Category: News 2021

Goals of Organization Review

John Draper

One of the early actions of Cobourg’s new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Tracey Vaughan, was to hire a consultant to provide an Organization Review.  She has said she hopes that this will help with efforts to improve efficiency.  At Monday’s Committee of the Whole Meeting, Oscar Poloni from KPMG presented Council with a description of what exactly he hoped to achieve.  It would address the earlier KPMG report on a Service Delivery review and would align with Council’s direction to staff (via the Strategic Plan including its update – see links below).  One question Oscar asked (but got no immediate answer) was whether the Town wanted to organize around priorities instead of the more usual and current organization based on… Read complete articleGoals of Organization Review

Move on Council to Open Beach on Weekends

John Draper

At tonight’s Committee of the Whole Council meeting, Councillor Nicole Beatty  moved that the beach be opened on weekends as well as weekdays effective June 26.  She was supported by Councillor Burchat but Mayor Henderson wanted any opening delayed past July 1.  However, before there was any debate, Town Clerk Brent Larmer pointed to a procedural problem:  a previous approved motion closed the beach on weekends until September so a new motion cannot proceed without a motion to re-consider.  He suggested ways to overcome this but they required a two-thirds majority vote.  A more moderate approach would be to go through a process which would delay a final vote for a couple of meetings, but it would allow input from… Read complete articleMove on Council to Open Beach on Weekends

Pop-ups Brighten the Day in Cobourg

John Draper

In 2016, Cobourg Library created pop-up Libraries around Cobourg. These are small boxes installed in Public places that provide reading material for the public on a trust basis and they are still operating. Based on a sample of two that I looked at, they have a varying success rate. A week or so ago, the Art Gallery of Northumberland created mini pop-up Art Galleries and today, two Port Hope non-profit groups (Cultivate and Greenwood Coalition) have created 10 pop-up herb gardens – 5 in Cobourg and 5 in Port Hope. It will be interesting to see how long they survive but it’s great to see these initiatives. Based on the Library experience, Cobourg people can be trusted to a certain… Read complete articlePop-ups Brighten the Day in Cobourg

Progress on Efficiency Actions

John Draper

It’s refreshing to see follow up by the CAO on last year’s KPMG Service Delivery Report recommending improvements in operating efficiencies in Staff operations.  At the next Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, CAO Tracey Vaughan will present a progress report on 14 different actions covering all departments.  A template is used to keep all reports in the same format.   Reports are scheduled quarterly and the first report is in June as originally scheduled.  KPMG reported that major cost reductions could only be achieved by reducing services and although some reductions are being considered, the prime focus is on improving efficiency plus some increases in non-taxation fees (see Links below). Tracey is also looking for help from the Organizational… Read complete articleProgress on Efficiency Actions

Spending Affordable Housing CIP Budget

John Draper

In 2020, Council approved a Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to provide a means for Council to fund subsidies to Affordable Housing.  At the Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting  next Monday, Director of Planning and Development Glenn McGlashon will present his plan to implement this.  Glenn proposes that there would be a well publicised call for applications which would then be reviewed by a new Ad Hoc Committee.  The intent is to allocate the $162,195.50 remaining from the $250K budget – already $35,287 has been committed to Trinity Housing and $52,517.50 has been allocated to Northumberland County Housing.  Glenn proposes a single intake starting in July with a final Council Decision by 1 November 2021.  Work on projects must start… Read complete articleSpending Affordable Housing CIP Budget

Public Consultations on Accessibility

John Draper

In the second half of 2020, one of the things that Council did was to focus on Accessibility with several actions including hiring an Accessibility Coordinator (Jamie Kramer) on a full-time contract.  Jamie’s goal is to create the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy for the Town of Cobourg.  So far she has helped setup an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee and secured a Provincial Grant of $60K to help with her work.  And it’s not just disabled people that are being “included”; the list is long: Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, women, people with disabilities, newcomers to Canada, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Two-Spirit, Intersex, and Asexual peoples, as well as those who identify as pansexual, questioning,… Read complete articlePublic Consultations on Accessibility

Fish Cleaning Changes proposed

John Draper

In September 2019, citizens made complaints to Council about the Marina.  There were two main concerns: (1) electric power was cut off when water levels were high (as they were in 2017 and 2019) and (2) concerns about visitors abusing fishing privileges – notably to do with the fish cleaning table (see photo below).  The Town was quick to upgrade the Electrical system – that’s now fixed.  And now at the Committee of the Whole Meeting on 21 June, Town staff are recommending removing the fish cleaning table altogether and banning the cleaning of fish on municipal property.  A survey was conducted of other municipalities and it seems others have had the same problem and now ban fish cleaning.  You… Read complete articleFish Cleaning Changes proposed

Marina Parking Lot Upgraded

John Draper

On May 10, Council approved repaving and modifying the Marina Parking lot and today the Town announced it would open tomorrow, Friday June 11. So on this glorious June day, I thought I would take a look and see if it was ready.  But by mid afternoon – not quite.   The Parking lot was pot-holed and badly needed re-paving.  That’s been done.  In addition the traffic flow needed re-arranging “to improve vehicular traffic in the area” and to allow easy separation of pedestrians who walk along the South edge – see the diagram below.  On Thursday afternoon a “steam-roller” (do they still call them that?) was still working to finish the asphalt – I can’t see it being ready to… Read complete articleMarina Parking Lot Upgraded