May 2017
- Middlesex Centre received full scope accreditation for their management of municipal water and wastewater systems! 😀
- Quite coincidentally, after much teeth gnashing over an alleged “raise” for the Director of Public Works & Engineering appearing on 2016’s Sunshine List, staff brought forth a new Compensation Management policy designed to curb costs and still ensure municipal staff receive the benefits their due.
- The new policy prevents staff from being provided both time in lieu and overtime.
- Time in lieu is offered to employees, and especially department heads, because they attend Council meetings in addition to working a full day, and those Council meetings can last upwards of four hours when there are public meetings to conduct.
- The new policy prevents municipal employees from being paid out for unused time in lieu.
- This was the source of the majority of the extra funds paid out to the Director of PWE, as he has not been unable to use the time in lieu given the extra duties that have been under his purview. As roles are filled, he will be able to take the time off he is owed.
- The overwhelming majority of residents, and prospective residents, of the Komoka Glen subdivision asked for help in either preventing, or modifying, the noise wall that’s supposed to be erected prior to the subdivision being assumed by the municipality.
- I met with a few of the residents prior to their delegation at Council to hear them out. I agree that the current noise wall plans don’t make any sense, and at the Council meeting we directed staff to contact the appropriate rail authorities to determine whether alterations can be made, and how to go about that.
- We found out that Herm’s Sport Exchange is going to stick around at the Wellness Centre for another year, now that we’ve brought the Komoka Kings Junior ‘B’ hockey team to the Wellness Centre.
June 2017
- We voted to adopt a new reserve and reserve fund policy that further spells out under which conditions funds can be withdrawn, transferred, and so on. If you’re interesting in this sort of thing, it’s worth a read.
- My motion to have staff report back on possible traffic calming measures for Westbrook Drive failed, however it was largely because the work would likely have taken 18 months to complete.
- That’s because the municipality doesn’t have any policies or design standards around traffic calming measures, and therefore those would have had to have been created first.
- Despite the motion failing, staff are taking the issue seriously and are conducting their own investigations. We had a speed monitor out on Westbrook Drive the next day, collecting data. And there is a pilot program taking place with traffic calming measures being deployed in some trouble areas to see how well they work.
- Our auditor reported that our financials looked healthy, and everything was in order. You can review the 2016 Draft Financial Statements here.
- We voted to execute the agreement with the Komoka Kings Junior ‘B’ hockey team, bringing the organization to the Komoka Wellness Centre for the next 10 years. I’m looking forward to seeing the home games on Saturday nights!
- We voted to execute the site plan agreement for Glendon Drive Developments, allowed them to start requesting building permits for the new commercial plaza at Glendon Drive and Tunks Lane, across the street from the Wellness Centre.
- Settling the matter also required with withdrawal of the OMB appeal, which happened in early July.
- We also approved a video surveillance policy, limiting the storage of any video captured to five days, as recommend by the Canadian privacy commissioner. This will impact any existing video surveillance already in use, like at water and wastewater infrastructure points, and the Wellness Centre.
It was a busy two months, which also included a lot of surplus residence severances on agricultural properties across the municipality. As always, if you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them!