The First Few Months
The first few months have certainly been interesting to say the least. There is much to learn and I have engulfed myself into everything as much as possible. There is much to learn as a new councillor, so I feel it is important that I attend every meeting, listen and learn. There is a certain protocol to follow in meetings and because it can be somewhat complicated, especially when it is all new, I have taken extra courses through the Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) to ensure I am starting off on the right foot. I have also spent time consulting with my colleagues and staff to help me bring me up to speed on where we are at as a Municipality. Many of these individuals have either been on council for some time, or have been working as staff members at the town. There is quite a learning curve, so it is imperative that you have a good working relationship to help you through this process. I have committed myself to several committees as well, including the Accessibility Advisory Committee, Joint Fire Services and the Newmarket Environmental Advisory Committee to name a few.
The first ward meeting certainly didn’t happen without any glitches. After trying to find an available date at the Seniors Meeting Place that was available, I realized that I had booked it on Ash Wednesday. The newsletters were printed with the date already on at this point, so I didn’t want to change the date of the meeting. I do apologize for not checking my dates more thoroughly. Old man winter decided to blow into Newmarket the night of the meeting as well, so I was pleasantly surprised when we had 21 residents come out that evening. My presenter for the VivaNext project unfortunately was stuck on the 404 and couldn’t make it for her presentation. If you would like to sign up for updates on the construction, including when there will be delays on Davis Drive, please sign up here.
http://www.vivanext.com/456
Our ward meeting had some great discussions about everything from area parks to Davis Drive construction. I will be providing a detailed summary of our meeting in the next week and will send out separately.
Budget 2011
We received from staff our first draft budget a couple of weeks ago with a proposed increase from staff of 5.89%. One of the major driving forces of the budget is due to the 20 new firefighters that we are mandated to hire due to our bargaining agreements that were done back in 2001 when they amalgamated Aurora and Newmarket’s services. Also, we want to ensure that we continue to put money away into our Asset Replacement Fund (ARF) for our future repairs and replacement of our infrastructure that could be debilitating to us down the road if we don’t have enough in this fund. It is a responsible move I feel as it is not only thoughtful for the immediate future but for the long term as well. Many municipalities do not do this and it could be a heavy burden on the taxpayers when major work has to be done.
During the campaign and also now, I have residents tell me that they don’t want any tax increases. Just like yourself our family is stressed with the increased costs from all our day to day living expenses. At our last Committee of the Whole meeting, Council asked staff to find an additional 600-800 thousand dollars and they will be coming back with some options and the implications of this cut. I personally think we need to look strongly at what, if any, new hires are needed at this point. We need to ask ourselves, “Do we really need to add this additional staff right now, today, or can we wait a bit?” We also need to look at our core services we are providing and are there ways to save money if we contracted out some. This may not save any money or could jeopardize the service levels that we have now, but I think it is something that we should be investigating. That being said, I think it is important to be open to looking at cost saving measures that do not jeopardize our services. We have some capital projects that have carried over, such as the CUSP and the Old Town Hall, that need to be finished in the coming months. I will not be supporting any new major capital projects. Depending on costs, I would like to still see a leash free dog park as well as an outdoor skating rink, other than the CUSP, where the kids could play some shinny hockey as well. There could be some creative ways working with other businesses and organizations to help out with this so it is not a huge monetary burden.
