of the problem is that it is hard for residents to understand OPPs billing model and that it is necessary to give the OPP the opportunity to explain. Once that information is received, he believes that council will be better equipped to make their decision on policing. Councillor Kidd also went on to say that if OPS is coming to this meeting, he requests that they actually bring numbers. Mayor Williams asked for clarity on his statement “You said OPS didn’t have the numbers and that OPP did?? Is that what you said or did I mis-hear you?” Councillor Kidd explained his statement that the OPP have come with numbers and that he would like to see the same from OPS if they are going to be in attendance at this meeting. Mayor Williams responded “I’m sorry to contradict you, but no, that’s the whole thing. OPP has not provided numbers, and OPS has – they’re in every budget.”

Councillor Garisto stated that he would like to see numbers in black and white. “I don’t want a big book, I just want the numbers. Year 1 to Year 3? What’s year 5, year 6, year 7? Do they (OPP) have the control? Or does the province?”

Councillor Bradley was in support of having the meeting on the 15th as well. “This is all about information and I don’t think we can have too much information.” she went on to say “We need information. We need the data in order to make the best decision we can.”

Mayor Williams was not in support of having the special council meeting on the 15th and instead he took a different approach to the matter. As the discussion began, the Mayor expressed that he felt that OPP has been given ample opportunity to explain their billing model and that council would likely not gain any further information at another meeting. “I feel like the OPP has been given many chances to provide information.” and the Mayor went on to say “I would move a motion that we make the decision tonight.”  The Mayor went on to move a motion to discontinue talks with the OPP and instead continue service with OPS. His motion was with an awkward silence as the Mayor waited for someone to second his motion. After a moment, Councillor Garisto stepped up a seconder. Regardless of having a seconder, his motion was still defeated with only the Mayor and Councillor Garisto voting in favour.

I’d love to hear from you – Do you think Council has received adequate information to make a decision already? Have you sent in an email to Council with your feelings on the issue? Do you plan to attend the meeting on the 15th to better understand the new billing model?

 

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, April 24th, 2017

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Not surprisingly, a substantial portion of Monday’s meeting was comprised of continued discussions about Orangeville policing. At the Police Services Board Meeting on April 18th, 2017, a consultant hired by the Police Association did a presentation to the Board that discredited the Treasurer’s financial analysis. This presentation was a sore spot for a few Council members and they spoke up on Monday about their concerns. Councillor Gail Campbell, who is a member of the Police Services Board expressed her disappointment that this presentation was done calling it “antagonistic and personally disrespectful to our Treasurer”. She also expressed concern that the Treasurer was not given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and was not even invited to participate in the meeting. She also made it clear that the Board was not made aware of the contents of this delegation and its contents prior to that Board meeting. In Councillor Campbell’s opinion, this presentation should have been made to the governing body of Council and NOT to the Police Services Board. Her opinion is that the presentation was “marred and diminished” by an attack on a senior staff member of the Town of Orangeville.

Sergeant Fry, President of the Orangeville Police Association, spoke up in defence of the consultant’s credentials and stated that the Police Association was and is concerned by the confusion that surrounds the OPP costing in the community and therefore had requested that the matter be reviewed by a subject matter expert to review the long-term implications. Sergeant Fry also stated that he hopes that Council will consider getting an independent consultant to review the costs before making a final decision on the matter at hand.

Councillor Sylvia Bradley spoke about her concerns from the presentation as well. She was concerned about his credentials as a retired police officer. She stated that she found it “disgusting” that they hired someone to discredit the Treasurer and if they had wanted to hire someone, they should have hired someone who was “competent”. Councillor Bradley also said that “They {the police} are there to serve and protect the public, the people of Orangeville. They’re not there to serve and protect their self-interests and I’m seeing that this is what’s happening here.” Councillor Bradley went on to say that a number of officers are afraid to speak out publicly to voice their concerns and desires for fear of reprisal. “I certainly hope that I will not be getting special attention now because I have spoken out.” Councillor Bradley said. She then stated that she feels that the Union now owes an apology to the Treasurer.

BDO was next up on the agenda to do their presentation which was basically confirming the accuracy of the Treasurer’s analysis based on the numbers he had available to him. One key point they did add was that they they would like to speak to OPP as they have some questions to ask.

So, where do we go from here? The public meeting is being held Thursday, April 27th from 7-9:30pm at ODSS in the cafeteria. Representatives from both OPS and OPP will be there to answer any of your questions. If you are unable to attend, you can tune in live on Rogers TV (Channel 63) and please don’t forget that you can still send you questions or comments to oppcosting@orangeville.ca and to each member of Council individually at the email addresses below:

  • jwilliams@orangeville.ca
  • wmaycock@orangeville.ca
  • swilson@orangeville.ca
  • sbradley@orangeville.ca
  • gcampbell@orangeville.ca
  • dkidd@orangeville.ca
  • ngaristo@orangeville.ca
  • sgreatrix@orangeville.ca (Town Clerk)

Please have your voices heard! Decision time is coming soon and our community is very divided on the topic.

Urban Slide

Did you have a chance to try out the Urban Slide at last years’ Founders Day? What were your thoughts? The plan this year was to pair the Urban Slide up with a beer garden and Caribbean Festival on Mill St hosted by the BIA. However, at Monday’s council meeting, Council chose to simply ‘receive’ the information and no motion was passed to go ahead with the slide this year. Concerns about cost were brought forward and when asked what the costs were to run it last year, it was minimal…Doug Jones, Director of Public Works, estimated that it cost the Town approximately $2000-$2500 to host the event.

What do you think? Should they have gone ahead with the slide again this year?

Next Meetings

The next important dates you need to be aware of are Thursday, April 27th at 7pm at ODSS for the public meeting and the next regular council meeting on Monday, May 8th at 7pm at Town Hall. And don’t forget to send you comments and questions to Council! My next blog post will review the information from Thursdays public meeting and I will post as many questions and answers as possible.

OPS Presentation to Council – Monday, April 3rd, 2017

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After the OPP Costing Presentation on Monday, February 13th, 2017, Council requested that OPS be given the opportunity to present to Council as well.

This presentation was not so much about the cost of OPS as a service…The cost as well as the 5 year projected budget are readily available to you as public information documents on the Town of Orangeville Website. This presentation was more about the heart of the force, the journey the force has been on since Wayne Kalinski’s reign as Chief began, and where the force is planning to go for the years to come.

I think you all know by now my feelings about the Chief…In my eyes, he is one of the best leaders this Town has ever seen – and here is why. As a leader, he came onto OPS at one of its most difficult times. He jumped in with both feet and presented a vision for OPS that included Community Involvement and Fiscal Responsibility. We’ve seen his vision come to light over the last almost 3 years…In my 25+ years in Orangeville, I don’t remember a time when we’ve ever had officers and the Chief be so immersed in the community and in the last 3 budgets, we have seen a reduction in cost year over year.

But what was so super cool about this presentation to Council is that as you listened to Sergeant McLagan and Sergeant Fry both address Council, you could hear the Chief’s influence in their words. What the Chief has done far surpasses what I believe his initial vision was….through his passion, his vision has become an entire culture within the department. This makes me so confident that when he, one day (hopefully many many years from now), decides to retire, that culture will be so deeply engrained in the officers and civilians alike, that they will not skip a beat to carry on his vision for the force.

Ok, back to the presentation…

4:50

Sergeant McLagan began his presentation with this number – 4:50. 4:50 represents OPS’ average response time. This is the most important factor in a life or death situation and Orangeville Police Service has the ability to deliver such a great response time as a result of the Stand-Alone model of policing that is currently what we see with OPS. The feeling of Community was very present in Sergeant McLagan’s presentation as he spoke about every officer being immersed in the community as residents, hockey coaches, soccer coaches, volunteers, big brothers and big sisters. He also outlined that officers come from many different areas: OPP, Toronto Police, Peel Police, York Regional Police, RCMP and so on.

Sergeant Fry has been an officer with OPS for 20 years and before that was an officer for OPP for 20 years. His presentation to Council on behalf of the Police Association began by stating that the last time the Police Association addressed Council was in 2014 when they felt the need to publicly highlight the lack of leadership and fiscal responsibility and now they felt it necessary to address Council to celebrate and highlight the progress and transformation of OPS.  “I would respectfully submit that our community has everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by standing down, at least for a while, and turning down the OPP proposal.” His presentation asked a very reasonable question. “I urge you to consider the implications of choosing to be the first to sign under this new model. Is it prudent to trust their new costing model that is unproven? It does not offer cost certainty.” And I do think that is a valid question…do we, Orangeville residents, want to be the guinea pigs for this new costing model? Or does it make more sense to consider this option in 5 years time when other municipalities have been through the process from the very beginning?

Show Me The Money $$

A special shout-out to our Treasurer, Mr. Villeneuve and to our CAO, Mr. Brennan for their diligent work in putting together a cost analysis. The amount of work you put into gathering data and doing a cost comparison was obvious in your presentation.

The data comes down to this: According to all of the information that could be sourced, the OPP is projected to come in approx $4-$5m LESS than our current OPS. Currently, according to the data presented, over 85% of municipalities currently serviced by the OPP pay less than $416 per property while currently, under OPS, we are paying approx $865 per property.

Mr. Villeneuve was clear to state that this was a financial analysis only and was not to serve as an exercise to compare services also stating that this was a neutral analysis that was based solely on the numbers available to him. And the bottom line sounds pretty great…it really does. How nice would it be to the tax payer to have some relief?

In My Humble Opinion

The business side of me, which is really engrained in me, wants so badly to say that OPP is the right decision. When you look at the bottom line, the numbers back it up. $4.5 million is an unbelievable amount of savings…I can’t possibly overlook that.

BUT, something just still doesn’t feel right about this. And the sales person in me is questioning the legitimacy of the numbers. (Let me be clear, I am in no way questioning the Treasurer’s numbers…I think he did his best analysis based on the data he could find) But let me explain my problem with it. Let’s picture this. I’m a sales person and I sell windows. You come to me and ask me for a quote and share with me the other quote you have already received from another window guy. After hearing you out and taking the measurements, I am 100% confident that I can sell you the exact same windows and install them the exact way as the other guy for 50% less…same windows, same service, half the price. As a sales person, I would lead with “Hey, did you know that I can get you those exact same windows for half the price? Let me show you.” What I wouldn’t do is show you the windows that I have available and make you go try to figure out what my price would be by sending you to check out my website and task you with calling my past clients. That’s just not a very transparent way to do business.

What I am getting at is this – If these numbers are truly what they appear to be, why did our Treasurer ever have to try to find them in the first place? Not only did he have to do an excessive amount of research, but he also had to speak to neighbouring municipalities to try to understand the cost. No disrespect to the OPP, but it all just seems a little odd to me…Would you buy windows from someone who made you figure out the price on your own?

I’d love to hear your humble opinions on this matter…have you sent an email to your Council Members yet so they know how you feel?

  • jwilliams@orangeville.ca
  • wmaycock@orangeville.ca
  • swilson@orangeville.ca
  • sbradley@orangeville.ca
  • gcampbell@orangeville.ca
  • dkidd@orangeville.ca
  • ngaristo@orangeville.ca
  • and please cc the clerk, Susan Greatrix at sgreatrix@orangeville.ca

Please…regardless of which side of this issue you are on, HAVE YOUR SAY!! Do not leave this issue solely to Council. In my opinion, this is perhaps the biggest decision a Council has had to make as long as I can remember….Don’t let your voice be muffled.

Next Council Meeting Date and Public Meeting Date

On Monday, Council voted on a motion to hold the OPS/OPP Public Meeting on Thursday, April 27th at ODSS – The time is TBA once they can coordinate with Rogers Cable as well as ODSS. This meeting will be the opportunity for residents to speak up, share your thoughts, ask your questions. This will NOT run in the same format as a regular Council Meeting. It will be moderated by a neutral moderator and representatives from both OPP and OPS will be available to answer your questions. I will post as soon as the time is announced.

The next regular Council Meeting will be held on Monday, April 24th at 7pm at Town Hall.

 

 

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, March 20th, 2017

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On a Personal Note…

One of my favourite things about attending Council Meetings is being given the opportunity to talk to residents and listen and understand their community concerns. In the last couple of years, I’ve been privy to a lot of issues that residents feel are being overlooked – things that I didn’t realize were issues – and its been such a great learning opportunity for me! If you don’t come to council meetings, I’d still love the chance to hear what’s on your mind…what are your biggest concerns in Orangeville right now? Leave a comment on the blog or send me an email mrsposty@outlook.com – I’m looking to write a post that focuses on some of your key issues in the upcoming month.

Question Period

A handful of residents attend most meetings, and Mr. Alan Toms is one who is regularly in attendance and is often prepared to speak at Question Period when he has concerns. On Monday night, he shared his concerns with the way the OPP costing presentation was handled – clearly our Town is beginning to outgrow our Council Chambers as the majority of residents who attended were moved into the Theatre to watch it from there on the live stream. Mr. Toms hoped that by addressing Council on Monday, it would allow sufficient time and planning for the Town of Orangeville to look at alternate venues for the ‘Public Meeting’ that will be upcoming at the end of April where residents will be given the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns about the policing situation in Orangeville. Council Chambers just will not work – policing in Orangeville has been a hot topic for many years and there will be hundreds of residents in attendance. Thank you Mr. Toms for voicing your concerns at Council – you are bang on correct – perhaps now would be a good time to look at using the Cafeteria at ODSS or somewhere with sufficient space.

Will you attend that meeting?? Would the venue determine whether or not you will be in attendance? I’d love your opinions and suggestions on how it should be handled.

Parking Study Presentation

Have you ever tried to park on Broadway at a “busy” time of day? I have – and it’s not fun! Especially on Saturday mornings during the Farmers Market, dinner time on a Friday night when a show is on at the Opera House, or during any special events….actually pretty much any time of day, I find there are parking challenges.

Well, the consultants have spoken and according to the report, there is sufficient parking in the Downtown….even during special events such as Founders Day. Consultants from Paradigm Transportation Solutions LTD presented their extensive study on Monday night and  the end result of their study was that “the need for an increase in parking supply has not been identified.” Based on their numbers, they identified that even at it’s peak, only around 80% of available parking is being utilized…I was shocked to see those numbers because in my experiences, that just simply hasn’t been the case. (the full study and presentation is available here)

The part of the presentation that I found the most interesting was the results of the community consultations that they shared. They received opinions from around 500 residents and business holders and the theme was quite consistent amongst those asked. When asked what they liked about the current parking, the number one reply was that it is free public parking – that response was the same from the stakeholders. When asked what needed improvement, the response was overwhelming that there was a need for more parking…some residents and stakeholders suggested the need for a parking structure in the Mill St Mall area while others suggested removal of the median to go back to angled parking. The other issue that was brought up was the lack of accessible parking and the abuse of the 2-hour time limit.

I would love to hear your opinions on Downtown Orangeville Parking – do you think there is enough? Do you have suggestions to improve the current state? Does a lack of parking ever deter you from attending an event in the Downtown area?

Next Council Meeting

A reminder that the next Council Meeting will be held on Monday, April 3rd, 2017 – at this meeting, there will be a presentation made by OPS’s Chief Kalinski with other members of OPS scheduled to be in attendance. Hope to see you there!!

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, March 6th, 2017

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On Monday night, Jim Hill, a resident of Montgomery Village spoke at Question Period with concerns about tickets that his family is receiving overnight while being parked in the overflow parking in the community. This winter alone, his family has received in the neighbourhood of 30 parking tickets at $25 a piece. Mr. Hill plans to fight each of these tickets. Mr. Hill has lived in the neighbourhood for 20 years and is concerned that the change in the bylaw is going to force him to relocate his family. Members of council said that the bylaw hasn’t changed, rather the bylaw dept has become more diligent with enforcement of the bylaw.

Councillor Wilson proposed an option where perhaps permits could be purchased on a first-come-first-serve basis by residents of the area to allow parking, and this proposal gained no traction.

After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Hill was quite obviously frustrated when Council chose not to pursue any changes to the current bylaw and no resolution was sought.

No Changes to The Way We Vote

On Monday’s agenda, Council was asked to look at various voting options for the 2018 Municipal Election. Options included changing to a ‘Ranked’ system, as well as possibly adding Internet Voting to the mix while continuing with Paper Ballots and Vote Counting Machines.

Trevor Castiglione spoke up at Question Period asking Council to consider adding in the Internet Voting to help combat our low voter-turnout.

Council chose to keep our voting methods the same and opted out of adding Internet Voting to the 2018 election.

In my humble opinion, I would have liked to see Council do some more investigation into the addition of online voting. I can understand why people would not want to cast their vote online, in fact, I don’t think I would ever use online voting personally..however, I would have liked to see some more investigation into this as an option. What do you think? Would you ever cast your ballots online? Would you have liked to see Council change anything about the way our elections are handled?

Council Remuneration Review Committee

This committee is set to review remuneration for the next term of Council and the committee will be formed after a motion to do so was passed.

Mayor Williams recalled that in the previous term of Council, staff were to investigate whether or not the role of Mayor should be a full-time position and noted that no actions had been taken…and this was not including as part of the motion that was passed on Monday.

In my humble opinion, the role of Mayor in The Town of Orangeville should remain part-time…I don’t know that as a Town, we can afford the increase in salary that would come from having a full-time Mayor…what do you think?

Public Meeting for Orangeville Policing Issue is Coming

Councillor Kidd requested that a ‘Special Meeting of Council’ be scheduled through the week of April 24th with the sole agenda item being policing. This would give residents the opportunity to weigh-in on both the OPP costing presentation as well as the upcoming OPS presentation that is scheduled for Monday, April 3rd.

Having it scheduled as a Council Meeting, rather than a Public Meeting will afford the possibility of it being televised on Rogers TV which Councillor Kidd felt was an important factor.

Staff will be looking at dates and coordinating with Rogers TV and will announce the date once it is confirmed.

With this being such a hot topic and HUGE million dollar decision for our Council, will you plan on being in attendance?

Next Council Meeting

The next meeting of Council is scheduled for Monday, March 20th! Hope you see you there!

Have a safe and happy March Break 🙂

 

 

OPP Costing Presentation…and some other drama – Monday, February 13th, 2017

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Quite a few years in the making, but Monday night was finally the night – The OPP Costing was presented to Council. The gallery was packed and the Opera House was opened up for overflow seating with a live feed to the Council Meeting. This meeting did not allow for any public input – further ‘Open House’ sessions will follow in the coming months. The process is far from over and the public is encouraged to send their comments and questions by email to all members of Council. Orangeville has to make their decision by mid-August 2017 and leading up to that date, there will be a further presentation by OPS (as was requested by Council on Monday), OPP will also be back to break down the costing that occurs after the first 3 year contract is completed, and there will be a public Open House where members of the community will be encouraged to voice their opinions and ask any questions.

I will start off with a public thank you to the members of the OPP who conducted the presentation. I found the presentation to be quite thorough (although I do have further questions that I will discuss later in the post) and I found them very professional, knowledgable and very respectful to Chief Kalinski, the PSB and the entire team of OPS. The OPP is a very well-respected force…if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be policing 300+ municipalities in Ontario – I preface with this because there has been a lot of speculation put out through various media sources about the possibility of a decline in service quality with the OPP and in my humble opinion, that is simply an unfair speculation.

The Level of Service

If Orangeville were to accept the OPP Costing, we would become the 4th Zone in Dufferin County. (Zone 1 is Mono, Zone 2 is Murmur/Melancthon and Zone 3 is Amaranth/East Luther/GrandValley/East Garafraxa. These 4 zones would be part of the Dufferin Detachment. Within the detachment, there would be 11 officers on duty at all times…7 of those officers would report to work in Orangeville. There were a number of concerns from members of Council about those 7 officers potentially being “called away” from Orangeville to assist in a neighbouring municipality if the need arose.

Dollars & Cents

The OPP presented a costing of $7.8 Million per year (for the first 3 years) plus a one time start up cost of approx $1 Million. The current OPS Budget for 2017 is $8.2 Million after its revenues of $1.4 Million. So, it looks like about $400,000 in savings per year for the initial 3 year contract.

However, there are other costs to take into consideration which have not yet been answered – I anticipate further information being released at future information sessions.

There are upgrades needed to the current police station in order for it to house the OPP – the costs of those upgrades were not included in this costing – to me, that is a huge variable. Also, the cost of severances based on collective agreements as well as the ‘pension divestment’ could potential be at a HUGE cost. There would definitely be some cost recovery based on the disposal of OPS’s current assets, but again, no precise dollar amount was presented. In my humble opinion, these are factors that need to be locked down before any decisions are made as they all could affect the dollars & cents in a big way.

The other cost question that remains a mystery up to this point is a full understanding of how the costing model works after the first 3 years – The OPP will be back for another session with Council at some point in the coming months to explain the ins and outs of this. So stay tuned for more information.

Public Open House

As I mentioned earlier, this process is far from over. OPS will be presenting to Council at the meeting on Monday, April 3rd. As mentioned above, there will also be another session from OPP in regards to the 2nd phase of the contract (after the first 3+ years) and there will be a public open house. In the meantime, here is my ask. Please don’t let your voice go unheard. This is perhaps the biggest decision this Council will ever have to make and it will affect every taxpayer in Orangeville for years and years to come. Please don’t wait for the Public Open House…send your emails now…send them to every member of Council at the email addresses that I have enclosed:

  • Mayor Williams: jwilliams@orangeville.ca
  • Deputy Mayor Maycock: wmaycock@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Wilson: swilson@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Bradley: sbradley@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Campbell: gcampbell@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Kidd: dkidd@orangeville.ca
  • Councillor Garisto: ngaristo@orangeville.ca

Other emails to send to are:

  • oppcosting@orangeville.ca
  • CAO Ed Brennan: ebrennan@orangeville.ca
  • Town Clerk Susan Greatrix: sgreatrix@orangeville.ca

Please ensure you include your name and contact information on all correspondence. Send your opinions, questions, and concerns. Make sure your voice is heard before this decision is made.

My Humble Opinions

I have been asked a number of times where I stand..OPP or OPS…and until the presentation on Monday night, I was hesitant to reply simply because I didn’t have all of the information. While I still don’t feel like I have all of the information, at this point in time, I am definitely leaning towards OPS and here is why. When it comes to the money side of things, the cost is comparable. I was expecting a larger savings with OPP and it’s simply not the case. There are too many variables as listed above (severances, pensions, upgrades to the Police Station) that would bring the cost over and above the current OPS budget. As for the level of service, I again believe that this is comparable. Both forces are top-notch and I don’t think there would be any advantages to our service level by going OPP – yes, they do have specialty units and divisions that we could benefit from, but we are already able to leverage those services if they are required. The one advantage to OPP would be for the officers directly – officers for the OPP have more opportunities for advancing their careers if they so choose.

But, until further information is obtained, my vote right now lies with OPS. What are your thoughts? Did your opinion change after the presentation on Monday night? If you were tasked to voting one way or another today, what would your vote be?

….And Then There Was Drama

As you may recall back in November, the Mayor was quoted in the Orangeville Banner stating that “A good Council supports its Mayor. A good CAO supports its Mayor”. Councillor Wilson took offence to the implications of his statement and asked him to apologize. At that time, Mayor Williams informed Councillor Wilson that he was misquoted in the paper and that if Councillor Wilson had an issue with that, he should take it up with the reporter.

Well, Councillor Wilson did. He went and spoke with the reporter who confirmed that the quote was accurate and even provided his hand-written notes of the interview to Councillor Wilson. “I stand by my earlier request that you owe an apology to the staff here, specifically the CAO. I’d like your response to it because I know you have not apologized to Mr. Brennan for your comments in the paper that day.” Mayor Williams replied with “You asked for an apology and I will not be providing one because I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve said nothing wrong. If you don’t like the way that a particular writer writes an article or if you don’t like a particular newspaper, then either don’t read it or write your own.” and continued to state that he said nothing offensive.

At this point, Councillor Kidd jumped in “With all due respect, would it hurt you to just shake Ed’s hand and say ‘if I said something wrong, I’m sorry.’…” and he went on to say “Be a Man and just step up and shake his hand”. The Mayor asked for a motion to adjourn….no one answered. He then tried to move to bylaws…no one answered. Not one word. In the end, the Mayor never did apologize, but shook his hand, albeit begrudgingly.

There is so much wrong with this entire interaction and the events leading up to it that it’s hard to know where to even begin.  So, I will start here. In reference to the Mayor’s comments in the newspaper…were they inappropriate? Yes they were. The role of a CAO is NOT a political one. So to suggest that a “good CAO” must support its Mayor is wrong. In my humble opinion, a good CAO advises council and the Mayor without political bias. A good CAO is looking out for the best interests of the residents of the community and the best interests of Town staff. Should the Mayor apologize to Mr. Brennan for his comments…yes, he probably should. Thankfully Mr. Brennan is a professional and continues to do a fantastic job for us, the residents, with or without an apology.

Councillor Kidd’s response to the situation was also inappropriate. I respect his intentions…however perhaps some sensitivity training is in order as his comments were incredibly disrespectful. This ‘Code of Conduct’ that was enacted last year clearly has no merit.

A good leader will accept feedback and use it to grow – and all of the elected ‘leaders’ of our Town need to be reminded of that. If the Mayor honestly didn’t believe that he had said something inappropriate, a better response would have been ‘Thank you for the feedback, I will take your comments into advisement’ and move on. Instead, the deflection, denial and defensiveness was successful in creating yet another hostile environment.

There have been many embarrassing moments over the last 2+ years of this term of Council and this was perhaps one of the most embarrassing because in attendance were half a dozen or more members of the OPP looking to do business with our Town – if I were them, I don’t know what I’d be thinking…but I likely would have gone back to the higher ups of the organization and questioned whether this was a Council we want to be associated with.

Well Wishes for Councillor Garisto

On Monday, Council passed a motion approving an extended medical leave for Councillor Garisto until the end of April. At this time, I’d like to wish Councillor Garisto all the best and send hopes of good health and a speedy recovery.

Next Council Meeting

The next Council Meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 6th, 2017.

 

Town of Orangeville Council Meeting – Monday, January 30th, 2017

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I have been to a lot of weird Council Meetings in the last 2 years…this was perhaps one of the strangest ones yet. And it wasn’t strange because of the content, or the discussion…it was weird because it lasted a whopping 22 minutes {Not an exaggeration} From the singing of Oh Canada until the motion to move into closed session was 22 minutes.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Mayor Maycock – Mayor Williams was absent as were Councillors Garisto and Wilson. The agenda was relatively small – honestly, there was nothing news-worthy…just the receiving of some reports.

Police Services Board Meeting – Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

Congratulations to Ken Krakar – he has been elected to remain as the Chair of the Police Services Board. Ken has been a member of the PSB since 2014 and took the role of ‘acting’ chair back in May 2016 when the Mayor was removed from the position of chair during the police investigation into his credit card spending.

Ken was nominated at the meeting on Wednesday and the vote was taken. All of the members of the PSB voted in favour of this with the exception of Mayor Williams.

Next Council Meeting

A reminder to all Orangeville residents…the next Council Meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 13th and will be a hot one. The OPP Costing is being presented at the meeting.

I anticipate a full house at the meeting, so you may want to get there a bit early to secure a seat. At this point, I am not aware of there will be time set aside for public input, but if you do have questions or comments about this hot topic, you can always speak during the ‘Question Period’ portion of the meeting, or be proactive and send some feedback to the members of Council by email before the meeting.

Hoping to see you all at the next meeting!