One of the things that any CAO wants to know, is whether their organization is optimum.  So CAO Tracey Vaughan has hired KPMG to find out. On Monday, an initial report was presented to Council by Oscar Poloni with a final report due in another week.  It’s not clear if all of it will be public so let’s look at what we have.  Oscar pointed to the earlier Service Delivery Review for complementary information (it focused on what you do and why you do it) whereas the Organization Review focused on “how you are structured to deliver services” and emphasized that the Organization should be aligned with Strategic priorities.  Given that, he was concerned that changing priorities meant that some… Read complete articleEarly look at Organization Review

In this case, hybrid refers to a mix of in-person and Zoom meetings.  Council will meet in Council chambers but will allow individual councillors to attend via Zoom if they cannot attend in person.  This decision was made at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting but not before there was considerable debate.  Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin first proposed that this format start on November 30 but other Councillors did not see the need to wait.  Further, Councillor Nicole Beatty wanted hybrid meetings to also be available for advisory Committee meetings.  Although Town Clerk Brent Larmer said that this was possible, it would cause a lot of work to accommodate so this idea was voted down. Separately, CAO Tracey Vaughan said… Read complete articleNext Council meeting to be Hybrid

Currently, the management of lost and stray cats and dogs is done by the Joint Animal Control Municipal Services located on Theatre Road – generally called the “Shelter of Hope”.  This facility and service is jointly managed and financed by Cobourg, Hamilton Township, Port Hope and Alnwick/Haldimand – the cost to Cobourg is $104,000 in 2021 or an average of $9.56 per household.  But other municipalities pay an average of $4.82 to $4.63 per household and a recent KPMG report suggested Cobourg could save $40K per year. In addition, Cobourg staff felt that current performance was not satisfactory.  The current agreement mandated 2 years notice and in February 2020, the Town gave notice that it would withdraw from the agreement. … Read complete articleChanges Proposed to Cobourg’s Animal Control

Cobourg’s Council meetings come in pairs.  First comes the Committee of the Whole (CoW) where items are generally first raised and debated; then at the regular Council meeting comes a confirmation including any necessary by-Laws. At Monday’s regular Council meeting, Councillors revised two significant decisions from the previous CoW: 1) when deliberating the budget, what the target should be for the base levy increase and 2) whether to resume in-person Council meetings.  Other motions from the CoW passed as expected.  Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin said that since the target was based on the inflation rate and that this was now higher (July was 3.7%), the new target became 5.25%.  However, the high target was approved with no debate other than… Read complete articleCouncil has second thoughts