2019 - A YEAR IN REVIEW
2019 was the first full year of business for this Council elect.
When contemplating a performance grade, one has to consider the many challenges confronting this new team.
From timely budgets, to responsible growth policies, to supporting ‘nice to haves’ versus ‘must haves’ all in the context of ability to pay, satisfying the majority’s needs and improving the quality of life for our citizens.
MidlandCommunity.ca continues to participate in multiple sessions of Council so that we are sufficiently informed to pass along a view to you - the tax paying public.
The grade for 2019: C+ at best!
- We witnessed a disjointed leadership team governing our transitioning and fragile town. More specifically, we note the recent findings of Midland’s Integrity Commissioner bearing out the fact that Councillor Bill Gordon acted in bad faith and disrespected the Mayor and fellow Council members, not to mention the residents of Midland. What is not yet reported/concluded is the fate of the lawsuit the town launched against Councillor Gordon to provide the Encryption Key required to unlock the Midland Police Service servers. This pattern of rogue behaviour and heightened dysfunction takes the town off its game by focusing precious energy and resources in the wrong areas- nothing short of shameful conduct!
- We are in the throes of recruiting a new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), yet Council sees fit to rush through an excessive spending budget (up 8% over 2019) which contemplates the hiring of multiple new staff at a time when our somewhat robust economy is taking a breather and the downtown business core is being dug up. Whatever happened to the notion of succession planning?
- While it hurts to even mention the ‘splash pad’, the discussion centres directly on priorities. This is clearly an unnecessary and wasteful capital and operating spend when one realizes Penetanguishene hosts a similar facility and its use is on their ‘proverbial dime’. Shared services is a good thing!
Further, the 2020 budget contemplates putting more energy and monies into cross-boundary transportation which clearly is the right thing to do in an effort to leverage limited resources and garner new efficiencies. Maybe we need our own Canada’s Wonderland or perhaps a local Major League Hockey team too - ‘Go Leafs Go’.
So therein concludes our review.
Misdirected priorities, multiple vacancies in key leadership positions, bad behaviour exhibited by sitting Council members, and excessive spending.
For those of you in business, we can only hope that your customers can afford to pay for the costs you need to pass along.
Our conclusion - this is not a sustainable business model.
Happy New Year Midland.
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