Budget Passes

On Monday night the budget *almost* officially passed. I say *almost* only because it still requires an official bylaw to pass it. The increase we will see this year is 3.5%, which is about $100 per year on the average home valued at $320k…I anticipate that there will likely be some more discussion at the next meeting on Monday before the bylaw passes. Councillor Kidd and Deputy Mayor Maycock voted against the budget while Councillors Wilson, Bradley, Campbell and Mayor Williams voted in favour. Councillor Garisto was absent.

Councillor Bradley shared that she is pleased with the level of increase considering the huge cost of the enhancement to the Transit service.  Mayor Williams was pleased with the speed at which the budget was completed this year stating that this is the first time that a budget has been completed in November which will give staff the benefit of time.

Stay tuned for the next Council Meeting on Monday, November 14th at Town Hall for the budget officially passing.

What’s your thoughts? How do you feel about 3.5%?

Strategic Plan

This year, Orangeville undertook the task of creating a strategic plan. A consultant from Queens University was hired to facilitate the creation of the plan and to execute the many levels of the plan. There is a survey available online for all residents to complete – but hurry…it closes on Friday, November 11th! CLICK HERE to access the survey and have your voice heard!!!

As well as the survey, there were also two stakeholder sessions held (one of which I was fortunate enough to take part in) as well as a session for Town of Orangeville Management and finally on Tuesday, a workshop for Council. All information from all facets will be compiled and will directly result in the draft of the strategic plan.

I was interested to see that the information that was presented from both stakeholder sessions (approx 30 people) as well as the compiled information from the surveys so far (over 400 surveys) aligned very closely. Below you will see some of the findings:

Session One:

Session Two:

Survey Results of Priorities Ranked in Order of Importance:

For the Council Session that took place at 5:30pm on Tuesday, Councillors Wilson and Garisto were absent. Council was presented the results and then were asked to contribute by voting on their priorities and ranking them in order of importance to themselves.

In order to complete this task, every member of Council was given a laptop with the ‘ThinkTank’ brainstorming software installed on it, which records your votes as you input them and prioritizes responses based on number of people who felt it was a priority. As the first question was asked, Mayor Williams declined participating in the voting because he felt that it was a breach of Council’s bylaws. The Clerk was asked for comment, and she assured everyone that they had spoken to the legal team to ensure that there was no issues and there was no issue with everyone’s participation. Despite that knowledge, the Mayor still declined to participate. Councillors Bradley, Campbell, Kidd and Deputy Mayor Maycock all participated.

It will be interesting to see what the final results are when the draft of the strategic plan is presented to Council in early 2017. Here’s hoping this isn’t just another item that is “received” and put on a shelf somewhere in Town Hall.

Have you done the survey? What do you think the priorities for the Town need to be? Are you aligned with what was identified as Strengths and Opportunities? Anything else you think needs to be added to the list on either side?

 

 

Budget talks started for Town of Orangeville Council on Monday night with the introduction of the Operating Budget. Tuesday night there was another Budget Meeting to continue some of Monday’s conversations and to start the conversations about the Capital Budget.

In my last post, I questioned some of the conversations on social media calling it a zero percent increase after the Treasurer had talked about it being a 4.5% increase. THANK YOU to Councillor Scott Wilson for starting the budget talks by calling that out and calling a spade a spade. “We had the quick summary from Mr. Villeneuve at our last meeting and some comments were made about a 4.5% increase. Social media has it reported that there will be a Zero % real increase in taxes in 2017 and I understand that to mean that taxes will not go up. I have contacted the treasurer and he has clarified that as the budget stands right now with no changes, taxes will go up.” Councillor Wilson said and explained the 1% being covered by growth and the other 3.5% being covered by existing taxpayers “Everybody’s assessment is phased in. Therefore everybody will be having a property assessment increase. Therefore everybody will be having a property tax increase. That message has to get out to the public because the way it has been portrayed on social media is that there is no increase in property taxes in 2017. That is something we’ve got to make clear is that right now there is an increase proposed and we have to reduce at least $1.1 million from the proposal to increase the likelihood that there won’t be a property tax increase in 2017.”

Mayor Williams continues to defend that this IS in fact zero percent – on social media, he continues to call this “simple math” and his comment in reply to Councillor Wilson was “It’s like most numbers, you can look at it all sorts of different ways.” and continued on to say “I think we’re at a good level (of services) and I think most people are happy with it. To me, a budget that stays within that and stays within inflation, to me that is ideal. That is zero.”

So here is the thing about math, in my humble opinion. Math is black and white. Nowhere in math is 4.5% the same as 0%. Nowhere in math is inflation the same as zero percent…unless of course inflation rates are actually 0%. In school, math is not open for interpretation in the same way english is. While I’m glad to hear that the assessments will cover a great deal of the cost to taxpayers, to imply that it is the same as Zero is just deceitful marketing and clever manipulation of numbers. If the average household will see at least $125 increase on their annual taxes, that’s not zero. I don’t know about everyone else in Orangeville, but I am getting pretty tired of the wordsmith games to make it all sound good. Let’s try putting the politics aside and try some honesty instead.

I don’t care how you spin the numbers or choose to ‘interpret’ them…4.5% (or now 4.7% after Tuesday’s meeting) IS NOT zero percent.

Fire Department Budget

There was an in-depth discussion through both Monday and Tuesday’s meetings about one of the items that was added into the Operating Budget this year…the hiring of 4 Full-Time Firefighters. This was an item from the Fire Master Plan that was presented to Council back in 2015 and explained that 10 Firefighters would have to be hired over a 3-year time span to ensure timely response times and to ensure the safety of the Town Residents and also the safety of the firefighters.  Now don’t get me wrong…this venture is not a cheap one. But I have to say, with the growth Orangeville has seen, it seems to me that this is the direction our Fire Department should be going.

On Tuesday, Councillor Campbell put forward a motion to include the hiring of 4 firefighters in 2017. The motion failed with only Councillors Campbell & Wilson voting in favour. Deputy Mayor Maycock then put forward a motion to defer this item to the 2018 budget and requested that staff bring a report with a full business model for the Fire Department – this motion passed 5-2 with Councillors Campbell and Wilson voting against. So, there will be no changes to the current Fire Department in 2017.

I’d love to know what you think of this…do you think it is time for our Fire Department to grow into a 24-hour full-time department?

Reserves – The dirty word

Throughout 2016, money was taken from reserves for 2 items and motions were made at previous Council meetings to repay that money during the 2017 budget. A motion was put forward by Mayor Williams to forgo repaying that money to reserves (totalling around $330,000). Councillors Wilson, Campbell and Kidd very quickly spoke up stating that this was the wrong direction and the reason that the motions were put forward at prior meetings was to ensure the reserves weren’t being depleted with no intentions of repayment. Councillor Garisto spoke up stating that he was ready to put forward a motion to take $1 million dollars out of the reserve contributions…thankfully he garnished no support for that idea.

I am continually baffled at how there is no recommendations to actually REDUCE SPENDING and instead the thought process seems to head to reserves. Keep spending more….stop saving….Where is the logic in that?!?! I want to see relief in my taxes…but I also want to see our Town prosper….and yes there are ways to make both things happen – we just need Council to make some tough decisions.

End of Day 2

So, by the end of Tuesday, the Operating Budget has been approved, but there is still some work to do on the Capital Budget and as such, the motion to approve that part of the budget was defeated. The next budget meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 7th, 2016.

I want to hear from you! What would you like to see happen before this budget is approved? Are you okay with yet another increase? Share your thoughts!!

Outdoor Wood Burning Bylaw Carries

It has been a source of angst in Orangeville for the past year with many discussions both in favour of and against and after Monday’s council meeting, the discussions have ended with the creation of a new bylaw. The bylaw includes the following provisions (which were voted on at the September 26th meeting):

 

To all of you who have been so supportive (especially over the last couple weeks), THANK YOU! Whether you chose to support me by publicly commenting or signing the petition or you chose to privately support me though emails, messages or a high-five when I ran into you in the grocery store, I appreciate you all more than you’ll likely know. I knew I was opening myself up to great criticism by being so publicly vocal about the frustrations we are experiencing with our Town Council, but I could no longer sit back and let them waste their time and our money on all of the petty infighting.

Let me be clear. This was NOT an attack on Orangeville. This was NOT an attack on any one member of council. In fact, this was not an attack at all. It was more of a plea…a plea for our Council to put their personal differences aside, treat each other with respect, and take Orangeville to the next level. I was expecting that my letter would not be well-received and as I spoke at Council about impact vs intent, I hoped that the message would be clear. I received a number of comments from Council, some of which I agreed with, and others not so much.

“Democracy is often messy.” Councillor Wilson said, “It’s much easier to be critical of our performance when you aren’t at the microphone, when you don’t sit around the horseshoe.” I agree with Councillor Wilson that democracy can be messy and that passion for an issue can take over…however, I still believe that passion can be respectful and productive.

Councillor Bradley said “I find it offensive to say that we aren’t doing our jobs. Because we are indeed doing our jobs, we wouldn’t receive award after award after award if we weren’t doing our jobs.” Councillor Bradley, Orangeville is a great community and well-deserving of the many awards that have been won – the volunteers on the committees involved as well as the Council member who is assigned that portfolio work unbelievably hard to make this happen…I don’t discredit that at all – nor did I in my letter. Again, I just ask for more professional conduct!!

Councillor Kidd said “For Ms. Post to say that this Council has done nothing is an absolute insult to this Council and an absolute insult to the people of Orangeville.” Nope…I didn’t say that either….Councillor Kidd, Did you even read my letter?

“I see someone who is abusing the system to come here – you ran in the last election and I know you’re running in the next election.” said Mayor Williams before leaning over to the Clerk to ask…”Can I say crap? Or will that get me in trouble with the Integrity Commissioner? My first instinct is that a lot of it (referring to the letter and petition) is a pile of crap.” Hmmm…I’m a bit confused by some of these comments. First and foremost, I am a tax-paying resident of Orangeville…in fact, my husband and I bought our first house almost 20 years ago…the fact that I ran for council 2 years ago means that my opinion as a tax-payer is no longer valuable? Mr. Mayor, I am totally ok with you thinking that I did this for my “political platform”…you are entitled to your opinions…as am I. What I am not ok with however, is your blatant dismissal of my concern…and the concerns of others. I know getting a bad performance review doesn’t feel nice, but that’s when you take the feedback and use it as a growth opportunity…not where you dismiss it as “crap”.

Anyways, onwards and upwards!

Outdoor Wood-Burning By-Law Discussion

After close to a year of discussion about updating the Outdoor Wood-Burning By-Law, the discussion isn’t quite over yet. At Monday’s meeting, the proposed new by-law was presented and broken down piece by piece and voted on separately. First off, they voted to repeal the current bylaw to make room for a new one.  (No new bylaw was passed on Monday, they will be bringing it to a full vote on Monday, October 17th) Each section was voted on separately – my notes are in red.

So, as previously mentioned, the bylaw with the revisions from Monday night will be presented to Council at its next meeting for a vote as a complete bylaw. So, as residents you do still have time to have your voice heard before Council officially votes on the new bylaw.

I know this is a hot topic, on both sides of the argument…What do you think about the changes and revisions? What would you rather see?

 

Its no secret that things at Orangeville Town Hall have been less than pleasant over the last 2 years of this Council’s 4-year term. In just the last couple of weeks, us residents have seen a criminal investigation, the beginnings of a lawsuit aimed at the Town (and possibly the Mayor), and now an investigation by the newly hired Integrity Commissioner.

In my humble opinions, enough is enough. I am fed up with Town Council’s blatant disregard for their duties to us as taxpayers. It’s time to #TakeBackOrangeville. In municipal government, there is unfortunately no official ‘Vote of Non-Confidence’ as there is in parliament…however, I have drafted a petition entitled ‘Take Back Orangeville – A Vote of Non-Confidence in Our Town Council’ that I would like to present at Council at the next meeting on Monday, September 26th, 2016. If you are fed up with the shenanigans at Town Hall, click HERE to sign the petition! I have sent the following open letter to all members of Council:

 

Dear Mayor Williams and Members of Council,

Thank you for your service to the Town of Orangeville. These last two years have been entertaining but it is time to bring this circus to a close. Two years ago, each one of you ran on platforms that included making Orangeville a better place, and you have broken that promise to the electorate. Your own personal agendas and desires to fuel animosity and infighting have clouded your vision. Two years ago, the electorate voted you into office to be our representatives, to be the voice of the taxpayer and to serve with our best interests in mind. You are not fulfilling the duties you were elected to.

As a taxpayer, I want someone in your seats that is a proven leader, who has a clear plan to make Orangeville better and who has the means, the intent and the skills to execute that plan. Instead, your decorum inside Council chambers has been deplorable and as a result, Orangeville has been reduced to being the ‘laughing-stock of Ontario’. The childish political games have made waves across the media, both in the papers and on social media and clearly show that there are no leaders among you. There is no means or intentions to execute a plan in fact currently no plan exists.

There has been little effort to improve our financial situation, little effort to bring new industry to Town as was promised and no relief to residents with our ever-growing property tax situation. Instead, we have received half-truths, at best. We have seen self-serving ‘well-timed’ politics, aimed solely for individual political standing and a clear disrespect for the seats you were elected to be in. The seats you sit it are seats that should be shown respect. They are not seats to be sat in by those who wish to abuse the power that the electorate has bestowed upon you.

Orangeville has had the misfortune of seeing scandals, investigations, childish schoolyard tactics, an alarming abuse of taxpayer’s money, and a clear violation of public trust. We all watched two years ago as a new Council was formed and with that always comes some rocky times. The fact remains that the issues you had on your inaugural day have not improved, instead the situation at Town Hall continues to decline, to the detriment of the residents. While I recognize and acknowledge that each of you have made contributions to the Town, collectively the divisiveness of Council has been and will continue to be a detriment to our community.

The 7 of you clearly have irreconcilable differences and this leaves the residents of Orangeville in limbo. If the next 2 years are left unchanged, I fear that the Town and its residents will suffer. Unfortunately, the Municipal Act, unlike parliament, does not have a vote of non-confidence, however, I have included a petition that has the names and signatures of ____________ residents who have lost confidence in your abilities to represent us. With all due respect and for the betterment of the Town, I am asking each of you to tender your resignations and call for a new election immediately.

 

Sincerely,

Lisa Post

Your Support is Needed

If you are as frustrated as me, please click the link to the survey https://www.change.org/p/town-of-orangeville-council-take-back-orangeville-a-vote-of-non-confidence-in-our-town-council and sign your name! Make sure to share the survey to your friends on Facebook and Twitter and use the hashtag #TakeBackOrangeville .My goal is to collect 5,000 signatures before Monday’s meeting. Let’s let them know how we, the electorate are feeling!

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments!

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, September 8th, The Orangeville Banner released an article titled ‘Peel Cops Clear Mayor Williams of any credit card wrongdoing’. Instantly, social media erupted in a frenzy of congratulations to the Mayor and with that of course came the conspiracy theories. The accusations go as far as saying that previous Mayor Rob Adams has been the puppet master…that Deputy Mayor Maycock led the whole charade for his own gain…that the ‘4’ Councillors are working together to “get rid of the Mayor”….basically that it is all just a ‘Witchhunt’.

I read the story (and of course the social media following) but have been waiting for a little more information to come out before I shared my humble opinions on the matter.

More information did come out at last night’s Town of Orangeville Council Meeting when Council voted in favour of waiving their Attorney/Client privilege on the report that was presented to Council back in March 2016 that led to Council directing the CAO to have Peel Regional Police to begin an investigation into the Mayor’s credit card use. This motion was brought forward by Deputy Mayor Maycock and when he was asked why he would table a motion of this nature, he responded by acknowledging that the public perception is that Council makes decisions on a whim and he thinks it is only fair to share with the public the legal advice they received before pursuing a criminal investigation. His motion passed with a clear majority…in fact, the only person who voted against having the report released was Mayor Williams.

Now this report is an interesting one. It really shows there are a number of sides to every story. In a Facebook post on March 17th, 2016, Mayor Williams posted his account of the story basically claiming ignorance – “There also was no official policy or agreement given me with the card to explain a procedure for use of the card.” Well the report from the Town’s lawyers tells a very different story. The legal report speaks to the number of documented conversations that the CAO and other Town Staff had with the Mayor beginning in August 2015 about the proper procedures surrounding the credit card such as procedures for claiming mileage (via a mileage log – as per the Town Bylaws), proper procedures for office expenses (as per the Town Bylaws), as well as the Town’s policy on personal expenditures. Yet, after these documented conversations, there continued to be unauthorized purchases made…which is why the Town of Orangeville’s legal counsel sent the report to Council recommending that they pursue a criminal investigation with the Peel Police Department.

When my son was 3 years old, he used to love to throw rocks. We would give him trouble day after day and yet he would continue to throw rocks. His intent was not to hurt anyone. His intent was not to cause any damage, but yet the moment we turned our backs, he would throw another rock. And we would start another lecture about how inappropriate his behaviour was and how eventually he was going to hurt someone or something. Mayor Williams, STOP THROWING ROCKS!!!!

Now, I know it is easy to blame Deputy Mayor for being the ‘RingLeader’ in this ‘Witchhunt’…the division in Council has been apparent since Day 1. This report from legal shows that the Town of Orangeville Auditors were the ones who initially raised concerns. At what point are we going to demand some onus on the Mayor for his actions? For violating our trust in his integrity? Whether you like and support the Mayor is irrelevant in this case – in my humble opinion, this was a clear breach of public trust and I am upset with Mayor Williams that he caused me (and the rest of the citizens of Orangeville) to question his integrity.

I am however happy to report that it was confirmed at last night’s Council Meeting that there will be no charge to the Town of Orangeville from the Peel Police Department for conducting the investigation.

I have received information from the Town Clerk that the report will not be posted on the Town of Orangeville website, however if you are wishing to obtain a copy, it will be available by request by emailing Susan Greatrix at sgreatrix@orangeville.ca 

I would love to hear how you feel about the entire situation…

Unless you were in attendance at Orangeville Council last night, you will have missed the sparks that flew before the start of the regular Council agenda.

There has been some controversy surrounding the closing of a local bar/restaurant/Orangeville establishment, Hogeys. Until a recent ‘tell-all’ article written by the Orangeville Citizen, Orangeville residents could only speculate what had happened to cause the Town of Orangeville to change the locks on Hogeys back in March 2016 denying the staff and owners access.

Recently, Mr. Gerry Hogenhout filed a lawsuit against the Town of Orangeville claiming not only for damages due to the loss of investment, but also for the destruction of his business – a business he had been building for 8 years. The issue started with an issue of arrears, in response to which Mr. Hogenhout is quoted in the Citizen’s article as stating “I had been negotiating a proposed new lease with Mayor Jeremy Williams for the past few months, and he had indicated I should not make a lump sum payment, as the 2015 arrears could possibly be worked into the new lease agreement.”

After an hour long closed meeting, Council opened with a very bold move. Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock started the meeting off with a motion that was brought forward during the closed session directing the Town legal counsel to file a defence on behalf of the Town denying the allegations of Hogeys and denying that Hogeys incurred damages as alleged.

The interesting part came as the second part to that motion which reads:

“And that a third party claim be advanced against Mayor Williams claiming over against him for any damages incurred by the Town based on unauthorized representation made to Mr. Hogenhout by Mayor Williams, such third party claim to be dismissed in the event that the claim of Hogeys Sports Bar Limited is dismissed.”

So lets summarize – If Hogeys wins their lawsuit against the Town, Mayor Williams will be held personally liable for representing the Town in negotiations that weren’t authorized…this could get interesting.

This motion passed unanimously. **I will note that Councillor Garisto was absent for tonight’s meeting (due to vacation) and Mayor Williams was absent for this vote**

In my humble opinions,  between criminal investigations and now a potential civil lawsuit, Orangeville council sure could use some positive media coverage….stat! What do you think of all of this?

I will be summarizing the rest of the meeting and getting it out later this week – This part of the meeting came so quickly and was missed on TV by Rogers, that I didn’t want anyone to miss what was really going on at Town Hall last night!

 

 

 

Monday’s meeting was a pretty uneventful one…not a lot to report.

However, one important item that I would love to bring to all of your attention is that Orangeville Council did pass a motion supporting Brews & Entertainment’s upcoming event “The Hip on Mill St.”. This is going to be an AWESOME event! As an “After Party” to the BIA’s Taste of Orangeville on Saturday, August 20th, Mill Street will be closed to do a live broadcast of The Tragically Hip’s final concert! How cool is that?? They will have 2 or 3 HUGE 10×16 foot screens – this is the real deal! The event will be a free one – however to make this happen, they are looking for Corporate Sponsorships – if you are interested in sponsoring this awesome event, contact ryan@thebvrco.com. To keep up to date on event information, make sure to head over to Facebook and follow Brews and Entertainment.

As part of this event, Brews and Entertainment is raising money for The Headwaters Healthcare Foundation – This is in partnership with The Edge Wine Bar & Grill’s ‘Taking the Edge Off Cancer’ fundraising efforts towards Headwaters’ Oncology Department Expansion. You can donate through their GoFundMe account or in person the day of the event!

**Sidenote** I had the honour of heading over to Headwaters last week with Sean & Gary Coulter and my daughter, Charley to present cheques to the Foundation from their recent fundraising efforts from the ‘Taking The Edge Off Cancer’ weekend at The Edge Wine Bar & Grille where they hosted a Gala and BurgerFest that combined raised almost $16,000. My daughter shaved her head at the BurgerFest.

So, Orangeville – are you excited about this event? I know I am!! There is something just so amazing and unique about the AWESOME restaurant owners we have in Orangeville. Yet again, all of them come together to make something great happen in our Town. So KUDOS to all of them…The BVR, The Edge, The Mad Hatter/Ruby Pier, Soulyve, Mill Creek Pub, Ray’s Bakery in Alton…you guys are always working together to make Orangeville shine – THANK YOU!! (If I missed anyone, I’m sorry!!)

Back to the Council Meeting

I got a little sidetracked there celebrating the awesomeness of our restaurant community…now back to the topic at hand – Council

Former Fire Chief Andy MacIntosh got up at Question Period to ask some questions about the upcoming new Outdoor WoodBurning Bylaw – his main question was whether or not the proposed bylaw, once drafted and ready for council, will be presented in a public meeting forum. The answer was a resounding no. Councillor Bradley and Mayor Williams both stated that they have already held a public meeting and have taken the time to gather more correspondence from citizens that are going to be taken into consideration when drafting the bylaw. The recommendation was again that if anyone has anything they want considered in this matter, they should reach out by sending a letter or email to the Clerk – sgreatrix@orangeville.ca

Police Services Board

Another interesting item on the agenda was the receipt of a report from the PSB in response to questions that were submitted to them from Councillor Bradley regarding the Police Service’s Budget. Back at budget time, it was discovered that there were some procedural errors made in the past with the budget which were then rectified immediately by the Board which caused a discrepancy between the operational and capital budgets and new procedures were implemented to ensure these errors would not reoccur in the future.

Acting PSB Chair, Ken Krakar spoke at Council on Monday…”We respect the fact that there was some processes not followed properly, however we are taking measures to correct these. We want to remind members of Council that The Orangeville Police have returned money back to the Town which has not happened in 10 years.”

Raising The FlagPole

More discussion ensued about the Flag Pole project in Dragonfly Park. A request was made and motion was passed to begin the construction now due to the dryness of the lands with the current temperatures. The ground is perfect right now to bring in the heavy equipment needed and begin the project.

As part of this discussion, Paul Korsten got up and provided an update about the fundraising efforts, which are going quite well!

**Sidenote** As a part of Founders Day on Saturday, there will be some young ladies, known as the Lemon Aid Girls who will have their Lemonade Stand set up outside of Korsten’s Jewellers on Broadway – All of the money they raise will be donated to help Raise the Flag Pole!! Stop by and grab a glass from them and support the cause!

Budget Talks

It was refreshing to see that Council approved the Treasurer’s motion to start budget talks earlier this year! With the Budget Meeting schedule that he put forward, there is a possibility to have the Town of Orangeville’s budget for 2017 approved by December!! The first Budget meeting will be on Monday, October 17th, 2016.

Next Council Meeting

The next Council Meeting will be held on Monday, August 22nd, 2016 – I hope to see you there!!!

This was a really LOOOOOOOOONG meeting! I have been to meetings that were as long in duration as this one…but this one felt really long. Perhaps the fact that it took 3 1/2 hours to get through 3 pages of the 10 page agenda were a factor in the sheer length of this meeting. It’s amazing though that the last 7 pages, they managed to blow through, without any real conversation, in about 25 minutes.

But, it was absolutely awesome to see Council Chambers completely packed – It was standing room only!  To all of you who came out, THANK YOU! Regardless of what issue or agenda item you were there for, it made me so happy to see you there!

Backyard Burning Topic Still Smoldering

I need to give a HUGE shout-out to a local resident, Sara Anderson. Not only did Ms. Anderson see the need to start an online petition in support of keeping backyard burning in Orangeville, which garnished over 1600 signatures to date, she also took the time a few weeks ago, to present at a public information session at ODSS alongside Sandy Brown & Former Fire Chief Andy Macintosh. On Monday night, she made a compelling presentation to Council with all of the information she had gathered through her own research as well as comments she has received through the petition. Thank you, Sara. Thank you for being a concerned resident who has been incredibly passionate, informative, and respectful while taking the time to be proactive and presenting possible solutions.

So, The “Outdoor Wood Burning Review Committee” took some of the feedback from residents and made some amendments to their proposed by-law to council…(Not anywhere near enough revisions if you want my humble opinion…) They changed the distance from property lines from 25ft to 16ft and kept the “Standing Sensitive Receptor” distances at 250ft (hospitals, nursing homes) and other “Sensitive Receptors” distance at 150ft (Town Owned buildings and parks as well as anyone who chooses to apply to be deemed a sensitive receptor) If you wish to look over their proposed by-law, you can find it HERE .

Here are some of my biggest problems with this….and I have many (I’ll just stick to the highlights). The role of Council is to do what is best for Orangeville but as humans, things we are passionate about tend to reflect in our everyday life. This issue with backyard burning is a perfect example of personal opinions getting in the way…more than one member of this council have expressed their dislike for backyard burning on a personal level. As Councillor Scott Wilson reminded everyone on Monday, this entire discussion sprouted {unnecessarily} from a one off complaint from a resident about a wood-burning industrial pizza oven at The Bluebird…and for a few members of council, this reminded them that they don’t like wood burning at all. Well here it is…I don’t really care that you don’t like when your neighbour has a backyard fire, Councillor. I know, that might sound harsh…so let me finish. What I do care about is residents of Orangeville who are genuinely struggling with a not-so-nice neighbour who will do ANYTHING to tick you off. (Trust me, I get it…we all have had THAT neighbour at some point whether it’s burning, loud music, or overall just being a you-know-what). It has been said time and time again through these MANY discussions (by very reliable sources) that the vast majority of complaints came from people whose neighbours were burning illegally (either without a permit, or burning materials that are prohibited). The complaints did not come from people who are burning responsibly. So, why are we spending the time, money and effort to change a by-law that isn’t broken? Why aren’t we instead putting resources into enforcement? If you are burning illegally and your neighbour complains, why don’t we revoke your permit and give you a significant fine to cover the costs associated with the fire dept or police dept coming to your home? To me this would just make more sense.

The discussions are not over yet….and with summer Council Schedule, I am sure we won’t hear much more about this until the Fall. In the meantime, send your comments and concerns to the powers that be…a full list of emails for all members of Council is available HERE

Have you signed the petition? Do you get a burn permit? What would you like to see happen with Outdoor Wood Burning in Orangeville?

Taxis and Limos….Are you feeling the Deja Vu??

I feel like I’ve written this post before. First the Backyard Burning and now the Taxis. Why are we still talking about either issue?!?!?!?! Both have been ongoing HOT topics for well over 6 months!!! Council, Get this stuff DONE!!!! I need new stuff to write about!! (lol)

Mr. Narinder Paul Singh. Have you heard of him? Let me tell you a bit about him. He owns a company in Orangeville called ‘Call-A-Limo’. Most recently, he has been running a FREE shuttle service to help stop impaired driving in Orangeville. This FREE service runs from 11pm until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. It is just this simple…if you have had a few drinks and need a ride home, call Mr. Singh at (519)943-4900 and he will pick your drunk a$$ up and take you home (in town). For FREE.

Now if you’ve been reading my blog or following the happenings at Council over the last year, you will recall that Taxi By-Laws have been a Hot Topic in Council Chambers. If not, here are the Coles’ Notes. Lots of complaints about taxi service (and lack of service) as well as rates in Town. Council voted to create a committee to look at the bylaws. Council reviewed applications and committee was formed. Taxi Company was not happy with the composition of the committee and asked council to re-open applications. Council decided to not pursue committee after all. The End…..almost.

Mr. Singh is part of the Limo Licenses, similar to the Taxi Licenses, just a few different rules apply. Under the Limo License By-Law, Limos are not permitted to have signage on them. Mr Singh had signage on his limo and received a complaint to the By-Law Dept. By-Law Dept has to enforce the By-Law and as such, Mr. Singh was forced to remove his signage.

Council, it is clear to me that it is time to review the way Taxis and Limos operate in this Town. I feel fortunate that I rarely need to rely on the taxi service in this Town…simply due to the sheer number of complaints I have heard from residents to do have to use it. I have heard nothing but stellar reviews about Mr. Singh’s ‘Orangeville Against Drunk Driving’ Program…it’s time to take a look at the by-law and see about making some revisions. Good Luck Narinder Paul Singh – I hope this gets resolved for you soon. Thank you for trying to make Orangeville a safer place for my kids to grow up in. Keep doing the great work!!

Do you feel the Taxi By-Laws need to be revisited?

150 Square

At the previous Council Meeting, Mayor Williams had put forward a motion to have staff look into his idea for a Town Square behind Townhall and to bring back some information about its feasibility for construction this year while First Ave reconstruction is taking place. This idea received lots of feedback, both positive and negative, on the Mayor’s personal Facebook. Those most affected, the residents living on the neighbouring streets, attended Council on Monday in droves to see what was going to happen with this. A motion to receive the report from staff was passed so quickly that members of the gallery were not sure what had even happened. Later, in reading the report from staff, in order to reject the project outright, a motion would need to be passed to simply receive the report. The project is dead in its tracks for now, but I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear about this idea.

What did you think about his idea? Does Orangeville need a Town Square?

Summer Schedule

Council has now started running on their summer schedule. This means that the next Council Meeting will be July 18th. Hope to see you there!