Well the budget passed, but that wasn’t the big news of Council this week….(Don’t worry, I will get to that a little later….)
But I first have to skip to the last 2 minutes of the meeting when, yet again, I was left flabbergasted…(I always say that nothing at Council could surprise me anymore, and yet something almost ALWAYS does!)
The last motion at Council tonight was one to direct the Town’s CAO to request a formal investigation from Peel Police into Mayor William’s use of a Town of Orangeville credit card and determine whether criminal charges should be laid. Council also requested that Mayor Williams remove himself as Chair of the Police Services Board until this issue is resolved. This motion passed almost unanimously, only Councillor Garisto voted against the motion.
About 30 minutes before Council began tonight, the Mayor had posted a statement on his Facebook page explaining expenditures incurred on the card and stating: “For the time being, I have paid in full all amounts charged until we can resolve how we wish to proceed. I have also decided to return my card to staff until, and if, this issue can be resolved with clarity.”
As of now, that is all of the information there is on this matter – I’m sure more will be unfolding over the next couple of days.
Budget Passes….IN MARCH!
Well I would have lost the bet…I thought the budget talks would keep going until at least the end of April…but, I guess if you keep talking about the same thing over and over and over at every meeting for months, eventually people get worn down.
The budget passed at a 2.5% increase – almost unanimously – the only person who voted against the budget was Councillor Garisto. In a last ditch effort to reduce the budget, Councillor Garisto brought up a number of items that he wanted to see removed from the budget – none of those items passed. Quite honestly, I hope this budget was a lesson to all members of council for next year (perhaps that is wishful thinking on my part) – if you want to see a REAL change in the budget, there needs to be talks about BIG items – i.e.: Tony Rose, libraries, etc…you can’t get to zero percent (or even close) by removing a few bucks here and a few bucks there.
I would love for someone to explain to me why the Finance Committee doesn’t meet throughout the year? Why don’t they meet to talk about the big stuff? In my humble opinion, if they met even once per quarter, to talk about money saving initiatives, this could really go a long way in reducing the sheer number of meetings they have to nitpick about $1000 here and $5000 there….and could potential save all of us some money! Forward thinking – a novel idea.
Kudos to Chief Kalinski
I have to give a big shout out to Police Chief Wayne Kalinski. He delivered a wonderful presentation at Council and reviewed in depth all of the great strides Orangeville Police Service have taken over the last year and a half. Chief Kalinski is passionate about Orangeville and takes pride in his work and the work of his entire team at OPS.
Chief Kalinski made a plea to council to stop the OPP costing – not forever, but for now and to give him the opportunity to show even more of what him and his team at OPS could do with the support of the Police Service Board. In 2015, the police services were in surplus of over $200,000 and they came in at a zero percent budget for 2016. Chief Kalinski explained that this was just the beginning and that if given the opportunity, there would be more savings long term as they looked into the possibility of providing policing service to not only Amaranth, but possibly other municipalities as well.
Chief Kalinski is a great leader. He has shown this time and time again throughout his reign as Chief, but at the meeting, that was made even more clear as dozens of people – officers, staff, PSB members and citizens – all came to council in support of the Chief.
Sergeant Doug Fry, on behalf of Orangeville Police Association, was on the agenda to speak following Chief Kalinski’s presentation. I was utterly disgusted that members of Council denied him the right to speak due to a previous comment that Council would go into closed session at 10pm. By the time discussion ended following the Chief’s presentation, it was 10:02pm. Unbelievable. Councillors Wilson, Bradley, Kidd and Deputy Mayor Maycock voted to end Council at that moment and head into closed session.
Sergeant Fry sat in this meeting waiting for his turn to speak for 3 hours….what a disgrace. I, as well as everyone else in Council Chambers, wanted to hear what he had to say.
There were also members of the community in the gallery waiting to speak – again unbelievable. I would hope that all members of council would take a moment to apologize to all of those who sat through this meeting for HOURS waiting to present. Yet another Council agenda goes completely unfinished.
I am happy to report that I spoke to Sergeant Fry after the Council drama ended, and he has graciously agreed to come on ‘In My Humble Opinions’ on Rogers TV (channel 63) and share what he was going to say at Council! Also on my next show, I have Chief Kalinski, Councillor Sylvia Bradley and Darrin Davidson – We are taping on Wednesday and the show is airing on Sunday, March 27th! Make sure to tune in!
I like the idea of the Finance Committee meeting quarterly or monthly outside of the budget process.
First item on the agenda: RESERVES.
1. What should our Reserve TARGET be for each reserve fund based on best practices for towns our size?
2. What is the ACTUAL amount for each reserve fund?
3. How many years would we like to take to get from the ACTUAL amount to the TARGET amount for each reserve fund.
RESULT: An objective assessment of what the annual contribution should be for each of our reserve funds once we achieve that target, we don’t have to contribute any more unless we deplete it for the specific reason that the reserve was set up for. When that happens, back to Step 3.
I know there are other complexities that need to be taken into account that I haven’t, including the fact that the TARGET amount might not be totally fact based – Risk Tolerance of individual councils might need to be taken into account, for example.
At least the discussion would start so that when it comes time for the first Finance Committee meeting of the following year, that item can be checked off.
There seems to be three issues regarding recent OPS Activities:
1. Should OPS be offering their services to outside jurisdictions?
2. How should council should be notified of such activities?
3. How do we handle the OPP costing issue?
My thoughts:
1. Should OPS be offering their services to outside jurisdictions?
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Yes, provided the following three conditions are met:
A. Documented Service Levels within the town of Orangeville are maintained or improved.
B. Cost of Services the OPS provides to the Town of Orangeville, separate from outside service, are maintained or decreased.
C. Revenue generated from offering services outside the Town of Orangeville exceeds costs to provide them by an acceptable margin (say 20%) and that money is returned to the Town as surplus from OPS operations.
2. How should council should be notified of such activities?
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We have a minor Governance issue that has some members of council concerned – why weren’t they notified of the Amaranth activities? Fair question.
This is a new scenario for everyone and it makes sense that there isn’t a communications protocol in place – so the OPS and the Mayor need to be cut some slack. I would start with this:
A. OPS keeps a simple log sheet of activities that summarizes all business development communications with outside jurisdictions.
B. Send that log sheet to council members at the end of each week in a secure manner that protects confidentiality and privacy but ensures that council remains informed.
C. If a member of council has a question about any particular line item, s/he can contact the Chief or his designate directly.
This way, everyone on council is as informed as they want to be in a timely manner.
The only matters that come to a public council meeting are announcements of signed agreements. It is appropriate that conversations prior to that are kept to a need-to-know basis.
3. Should we proceed with OPP costing?
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If I have to choose between OPS pursuing their improvements including and business development activities OPP costing – we can only have one or the other – then I choose the former. Let Chief Kalinski have a chance to improve the service some more.
I don’t believe that to be the case though, based on the legal opinion we heard yesterday.
My understanding is that OPP can provide us with costing until such time as we are about to sign an agreement with another jurisdiction to provide traditional policing services to them.
We’re not there yet. Until we are, let OPS keep doing what they’re doing. When we get to that bridge, let council make a decision at that time. We could be waiting another year. Meantime, we’re in a unique situation. Let’s explore it.
The taxpayers who foot the whole bill for everything in Orangeville never seem to be adequately informed. I am not surprised that council knew nothing of the Amaranth
Activities.
Thank you Lisa for keeping us informed.
“This motion passed almost unanimously, only Councillor Garisto voted against the motion.” – then it wasn’t unanimous! 🙂
Hence the use of “almost”…
Is there not a third party running the meeting?
That way they can quicken comments…disregard them if not covered in the agenda…cut off unnecessary council comments etc. Keep the agenda on time.
Agreed budget meetings at least quarterly.
Apologies SHOULD be made public ly to Sgt Fry.
Are there many people that attend these meetings? I just learned of them tonight on fb discussions. I’m thinking there must be more people that don’t know as well.
I have Bell…anyone know what channel i can watch…if at all?
Thanks for the comments Beverly. First of all, the person running the Council meetings is the Mayor – he always chairs council meetings.
There is a schedule of council meetings available on http://www.orangeville.ca including the agendas for the meetings.
Unfortunately as a Bell customer, you cannot watch the meetings on television but you can stream them of the local Rogers website at http://www.rogerstv.com/orangevilletowncouncil
Also, Council meetings are public, so you are welcome to attend as a member of the gallery and during Question Period, you are welcome to ask questions. The gallery is usually quite full with residents. Hope to see you at a meeting in the near future!
Thank you Lisa for stating a fact about the Tony Rose and the Library.I have been encouraging the
council to close 1 library and Tony Rose and add a sheet or 2 of ice at the Alder.Start utilizing the Alder pool to its full capacity,do not close the pool during statutory Holidays.
Also Nick Garisto’s recommendation of amalgamating Dufferin area libraries into one thus having one CEO is warranting serious consideration and perhaps the Fire Department amalgamation as well.
You certainly are on the right track.I remember Mr Scott Wilson during one of the first council sessions
with newly elected members being adamant of having them promise not to close the arena during this term.
People not thinking fiscally responsible as this gentleman demonstrated is what makes the town not progressing the way it should. I hope people remember all the blunders some of the Councillors are making and vote them out next term
To be fair, that was almost a unanimous vote to keep Tony Rose pool open during this term. This vote occurred at the first meeting of term December 8, 2014. Here is a copy of the minutes for that item:
“Moved by Councillor Wilson Seconded by Councillor Campbell
Carried.
That this Council state that it will not close, on a permanent basis, Tony Rose Pool during this term of Council.
Deputy Mayor Maycock requested a recorded vote:
Councillor Wilson Yes
Councillor Bradley No
Councillor Campbell Yes
Councillor Kidd Yes
Councillor Garisto Yes
Deputy Mayor Maycock Yes
Mayor Williams Yes”
Here is a link to those minutes: http://www.orangeville.ca/get-file/1487
I mention this because there is a lot of singling out of individual counsellors for votes that pass in opposition of a poster’s desires. It takes at least 4 votes (when counsel is fully attended) to pass a motion, meaning there are at least 3 other votes that also support those motions.
You’ll note that in this case, members of counsel who claim to want lower taxes voted to keep Tony Rose pool open, all for the sake of a very small number of individuals who could be reasonably accommodated at Alder Street for costs significantly less than what it will take to fully refurbish the pool and maintain it’s operating deficit year over year.
Thank you Charles and I knew who voted but it was upon Mr Wilson’s instance that the vote went through
I hope that they all re-think this and do the right thing
PS re above: I have been asking the council on closure of Tony Rose and 1 library for the past several years.
Lisa, if you’ll indulge me, I would like to add some more thoughts about the OPS vs OPP issue. This one really has me intrigued and I appreciate you starting the conversation.
1. I don’t believe for a second that Orangeville would receive the bad service from the OPP that was suggested by those who presented in advance of Chief Kalinksi at the March 21 Council meeting. While I don’t doubt that person from Grand Valley experienced bad service, I’m sure there are many people in Grand Valley who would say they received very good service. They just weren’t asked to present at Town Council.
2. The reason why I am in favour of the Orangeville Police Service being allowed to continue to (a) make service improvements and (b) look for new revenue services from adjacent communities is because they are the incumbent and you don’t remove an incumbent if they are doing a good job for a good price, in my opinion. You lose a lot of goodwill that has built up over the years. I am a new resident to Orangeville so I can only comment on what I have experienced. I wasn’t around for the previous Chief’s term so I can’t comment on that.
3. It is unique for a town of Orangeville’s size to have its own Police Force. If it’s a good police force that can also generate money for the town, that is a competitive advantage that we should be exploiting, not getting rid of. That’s about the only thing right now that differentiates us from surrounding communities who are trying to attract those big businesses and it’s about the only thing that we have right now that can help us offset the premium in property taxes we pay by being a bedroom community.
4. I have no doubt that when the OPS presented their plan to Amaranth that they presented a cheaper price per person than the OPP’s current price, as was stated many times on March 21. Don’t believe for a second though that the OPP won’t come back an offer Amaranth a price that is cheaper than OPS’ last offer. It is in Amaranth’s best interests to play one force off against the other. At the end of the day, they could still end up staying with the OPP, having brought their price down well south of $300 per resident simply by bringing in another bidder. I’ve been on the wrong side of that negotiation tactic myself when I was trying to unseat an entrenched incumbent. The client had no intention of moving their business to us, they just wanted to lower the cost of the incumbent, which they did.
5. The OPP now knows what OPS can offer their service for. If they are allowed to provide costing to the Town of Orangeville, it will be for a price much cheaper than the price mentioned in Town Council on March 21. The OPS will need to be prepared to win a bidding war with a much larger competitor.
Interesting thought Charles.. but how is OPS able to proceed with seeking revenue generation options when this council is so focused on getting an OPP costing?
People in this town like the new direction of OPS. They appreciate the service and want to keep it. To say we are all at town hall with pitchforks demanding OPP costing.. is not true. Why was the last council meeting full of OPS supporters? If we wanted a costing.. than the room would have been packed with OPP costing supporters. It’s naive for council to say the town wants this costing when no one shows up!
Look at it from a business standpoint – if you are for sale, would someone want to do business with you?
This council is a disagrace in not seeing all the options and being focused on OPP. Council needs to do their job and work for the taxpayers, not personal agendas.
In my humble opinon.
Thank you Charles.