There's still time to turn the tides

Apr 02, 2008

This winter has certainly proved to be a sobering one for town hall. Flooding and erratic weather patterns have hopefully driven home the need to build up reserves for a rainy day so as not to be caught off-guard when the unpredictable happens.

The fact that council is still facing a runaway train with a proposed 7.5 per cent tax increase at the lower-tier level should also make councillors sit up and take notice. You can’t run a municipality by the seat of your pants.

Councils will come and go. That is why putting the proper infrastructure in place to guard the public purse is important. Without a CAO or someone looking after the municipality’s finances, we can’t help but wonder who is holding down the fort at town hall.

Right now we’ve got a council administrator, the fire chief and the town planner holding the reins not only of their own departments but of the entire operation of the municipality. That is simply unheard of. To say that their own departments have not been and will not be affected adversely by their dual responsibilities is myopic.

This council shot in after being elected with the grand vision of shaking things up and reinventing the wheel. Shortly thereafter, three top department heads hit the road. Some applauded the change, while others were left to ponder what the future would hold.

Two years into this council’s mandate, we’ve heard nothing but bickering and back-stabbing around that council table. Things seemed to get progressively worse last month when we learned that our finances were “grim,” to quote the chair of the finance committee, who must’ve had to fast-track his way through an MBA to make sense of it all. And now we learn that a part-time consultant hired to do what resident head of corporate services Libby Boucher once did full-time is costing us just as much.

Forgive us for fanning the flames of discontent and wondering what is going on at town hall as we prepare to bring out our checkbooks for April’s installment of our property tax.

If this council wants to leave a legacy other than that of being one of the worst councils this municipality has ever had, it will find unity in adversity and work together to make it happen. It has two years left in its mandate to bring about positive change. We hope that change will not be limited to trying to fix what it did in its first two years in office.

T.d.V.