Not much has changed -

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

March 10th, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

So what did the rascals do while we were away?

The Burlington’s Best web site nomination process experienced a bit of a screw up – a staffer said it was “experiencing some issues”. The city manager had to jump in and attempt to resolve one of the problems.

Fox monument 1

Why hard working citizen groups should have to be put through so many hoops by the planning department is difficult to understand.

The group of people who are behind the creation of a really smart looking monument that will commemorate the stop Terry Fox made in Burlington 35 years ago found themselves stumbling over hurdles the people in the permit section of the planning department kept putting in front of them.

The Mayor has come out from the bushes and is putting forward a motion for a private tree bylaw.

Trevor Copp, the Burlington actor who mobilized trhe arts into a Collective makes a point on leadership while Executive Director of the Burlington Museum's operation listens.

Trevor Copp, the Burlington actor who mobilized the arts into a Collective makes a point on leadership while Executive Director of the Burlington Museum’s operation listens.

The Arts and Culture Collective of Burlington (ACCOB) has written the people who are beavering away at getting the Strategic Plan into print and in the hands of the public, asking that the word “arts” be included in the Strategic Plan. Culture is already in the document. Trevor Copp, a sometime spokesperson for ACCOB says they “noticed the lack of the specific term ‘Arts’ and advocated for its specific inclusion (good use of ‘Culture’; we want both terms). Hopefully it gets in there and we can reference it in the future.”
The arts community has high hopes for some city money that will be doled out to the arts community.

As for the Strategic Plan – the document is now more than a year late, has ballooned at two levels, the scope and scale of the document and the cost.

Strategic Plan Workbook

The early version was a four year plan – somewhere along the way city council decided to make it a 25 year plan – nothing on the public record as to why they did that.

Traditionally, Strategic Plans are documents prepared by a city council for its term of office. The document that is coming our way covers a 25 year period – a time frame when not one member (hopefully) of this council will be in office.

The cost of the consultants who created the document ballooned as well – but the public may never know exactly how much they paid – the service based budget we now have doesn’t allow anyone to drill down and learn much about the specifics.

There was an agency that has taken on the delivery of a provincially funded initiative that was being funnelled through municipalities. The dollars went from the province to the cities – and in Burlington there was a plug somewhere that resulted in some close to frantic calls for the dollars to move in the right direction so the payroll could be met.

A resident took issue with the way minutes of public meetings are kept. He was unable to delegate in person and mailed in his concerns – and was surprised and upset at the way the public record was kept. Let the correspondence with the city Clerk tell the rest of the story …

Meed Ward as a delegation

Marianne Meed Ward delegated many many times – she saw it as a vital part of the democratic process. The comments that follow were not made by Meed Ward.

“In 25 years of coming to Council as a delegation, with a submission, I have never, ever, to my recollection, had my name, and my main message, not included in the Agenda and Minutes of the meeting. For a recent example, the message I sent not supporting the downsizing of the Nelson pool had my name and main message included.

“If I send something to Council, to speak to an Agenda item, I automatically want to be identified by name, and by my main message.

“After receiving this reply, I looked at the Agenda and Minutes again for the C&CS meeting and see that you have put my original correspondence, with my name back, into the Agenda packet.

“However, in the Minutes, while you put my name back, you did not include my main message, which was I support the staff report recommendation to refuse the ADI Martha St. proposal as outlined.

“Please change these proceedings record to indicate that I supported the staff recommendation.

“That’s the bottom line here – including my name and main message in Agendas and Minutes – and what I want corrected and never done to my correspondence to Council again, if you please.”

The public record matters – everything the Gazette has published is in the archives – except of course for those items we get bullied into removing with threats of expensive lawsuits.

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