An Evening In Wonderland

ORIGINALLY POSTED Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Last night, Tuesday, council went into the back room with a packet of 285 applications from citizens interested in participating on advisory committees. The applications are complete with resumés and or curriculae vitae.

Seven councillors were planning to examine each one and decide who would have most to contribute to the various committees. You have to admire their energy and commitment. They finished near midnight.

I didn't go.

Until now, the selection process has been done by the Director of Corporate Services. He short-listed then council made their decisions.

I don't believe advisory committees do anything that council can't do with less staff ...expense...and paper production. Oh My God - the paper!. I have to dig myself out to get out of the house! Multiply that by a factor of many and imagine the payroll to produce that stuff ...and the machinery …the space ... the paper... and you are paying for all of it.

Think of the paper the power used to manufacture it .. print on it ... distribute it ... and ultimately re-cycle it .If the "reduce re-use and recycle" philosophy can't be applied at city hall, where else can it be expected to occur?

Councillors are paid. It isn’t much, but the job is supposed to be part-time and we do have an administration responsible to manage the corporation.

About now though, the administration must be wondering about their function. Considering the extent of our investment in expertise, that is a disturbing thought.

There were a couple of other dramatic changes last evening:

When 9/11 happened insurance rates in Southern Ontario sky-rocketed. To protect the towns from the impact, a group of municipalities formed a co-op. No profit factor, no reps, no dividends, better coverage, lower premiums.

Last night , we re-invented the wheel and directed staff to go back to the private sector to see if we could do better.

We had a progress report from staff on a gateway sign. The last council approved the design etc. Eighty thousand dollars were ponied up by a developer. They didn't part with it lightly. A consultant was hired. Plans were prepared, applications made and fees paid. Money has been spent, wheels set in motion.

Last night, we undid all that to start from scratch again.

It shouldn't take long to get rid of $80,000 without leaving a trace of it.

That takes exceptional talent.

We had a report that involved storm water management ponds. They catch the pollutants in run off from roads, driveways and roofs and divert them from creeks and waterways and eventually from The Lake. That's 85% of the pollutants that used to go into the streams and waterways and eventually the Lake don't go there any more. The ponds are monitored once a year.That represents phenomenal progress.

The works director was directed to monitor the ponds more than once a year and 85% is not effective enough. He should be striving for 100%.

There's a buffer between wetlands and development and a planting plan for it. The Director of Leisure Service was quizzed whether the plants would be “wind propagated”. Other than bird droppings, I didn't know there was any other kind of propagation. But I don't need to.

All I need to do is make sure the people we hire are experts in their field so that I can depend on them. Aurora has good staff.

All they need is to know there is respect and appreciation for their professional integrity.

If people expect me to be a horticulture expert, a financial analyst, a design consultant, a soccer aficionado and a director of corporate services, with a dozen other areas of expertise , all rolled into one, there will be serious disappointment abroad in the land.

But they are paying me just about right.