Since the last report on unfinished business in November (see links below), not much has changed and many items from last September are still on the list. The idea is good – to make sure that actions and goals don’t get forgotten – but if nothing gets done, you wonder what the value is. Although it’s on every Agenda of both regular and Committee of the Whole meetings, and although the detailed list is a big improvement on earlier minimal lists, recently it has rarely been publicly reviewed by Council. Not all actions are urgent but at some point Council thought it was important enough to ask for action so attention to them would be useful. So let me once again review the list.
The format of each entry includes links to the Council meetings when the directive was given to staff – but none of the links work because Civic-web is now offline as described in my article about lost documents. So we have to rely on the descriptions provided which fortunately are quite comprehensive.
In the interest of brevity yet also completeness, here is a summary of all “unfinished business” (the unedited list is available in the links below).
| Date Initiated | Abbreviated Description | Due date (original if revised) |
Status & percent complete |
| 28 Jan 2019 | Research formation of committee to determine how affordable housing and other community health priorities fits within a municipality’s strategic plan | June 2019 | Overdue – 50% |
| 23 Sept 2019 | Review Long Service Recognition Policy | – | Draft – 80% |
| 2 Dec 2019 | Review impact of Transition House on neighbourhood | 11 Jan 2021 (18 Feb 2020) |
Overdue – 50% |
| 19 Nov 2020 | Put together an inventory of potential municipal-owned surplus lands, buildings and/or facilities for possible donation for Affordable and Rental Housing | 22 Mar 2021 | Overdue – 50% |
| 27 Jan 2020 | Draft an accessible transit service policy | 16 Feb 2021 (1 Jun 2020) |
Behind – 80% |
| 27 Jan 2020 | Report on viability of the Innisfil ridesharing transit model | 16 Nov 2020 (22 Jun 2020) |
Behind |
| 6 Jan 2020 | Prepare regulations for companies like Uber, modernize Taxicab regulations and provide options to help support the introduction of Accessible Taxicabs | Regular Council Meeting | On Track |
| 6 Jan 2020 | Propose how By-law Enforcement Dept will provide all Animal Control Enforcement internally for the residents of Cobourg | 2021 – 2022 | On Track |
| 6 Jan 2020 | Report on feasibility of suggestion by Judy Sherwin – primarily that residents pay a lower parking fine than visitors | 3 March 2021 | On Track |
| 27 April 2020 | Draft a Flood Mitigation and Response Plan | March 2021 | On Track |
| 24 Feb 2020 | Prepare an MOU between the Library and the Town | 4 Jan 2021 (1 Jun 2020) |
On Track |
| 27 July 2020 | Obtain legal opinion on ability of Town to regulate on-water activities in the harbour | Early 2021 | On Track |
| 27 July 2020 | Strike a joint working group to prepare consolidated safety procedure and emergency manual for harbour activities | Ahead of 2021 boating season | – |
The above lists 13 items; in September there were 15 items and November listed 13.
To be fair, a couple of items from November have since been done (see COW Agenda 7 December 2020 for both)
- Adopt a traditional land acknowledgement statement to be read at the beginning of all meetings – Agenda item 7.5
- Diversity actions – Agenda item 7.6
And there is action on the “accessible transit service policy”. A draft Wheels Policy is on the Agenda at the 16 February meeting.
In the last several Council meetings, this list has not been reviewed in the public Council sessions – let’s hope councillors nevertheless do read the list. If in fact they are no longer priorities, then they should be taken off the list.
Links
- Unfinished Business List from Agenda of 16 February 2021 – Unedited list from Agenda
Previous Posts
- Unfinished Business November 2020 – 5 November 2020
- Council’s Unfinished Business – 20 Sept 2020
Update – 8 March 2021
The Unfinished business list has now been updated. Go here.
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All those hardworking government employees working from home. If half of them were laid off we’d never notice. We sat at a local restaurant near the harbour last autumn and watched town employees driving around in town vehicles tripping over themselves, to name a few parks, public works, bylaw, fire, transportation…. If we are ever allowed to sit out again I am going to take a video and detailed notes for council.
Good work on this again John.
If priorities have changed, Council could explain and record that, and get things off the list.
Did we ever receive answers promised by Weston Consulting
with respect to the WOODLAWN REHAB operations
pre Rezoning approval ?
I asked several very straightforward questions at the public meeting and was promised answers by email; I have received nothing.
What has been completed reflects Council’s priorities:
Taken together it is a great record of woke posturing rather than results that actually matter to residents!
The Wokerati@Werk.
KS:
I disagree that this represents Council’s priorities. Council reviews and assesses the issues that Staff bring forward. Staff, not Council is responsible for doing the work.
Contrary to popular belief, Staff, for the most part, sets the council meeting agendas.
While having the “outstanding” list is a step forward, it is lacking some key information and metrics:
Due date (NA is not acceptable)
Staff responsible
# of completed steps in the schedule of work vs total steps rather than percentage complete
Council can and should negotiate (direct) due dates to reflect Council’s priorities as needed.
Bryan, those are some excellent suggestions for improvements to the Unfinished Business Report.
It is appalling to suggest that Staff rather than Councillors might set priorities. Hopefully the new CAO will work with our Councillors to quickly remedy any such backasswards situation.
Sad enough the class of Cobourg is going away. Before the Woodlawn there was a chic antique boutique where we purchased crystal as a wedding gift to a judges’daughter friend of ours. What will be next? A school portable in honour of a double dipping politician retired from a school board?