Make Sense of This if You Can.

Several staff reports were presented at the General Committee Meeting last Tuesday. Chief Building Official Techa Van Leeuwen reported a critical situation in the Building Department. For several reasons, nobody's fault, there is a staff shortage and a huge work overload. Time off in lieu is not a practical option under the circumstances. Therefore the request was for paid overtime. If staff do not put in the overtime the possibility is that builders will start their projects without permits and will not therefore receive timely inspections.

If the town is at fault, prosecutions would be unfair and unlikely to succeed. The only option is to ask staff to work overtime without providing the option of time off in lieu.

Also presented was a recommendation that an Amended Sign Bylaw be presented at this week's council meeting for Smart Centre. Hours of work has been undertaken with forty-three variances to govern signage on stores in the Smart Centre. The variances are in accordance with policies including the Urban Design Guidelines adopted by the Municipality.

Mayor Morris indicated she had visited the development. She noted that many businesses had illegal signs. "Some have Banners" she said in horror. When was the department going to take action she demanded.

Ms. Van Leeuwen indicated the work completed in cooperation with Smart Centres and Amending Bylaw would take care of the problem. With variances approved the businesses could get on with providing permanent signage.

Councillor McRoberts moved the recommendation to present the Bylaw. The Mayor argued it be deferred to give councillors more time to analyze it.

The Councillor noted it was clear the motion would pass but in the interest of getting unanimous support he would withdraw the motion and support the deferral.

Once again,with Councillor McRobert's assistance, staff were reminded who is in charge.

Businesses at the Centre will be obliged to continue with illegal banners as an option for several more weeks. Council time spent debating an obvious and clear-cut decision was wasted and will be repeated three weeks from now for no sensible reason whatsoever.

There must be days when Techa Van Leeuwen wonders why she tries so hard.

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The Town Treasurer had completed his work and put forward a schedule of meetings to complete the town's budget in a sensible time frame. One can only imagine how much consultation there was between the various town departments to have their budgets completed and vetted prior to presentation for Council's consideration.

The normal process is for Directors to meet with the CAO and Mr. Gutteridge to have their budgets analyzed and justified. This year there is no CAO. Therefore no team management approach to the town's business.

Council spent one hour and thirty-five minutes taking Mr. Gutteridge's report apart and replacing the entire thing with a new schedule. Three Monday meetings were replaced with one entire Saturday. Councillor MacEachern led the discussion and proposed the alternatives. It will not be the first time Mr. Gutteridge has wondered about his function in the scheme of things.

Councillor MacEachern of course has no such doubts about her professional competence to manage the town's finances or any other town department. Neither it seems does the majority of elected members around the table.