With a new Council in place, Town Clerk Brent Larmer has reviewed the number and roles of the Advisory committees and recommended changes.  Most are unchanged except for minor changes in their jobs but Brent recommends dissolution of the Economic Development Advisory Committee and splitting the Environmental/Active Transportation Advisory Committee into two: a Transportation Advisory Committee and an Environmental and Climate Change Advisory Committee. Brent says that the Economic Development Advisory Committee dealt mostly with Municipal Staff updates – that implies that citizens were not actually contributing but just listening to reports from staff.  The now dead CIVIC project aimed at downtown vitalization came from this committee as did most of the other Vitalization initiatives and although it’s hard to… Read complete articleChanges recommended for Advisory committees

Bryan Lambert gave a presentation at Monday’s Public Budget meeting that discussed “big picture” questions – he didn’t ask for anything specific to be included but instead asked questions about the budget overall.  He pointed out that the actual total budget was more than double the amount collected in taxes, he wanted reserves to be spelled out and staffing to be discussed.  He also pointed to a surplus and overspending – seemingly opposing items – and a trend in expense increases that are faster than inflation.  His information source was the publicly available Financial Information Report (FIR) from the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs which covers all revenue and spending in municipalities – for example in Cobourg, that includes electricity,… Read complete articleCitizen Budget Requests – Part 2

As announced in the Council meeting on Monday, there will a significant number of opportunities for taxpayers to observe the Town’s process for setting its 2019 budget (see link below) but there is only one where feedback is allowed and that has already happened at the Public Meeting held for that purpose.  It was held at 6:00 pm after the Council Meeting on Monday.  As expected, there were requests to minimize tax increases or even reduce them but one request was especially unusual:  Edgar Carman of Trinity Housing asked the Town to subsidise Low Cost Housing and the amount was not small.  This was a major issue in the recent election campaign so perhaps Edgar was hoping the Council would… Read complete articleCitizen Budget Requests – Part One

In addition to the surprise change in vote by Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin about opting-in on Cannabis retail stores, there were some other surprising moves made – notably by Councillor Emily Chorley.  Debbie Davis submitted a petition “on behalf of concerned parents from Terry Fox Public School, regarding amendments to the No Parking Restrictions on Riddell Street and the end of White Street.”  As expected, staff recommended that Council direct the petition to Public Works Staff for a report back to Council.   But unexpectedly, Emily successfully moved that a timely report be made given that there were many items that have been on unfinished business for many months.  Her motion specified a limit of 3 months.  Another surprise was a Notice… Read complete articleMore from January 14 Council Meeting

Tonight was the first regular council meeting of the new council and they had a full plate.  But first, they had photographer Ted Amsden (no longer Poet Laureate) take photos of the Council and a second one of Council and senior staff.  Thanks to his setup, I managed to get one of him with the council and staff – see below.  Mandy Robinson then gave a presentation on the history of Town criers and how they were important in distributing news from the monarch.  Her presentation was followed by reports on some transactions for businesses coming to Lucas Point, an agreement on the draft procedural bylaw to go to the public meeting on January 28, some routine motions and then… Read complete articleUpdate on Cannabis Opt-in Decision