Thursday, March 28, 2024

Number of Municipal Staff Concerns Reader

To the editor,

I’ve been researching why Meaford property taxes are so much higher than other municipalities. My suspicions were right; the depth to which the problems lie was scary.

This municipality was formed in 2001 with 41 employees. We now officially have 103, number 104 being hired soon. I inquired to other local municipalities (looking for land and it won’t be here again; I wanted to compare efficiencies with other municipalities.) Chatsworth and Georgian Bluffs are comparable in size and road mileage, with Chatsworth having more road mileage and a higher percentage gravel (higher maintenance). Both have more arenas than we do, and Chatsworth has its own landfill. Our staff list shows seven management positions in roads and infrastructure, parks and rec, and water. The other townships have one manager for everything. (Deputy clerk in Chatsworth oversees water.)

To be fair, I excluded water (Chatsworth and Georgian Bluffs subcontract to the OCWA), full time fire, and the library, which brings Meaford down to a comparable staff of roughly 90. In comparison, after this year’s hiring is complete, Georgian Bluffs will have 35, Chatsworth 26. Yet, the work all gets done, in many cases, to a higher standard. Meaford has staff titles and entire departments that don’t exist elsewhere, and I would argue shouldn’t exist here either, but somehow, our staff still sits at triple that of the others. Anyone as pleased as I was with these numbers should note that email addresses for council and senior staff are on the municipal website. You’ll get mixed reactions to your questions and/or outrage, from sympathy and agreement, to arguments and unqualified defence, or in some cases, you’ll be ignored.

A few disgruntled complainers obviously aren’t accomplishing change; apparently the noise needs to increase. Our annual payroll is roughly $8.5 million. A reduced staff, yet still larger than our neighbour townships, would lower spending enough to produce property tax levels comparable to theirs. Our inefficient gravy train needs to be derailed, eliminating unproductive or financially ineffective staff. There’s no excuse for such a disparity in staff numbers, and taxpayers shouldn’t accept excuses any longer.

Bill Cameron, Bognor

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