At their meeting on 13 November, Cobourg Council accepted the recommendation of the new Treasurer Adam Giddings, to set the target for the 2024 Operating budget increase at 6%. Then assuming a growth in the tax base of 1%, the resulting increase in the levy (the amount we pay) would be 5%.  Adam says that previous increases have not quite kept pace with inflation so there is a small catch up in the 5% figure.  Adam says that the alternative is a reduction in services – he does not discuss improvements in efficiency or productivity. The next steps in the budget process will be provided in the Committee of the Whole meeting on 27 November. There will be two public meetings: 1) to… Read complete articleBudget for 2024

At a special meeting on Monday, Council made a number of key decisions on Governance and then approved the change.  The current system using coordinators and several advisory committees was not seriously discussed; instead details of the new system proposed by staff were thrashed out.  I counted five significant decisions but there were more, albeit minor ones.  Mayor Cleveland was in good form and did a good job organizing the debate.  He started by asking councillors in turn to say what they wanted to change from the staff proposal.  Then after debate, there was a motion and vote for each “change”.  Described briefly, the new system changes the way Councillors and Council meetings are organized to be more like how… Read complete articleNew Governance Approved by Cobourg Council

In June 2023, Council drafted a new Strategic Plan and then in October decided to ask citizens to comment.  Now at the Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting on November 6, Council will be asked to approve the final plan. Before that vote, staff will report on what was learned from the citizen survey.  Although 257 residents looked at the survey page, only 64 actually completed the survey – that’s a small sample of the 3,337 registered users on EngageCobourg.ca.  Seems few people care about the Strategic plan.  See resources below for the full report by Kara Euale, Communications Manager.  But few responses or not, they will guide Council and Staff on priorities.  However, the good news is that CAO… Read complete articleCommunity Comments on Strategic Plan

A revised way of holding Council Meetings under the heading of “Governance” may be the single biggest action of Council in its term – so please excuse the multiple posts on the subject.  At their Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, Councillors were asked to approve the draft by-Law implementing the change but instead they made comments and deferred a decision to a special meeting to be held after more public consultation.  Councillors generally accepted the idea of changing to the “Standing Committee” model – there was no discussion of other options such as maintaining the current structure.  It looks like the change is a done deal – only minor tweaks are being discussed.  A change looks likely in… Read complete articleCouncillors give their thoughts on Governance

A report from Town Clerk Brent Larmer plus a proposed implementation by-law will be debated by Council at their next Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting on 16 October. This change was first proposed in 2021 and has had citizen consultation and Council debate earlier this year. The changes are significant and are said to “streamline processes and improve the efficiency of Town business” and “contribute to an efficient and effective decision-making process”. The revised governance structure is similar to that used in many other municipalities – notably Northumberland County. However, it’s not just the number and role of meetings that’s changed – more details below. The previous system with councillors assigned as coordinators and many advisory committees will be… Read complete articleCouncil to Debate Proposed Governance Change

In 2021, consultant KPMG conducted an organization review and one of their recommendations was that the Town “could discontinue the Council Coordinator role of governance for a committee structure”.  Instead of coordinators and a Committee of the Whole meeting, it would have four Standing committees with perhaps three councillors on each of them. This was discussed and a new structure proposed at a special Council meeting on 28 November 2022. (See Cobourg News Blog report in resources below).  Pending this change, Councillors were not assigned to coordinator roles and most advisory committees were suspended.  Earlier this year, an Ad Hoc committee was formed to make a recommendation and since then there have been some community consultations (12 individuals went to… Read complete articleCouncil Reviews Governance Committee