In November 2020, the KPMG Service Delivery Review Report recommended (amongst other things) that Site Plan Approvals be delegated to Staff instead of coming to Council every time. This would speed up development and improve operational efficiency.  At the Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting on 6 September, Council will be asked to approve this change.  The move is also prompted by Provincial bill the More Homes for Everyone Act, Bill 109 which requires this change!  Development agreements would still come to Council so it’s not a bypass of Council approval of developments, it’s just a delegation of technical planning issues which Councillors are generally not experts in. Another change being requested is that Site Plan applicants should be required… Read complete articleImproving Efficiency for Cobourg’s Planning

One of the new managers hired this year is Kevin Feagan – he is Manager By-Law Enforcement and Licensing.  On Monday, he provided a list of complaints to Councillor Aaron Burchat which Aaron read out at the Regular Council meeting as part of his Coordinator report. Aaron and other Councillors are taking literally that this part of the Council meeting should be about their Coordinator role but Mayor Henderson seems to have forgotten this and uses the time to mostly talk about what he has been doing – for the record, his Coordinator role is Economic Development (see Resources below for more on this).  But Kevin’s numbers are interesting – although it’s strange that Aaron omitted reading out the item… Read complete articleBy-Law Statistics

Nominations closed Friday at 2:00 pm and there were some surprises.  Councillor Emily Chorley will not be running again; Nicole Beatty and Suzanne Séguin will be competing for the Deputy Mayor position so one of them will not be on Council; and there will be competition for the Mayor’s position so he won’t be acclaimed this time. There are ten candidates competing for five spots on Council – including current councillors Adam Bureau, Aaron Burchat and Brian Darling. So far, only Mayor Henderson and Michael Sprayson have published any campaign material but then there are 56 days until the first day you can vote – October 14.  The official voting date is October 24 but advance voting is possible earlier…. Read complete articleSome Surprises in Council Nominations

In 2020 Council hired a consultant to review “Service Delivery” and shortly after (in 2021) also used a consultant to review the Town’s organization. But at Monday’s Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting, the Agenda included approval of a consultant (Watson and Associates) for $91K to review user fees as recommended in the Service Delivery review. Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin thought that this knowledge was available from Staff and that the cost was excessive so she moved that the work be done by Staff instead. The rationale for the consultant was that there were not enough Staff resources or expertise and that the report would provide a justification for charges. In addition “it is also expected that the methodology developed… Read complete articleDoes Cobourg Use Too Many Consultants?

On Tuesday at 2:00 pm, Cobourg Council had a special meeting to hear a report from Holdco and its subsidiaries (Lakefront  Utilities Inc – LUI – and Lakefront Services Inc – LUSI) on how they are doing. The new chair of Holdco, David Tsubouchi, spoke strongly about the need for better governance and is putting procedures in place to make sure that happens.  This was the only thing that needed significant fixing – all other measurements and performance factors were positive and councillors asked few questions.  LUI chair Gil Brocanier reported that reliability is good and getting better (more below) and that businesses want reliability and are attracted to Cobourg by reliable electricity.  Gil said that only 25% of a… Read complete articleHoldco and Lakefront Utilities Report

It’s not just businesses that are short of staff and experiencing high turnover, it’s also the Town of Cobourg. Looking at the Town’s web site Job Opportunities page, there are four management positions and six temporary or part-time positions. In addition, at Monday’s Council meeting, Planning Coordinator Councillor Nicole Beatty, announced that 3 planning staff are leaving – including Dave Johnson (Planner 1, Heritage). Two of the Management positions stand-out: Dan Taylor was only recently recruited as the Manager of Economic Development but he has left and a replacement is being recruited. The Manager of Planning is described as two possible jobs: either “Development Review” or “Long-Range Planning” – both are needed. The current manager of Planning, Rob Franklin, has… Read complete articleTown Experiencing Staff Shortage