Letter to the Editor
Editor,
The recent TMI editorial advising council to take rural Meaford concerns seriously made many valid points and observations. I would like to comment on these in simple point form:
“Lacklustre attendance at budget public review meetings”
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poor weather
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terrible communications for rural residents who get their news from Owen Sound media
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night driving a big deal for retirees
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farmers too busy
“Great attendance at the downtown development public meeting”
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issue well covered in local media
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an urban issue and not a long trip to attend
“Urban-centric council again”
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urban candidates tap into existing organizations for name recognition and help, C of C , cultural and sports org.
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a candidate who is anti big government will lose probably 500 votes just from civil servants/family/friends
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rural candidates need to travel more, invest more in signage
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the candidates’ town halls are run by the urban establishment (except for Bognor), they decide on format and questions
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Meaford media is urban-based
“It doesn’t matter that council and staff today are doing the best they can to turn things around”
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there is little or no accountability, so why would the taxpayer trust council and staff
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there have been well thought out questions put to council in the last few years about uncontrolled spending on the transportation dept.’s fleet with no response
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there have been questions about the need for a purchasing agent and the fact that so many tenders go out with little time for bidding, again no response other than, we know what is best
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SUCCESS is never defined, the electronic voting process was rammed through with the promise of more voter participation, more appeal to a younger demographic and significant cost savings! Was this achieved? The decades-old MEDS is always touted as being the cornerstone of our economic policy but we keep forming committees of mostly urbanites and nothing changes. There are still lots of empty storefronts, no significant growth, population numbers haven’t changed in decades while taxes and staff keep increasing. Meanwhile, the agribusiness sector chugs merrily along with little recognition from council or staff. Is the investment in the fire training centre paying off as suggested in the original business plan?
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senior staff should go through annual performance review with easily measurable goals. The CAO’s prime goal should be to increase the tax base and if this isn’t achieved they should go.
“The long road to financial recovery”
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it was done on the backs of the taxpayer
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it’s easy to tax, making cuts requires a backbone
“Sydenham unrest”
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a couple of key conditions of the original amalgamation have been broken (illegally?), that being police area rating and fire area rating
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the whole Meaford library versus OS library is confusing
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about a third of the municipality’s tax revenue comes from Sydenham and what does Sydenham have to show for it? The perception is that we are funding urban projects.
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recent letter to TMI from a Meaford urbanite mocking any effort to separate using the ‘Petition of Right’ process was laced with the kind of arrogance and condescension we are used to getting from senior staff. The writer ends with the summary that we should be dealing with real issues and real problems! Tell that to council, not Sydenham.
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the doubling of the Sunshine List from 3 to 6 staff in one year is partially explained by the CAO that it was because of 27 pay periods in a year rather than 26. Have they never heard of the accrual basis of accounting? Just another snow job by staff and council just lets it go!
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in 2007 we had a part-time fire chief, now we have one on the List plus an assistant!
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we did not have a director of community services in 2007, now we have one on the list!
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there is little new construction in Meaford and yet we have a director of planning on the List with a department of 4 or 5 to handle the construction of 20 new houses in 2014. That is really expanding the tax base.
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Georgian Bluffs taxes at a rate of approx. $1,000 per $100,000 of assessment, Owen Sound $1,500 and Meaford is similar to OS. Georgian Bluffs has 2 staff on the Sunshine List.
Ray McHugh, Meaford
