jan mowbray

Its sinking in

Mike Cluett

After taking a very long time to return emails, voice mails, tweets and posts over the last couple of days, I can honestly say its finally sinking in.  What really made it apparent that life has changed was the beginnings of the regular courier from Town Hall with information on meetings, seating arrangements and schedules for the next month or so.

In the coming weeks there will be orientation meetings, briefings from town staff, arrangements for the inaugural council meeting on December 6th and many more “things to do” that quickly make your fingers sore updating the Blackberry and of course more to come after that.

I am really looking forward to the challenge of working for the residents of Milton.  With the overwhelming amount of support I received on election night, its something that I do not take lightly.  Of course, I will be relying on a lot of support from Ward 6 voters when it comes to these decisions.  I want to get as much input as possible from you and help grow the interaction we started many months ago.

These decisions wont be easy and it will require a lot of work, consultation, feedback and possibly some disagreements from councillors and residents alike.  But the main thing is that there will be a dialogue…a conversation that has been lacking over the last several years.

I also want to thank publicly the outgoing councillors who didn’t make it this election.  The rough part of elections is that there has to be winners and losers but that doesn’t discount the impact that these people had on our lives in the years throughout our growth.  Paul Scherer, Jan Mowbray, Mike Boughton and Brian Penman all should be commended on their years of service and dedication to Milton.  Other retiring councillors Barry Lee, Wendy Schau and Rick Day also should be congratulated on serving Milton residents.  While we didnt agree on some issues and decisions that were made, I never once doubted their commitment to Milton, and the taxpayers.  Thank you everyone.

I would also like to find out from you what you would like to see on this website, as I will be continuing to use it as a source of information.  Would you like a listing of Town press releases, information on public meetings, openings on town committees, budget meetings etc?  This is going to be your site as well, so I would love some input on what I can do to make it the best source of information in Milton.

In closing, the last couple of nights have been funny in the Cluett household as Pat sees me either running around after dinner looking like I’m getting ready to go canvassing or I’m about to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Im sure things will begin to get more “normal” as we adjust to the new job at hand.

I am humbled by the support I received and very excited at the challenge for the next four years.  I will do my best to listen to as many people as possible and use my skills and abilities to make the best decisions I can for us here in Milton.  I hope that we can all work together to get that job done.

Thanks for your support and I will soon see you again at the doors (mainly because its Halloween this weekend 🙂 )

Transit Information Sessions

Mike Cluett

Last night was the first two of four information sessions put on by Milton Transit at the Seniors Activity and Milton’s Sports Centre.  According to Transit Coordinator Tony D’Alessandro the first session was well attended with over 25 people showing up.  Last nights session at the Sports Centre had roughly 10-15 people attend to find out about the newly designed routes through town (the files are about 3MB so if you have a slower internet connection be warned) and the plans for the future.  Jan Mowbray, one of our current town councillors who is an advocate of transit in Milton, was also in attendance last night

There are two more sessions tonight (Thursday August 19th) and they will be held at the Milton Public Library (Beaty Branch on 4th line) from 2-4pm and Town Hall will host the final one from 7pm to 9pm.  If you have time, make sure you come out.  There will be lots of people from Milton Transit, the transit advisory committee and the company who runs the buses and they’ll love to answer any questions you may have.

As I brought up before here on the blog, I told Tony some of my concerns about each of the routes.  The routes that run through Hawthorne Village, while they cover the area very well, all revolve around the GO Station as the main hub.  For instance if someone from Ward 6 wanted to go downtown Milton to shop or eat would have to take the bus to the GO Station, transfer there (waiting approximately 10-15 minutes) and then take the bus to downtown.  Going through the schedule that trip would take roughly 30-35 minutes if everything is running on time.

The alternative is someone from Ward 6 getting into their car and driving downtown Milton which at non rush hour times takes roughly 10-15 minutes.  Where is the incentive from a time and convenience aspect for someone to say “I’ll take the bus instead of my car.”  Nothings perfect of course and the transit system is still in its infancy but these are concerns that are brought up at the door when speaking with voters.

These routes are constantly being reviewed and alternatives can be considered depending on usage.  Tony mentioned that ridership is up 15% since the new routes were put in place which sounds encouraging but I’d like to look at the numbers from a paid ridership point of view.

As our town continues to grow over the next several years, the need for a vibrant and efficient transit system is a must.  If we get the Wilfrid Laurier campus on the west end of town and as the Derry Green Corporate Business Park is developed there will be added pressure to ensure the transit system works, is efficient and able to meet the needs of the public.

I won’t be at the Transit meetings tonight as there is another public meeting at the Sports Centre about Milton Hydro’s proposal to install 2 vertical wind turbines in front of that same sports centre.  I was the first to bring up the meeting back in July and while I have been out at the doors the last few weeks, this issue has been on the mind of many voters.  They have concerns about how they will look, possible sound pollution and what benefit the Town of Milton will get from such a proposal.

There will be a presentation made followed up by a question and answer session where members of the public will have an opportunity to get answers.  Following this public meeting a report will be sent to council for review and approval.  I don’t know about the timing of the report and when the decision will be made, so it might be this council that makes that decision or it could be the next after Oct 25th.

I hope to see some of you out at tonight’s meeting and at the transit meetings later today.  This is an opportunity to have your say…so get out and speak.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

 

It’s an election year!

Mike Cluett

That was the comment I heard most last night at the special council meeting at Town Hall.

The meeting started early yesterday and I missed the first portion of the towns report on the potential changes to the official plan.  That in itself is a large post and I will endeavour to get that up as soon as possible.  You can find information on the official plan from the town’s website here.

The second portion of the meeting was the towns report on the Boyne Survey.  Again, a lengthy post and I will come out with more details soon.  Here is the link to the town’s site for more information.

The item that quite frankly, I thought would be lost in the shuffle was a report from staff on the application for market adjustments in pay for non union town employees.  This category includes town council and if it had passed as written, it would have been the fourth salary increase in four years for town council.  Members of town council are included in this category and according to Mayor Krantz last night, they are caught in a “lose-lose” situation. 

You would’ve had to be under a rock for the last 2 years to NOT notice our economy wasn’t doing so well.  Many people have lost their jobs, and companies were closing their doors including major employers in Milton.  Yet through all of the cut backs and job loses, one industry managed to make MORE money over these 3 years.  The public sector.

Milton CAO Mario Belvedere outlined to the gallery and to council last night the methodology of how these pay increases come about.  A citizens committee reviews the salaries and benefits of similar sized cities and towns in the GTA (when you look the report in detail you will see exactly which ones) and then comes up with an increase for Milton.  Some of these municipalities have increased the salaries of non union employees by over 3 % and some a little lower, so Milton chose 2%.

The idea behind it is employee retention.  The fear of someone quitting the town of Milton and going to work for Ajax or Mississauga is so strong they want to ensure they are paid well to keep the quality of workforce here in town.  Don’t get me wrong…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. 

The staff at the Town of Milton is top notch and probably the best at what they do. 

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say they should be paid more for what they do.  Unfortunately we are faced with something called an economic reality…the bottom line.

There are those who feel that council members should be paid more for what they do.  Most of them being members of council.  The job of town councillor (of which I am running for) is a part time position but I am under no illusion that it will be part time hours.  My eyes are WIDE open on this.  Dealing with the public, going out to events, answering emails and phone calls takes time.  I work full time, as most council members do, and that keeps me busy.  My two children and wife will also keep me busy, but they understand what I’m doing and are fully supportive.

Town councillors in Milton are among the lowest paid elected officials in Ontario.  Should they get more?  Possibly.  Can we do it now?  Quite frankly, no.

Again, its that nagging little thing called the bottom line that SHOULD stop a lot of spending like this.

Councillor Greg Nelson put forward a motion to pass the 2% increase for non union employees and exempt the increase for town councillors.  This as you would assume caused a lot of discussion.  Jan Mowbraysaid the increase was so small (according to her numbers it amounts to $43 / month) then why bother making the changes.  My response would be, since its so small town councillors wont notice the difference.

Councillor Schau commented that she’s worried that given the lower than the average salary might deter some good candidates from running in the election.  Candidates, like myself, should go into this with eyes wide open.  I’m not looking to run for a part time position for the pay.  That isn’t the motivator behind my candidacy.  If it was then I should just quit.  The salary for the town council position is roughly $27,000 per year (with some of that being tax free).  If someone is running for this job for the salary….they’re running for the wrong reasons.

Its about leadership.  Just imagine if a motion like this was put forward at the beginning of the term?  What would our numbers be like if the 3% from 2008 and the 2.5% increase from 2009 were limited to say 0.75% or 1%?  How much money would the town have been able to save?  “Nickels and dimes”, as they have been described my some members of council over the years, add up.  Would a limited pay increase caused a massive exodus to other towns and cities from staff workers?  Highly unlikely.  But the “nickels and dimes” would have added up to savings.  Voters in town would have seen council take a leadership role and feel that the bottom line was being addressed.  Only a few current council members actually take note of costs of items that pass every month.  It should be the majority of council looking at the bottom line.

With people in the private sector having to deal with salary cut backs and no increases to their salaries, its hard for them to accept the almost automatic pay increases of public sector workers.  This doesn’t help increase their confidence in elected officials.  It’s just one of the factors behind record low voter turnouts the last several years.

As I left someone made an interesting comment saying that no one on council brought up the provincial governments recent freeze on public sector salaries (albeit the provinces “freeze” has more holes in it that a sponge).  Discussion was had on the issue for about 10 minutes and eventually passed and will be finalized at the next council meeting.  This means our current council has only had 3 pay increases in their last term instead of 4.

Regular readers of my blog will know I’ve talked about the other pay increases ad nauseum here and here.

There will be those who say the pay increase was small and wont amount to much, but for me its about leadership and confidence.  My only issue with it, it took 3 years and the fact its an election year to finally bring it out.

Milton needs to elect leaders around the council and we have an opportunity on October 25th to do that.  If you are one who believes it needs to change, it’s up to do get informed, ask questions and get out and vote.  mike@mikecluett.ca if you have any questions.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Milton tax increase official

Mike Cluett

Last Monday night at Town Hall the 2010 captial and operating budgets were approved for a total increase in budget of 3.24%.

As Melanie Hennessey of the Champion outlines in her article today, it passed, but not unanimously.  Both Councillor Mike Boughton and Mayor Gord Krantz voted against the budget because the rate of increase was higher than the rate of inflation.

Good for them!

Mayor Krantz also outlined during the meeting that taxes have gone up about 17% in this term of council alone.  This amounts to roughly $120 per household in the last 4 years.  Although Jan Mowbray stated that Milton has something to show for those increases, the amount is still quite high over a 4 year term.

Jan mentioned that she voted for the budget regretably because it didnt include an increase to service for the new library to include Sunday hours.  Mea Culpa….my family uses that library quite often and is a wonderful place dont get me wrong.  Am I or other taxpayers willing to accept even more tax increases to pay for 7 day a week service?  Highly unlikely. 

Im sure if you had put the question to Miltonian’s BEFORE hand if they wanted a new arts and entertainment centre the answer might not have been what they were looking for.  That project was moved up in order to take advantage of the federal/provincial stimulus funding and rushed through.  There are quite a few better places in town for the centre, and Im quite sure that Thompson and Main isnt going to be the best location. 

Overall, I would concure with the Mayor and Councillor Boughton that this budget could have been better and that the rate of increase should have been closer to the rate of inflation.  As our town growns we need to prioritize our spending.  Would it be nice to have 7 day a week service for the library?  Absoultely.  It would be great if we could keep it open 24 hours.  Is it a priority right now?  No its not.  Maybe down the road when the rate of growth doesnt increase as much and there is more of a tax base available we can look at it then, but not right now.

There are a lot of “would like to have’s” in town.  We would like to have a lot of things, but there simply isnt enough money for everything that we want.  We as a town have to look at what is NEEDED and then prioritize those needs and focus on them.

Here’s the article… once again welcome back Melanie!

Council approves 3.24% tax hike

Melanie Hennessey, Canadian Champion Staff
December 16, 2009

Residents will dish out about $25 more for Town services next year now that Milton council has approved a 3.24 per cent tax hike for 2010.

The increase and the Town’s $149-million budget were given the go-ahead by council at its meeting Monday night. This translates into an extra $24.96 in Town taxes for urban residents and $20.82 for those in the rural area on a home assessed at $300,000.

Of the total budget, property taxes will cover between $28 and $29 million. Much of the municipality’s revenue is money collected from developers as well as funding provided by the provincial and federal governments.

About $70 million of the budget will cover next year’s operating expenses, while more than $78 million is slated for capital projects — the largest capital budget that’s ever been approved by council.

Funding has been allocated for 77 new projects, including $36 million in land and buildings, $32 million in roads and $5 million in parks and trails.

The capital program is being boosted by stimulus money coming from the upper levels of government. The Town has been approved for $33.5 million in stimulus cash, which allows it to advance five major projects that weren’t originally scheduled to start until 2011 or later. The projects include a new visual arts centre and central library and an expansion to the Milton Sports Centre. They must be built by March 31, 2011 under stimulus funding rules.

The budget was supported by the majority of council, with the exception of Ward 2 Councillor Mike Boughton and Mayor Gord Krantz.

Boughton told the Champion after the meeting that he voted against the budget because the tax increase for next year is above the rate of inflation.

“I stated earlier this year that I wouldn’t go any higher than the rate of inflation, and I’m standing by that principle,” he said.

Krantz, who has long been a supporter of keeping tax increases at the rate of inflation, shared similar sentiments. He also pointed out to council that it has increased local residents’ taxes by almost $120 in its term of office, or about 17 per cent.

“It’s very easy for us to say it’s only five or 10 cents more on this or that, but it builds up to $120,” he said. “That’s pretty huge, and it compounds itself.”

Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray contended the extra $120 has helped with things like creating a branch library and hiring more full-time firefighters.

“We’ve got something to show for it,” she said.

Mowbray voted in favour of the budget, but with reservations, she said. The budget didn’t include extra library hours, which she said residents were calling for. “The public wants more for what their tax dollars are giving them.”

At last week’s budget committee meeting, councillors were presented with a proposed 2.98 per cent tax increase by staff. The committee voted to include an extra $70,000 in the operating budget for transit service enhancements, bringing the tax increase up to 3.24 per cent.

The transit improvements include a high school tripper program that’s catered to afternoon school bell times and higher frequency service levels on prime transit routes.

The committee also supported advancing construction of Louis St. Laurent Boulevard from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 — work that wasn’t slated to get underway until 2011. It added about $6 million to the 2010 capital budget.

Motions to include the transit initiatives and the roadwork were made by Ward 4 councillors Wendy Schau and Paul Scherer respectively.

* * *

Top 5 projects

• Milton Sports Centre expansion — $12.7 million

• Arts and entertainment centre construction — $8.1 million

• Main Street grade separation at railroad tracks — $7.9 million

• Bronte Street reconstruction from Louis St. Laurent Boulevard to Derry Road — $6.4 million

• Louis St. Laurent Boulevard construction from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 — $5.9 million.

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com .

Milton Town Budget Increasing by 3.24%

Mike Cluett

UPDATE 2:58pm…

For the record folks, I love it when people post comments on the blog. It shows there’s an active interest in what I’ve got to say.

Normally I allow any post on here unless its spam.

I know the idea of tax increases isn’t the most popular topic and it usually meets with a more emotional response than let’s say what’s going on at town hall on New Years Eve.

What I won’t post is comments with excessive swearing or nasty personal attacks against anyone. I’ve deleted a few comments already today and will continue to do so. I love free speech but when you get nasty and personal against anyone, the comment goes.

I love constructive comments and keep them coming. Its good debate that will drive good policy in the future.

Thanks everyone! – Mike

Just before midnight last night, Milton Town Council approved the 2010 captial and operating budgets and will bring it to council on December 14th for ratification.

There are normally 2 days set aside for budget deliberations and the first session usually goes into the wee hours of the morning, but as budget chair Brian Penman said “we do our best work before 11pm”

I personally arrived after 9pm to a slightly empty gallery for the public which surprised me.  I know sitting down and discussing capital projects and per centages of development charges isnt the most “exciting” way to spend a Monday night in Milton but judging from what people had told me about this years budget, I thought there would be more people attending.

Wondering aloud last night, I would really like to know what the cost would be to stream these budget and council meetings would be.  The Region of Halton has the ability to stream its meetings and keep an archive as well.  How much do you pay for bandwith right?  Thats another story.

Getting back to the meeting, it seemed that very few had things to say about the contents of the capital budget with the exception of Paul Scherer, councillor for ward 4.  As each division of the town got its say for how much money they requested, Paul had a few things to say about each of them.  The biggest point he wanted to make was to move the project for expansion of Louis St Laurent from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 up from 2011 to 2010.  The few of us in the crowd chuckled with Paul asked “can we afford both”  By both he was talking about the Main Street grading project that for several years now has been put on the back burner and postponed.  These postponments have essentially increased the costs of the project and it needs to be done.  Paul wanted to know if they could do both projects in 2010 instead of Main Street in 2010 and Louis St Laurent in 2011.

The gallery chuckled slightly after looking at a few spreadsheets on her computer,  Linda Leeds, the treasurer calmy replied…”Yes!”  The additional cost?  $5.9 million. 

This cost wouldnt be taken on by the taxpayer as projects like this are funded from development charges that are paid by builders, and not residential rate payers.

Colin Best, regional councilor, brought up some property issues near that intersection and wanted to wait until the town finalized ownership before moving ahead the project.  There were some issues with Lower Base Line bridge a couple of years back where the project was approved but the town didnt own some property, therefore a bridge to nowhere.

In the end, the project will move forward.  This means that residents who live on the west side of town by Bronte Street and Derry will have another outlet out of town instead of just Derry Road.  With the underpass construction also moved up by the Region, it means that these two projects might be going on at the same time, handcuffing local residents.

What got more people involved in the budget discussion was the operating  side of things.  This is the budget that affects us as taxpayers, seeing how these items are funded by the property taxes we pay.

Town Staff had come in with a potential tax increase of 4.9% but were asked to see what can be removed/postponed to get to a “more reasonable” increase of 2.9%

Transit was a hot issue as usual.  Paul Scherer said that he supported the idea of transit but right now its not working properly and questioned the additional expenditures.  Councillors Wendy Schau stated that this type of investment in transit was vital to the growth in Milton.  Especially our young children need to start using transit so “they will get used to it” as they get older.  Councillor Jan Mowbray and Cindy Lunau also joined in with the support of the new routes, fare collection system as well as moving up new route designs for 2010.  In a close vote, it passed and the new routes on the west side of town are a go ahead.  There is also going to be an increase the in fares for a ride from $2.00 per ride to $2.50 and if you get ten ride tickets, it goes from $20 to 22 starting in the new year.

Library was another issue that got the discussion going as potential cuts to staff at the Beaty Branch and reduced hours were on the block for 2010.  Jan Mowbray said it didnt make sense to open a library and then begin to cut the staff right away.  Again, in a close vote the motions to keep the cuts stayed.

Those were the highlights and again, I wasnt there all night and didnt see Linda’s presentation to council of the budget.  In the end the budget has been increased by 3.24% for 2010.

I dont envy the people in this process one bit.  There are some hard decisions that have to be made in order to limit the impact on the taxypayer in Milton.  I found Paul to be the most vocal when it came to asking questions of staff as to why these increases are needed and asked for other members of council to comment as well.

Here is the link to the Town of Milton’s budget page to see the links for 2010, 2009 and other budget documents.

On another point, it was nice to see Melanie Hennessey from the Milton Canadian Champion back in the press box after her time away with her son.  Not that I didnt like Tim (because I do) but its good to see Melanie back!  Look for her report on the budget in the Champion later this week.

Tax Increases Coming for Milton

Mike Cluett

As many of you know, its about this time of year when the Town of Milton council sits down and decides how much money they need to pay for the services they provide. Its also a well known fact that Milton has one of the lower tax rates in the GTA, which is what makes Milton a choice for many people to live.

Last week on December 10th and 11th, the council sat down to hammer out the town staffs proposal for the budget. What came out of it was rather shocking.

After “long deliberations” the council had decided on a 6.6% increase in our taxes for 2008. This means a homeowner with a property value of $ 300,000 will have an increase on their bill of over $45 for residential and roughly $37 for rural.

Keep in mind the rate of inflation is hovering at 2.5% for this year.

Why such a huge increase? In the articles linked below by the Milton Canadian Champion you will see the highlights (or low-lights if you so chose) of the budget deliberations on the 10th and 11th.

The budget initially had an increase of 4 full time firefighters for the Milton Fire Department but Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson made a case for just one more saying “Four says we got the message — five says we care.” A little on the dramatic side and it worked as the changes were approved.

While I am an avid supporter of the fire department, I feel that we have to be prudent in our spending. Things cant change overnight or else taxes will be double digit before long. With this change it added $46,000 to the budget. On the down side, council took out some much needed funds for our new fire chief. While we will now have one more firefighter, the department will be without its new chief until June of next year.

Coupled with the Region increasing taxes by 3.7%, we will now see some big changes on our tax bills in the coming year.

As quoted in the Champion article by Melanie Hennessey “The $27 million in the capital budget will be invested in 96 new projects, including $3.7 million in the new Town Hall, $2.5 million in the new library branch, $2.3 million in a fourth fire station and $1.4 million in a railway underpass on Main Street.”

What was even more upsetting is the lack of interest from Miltonians about the budget and its process. The Town of Milton had a plan in place on a number of occasions for public input on the budget over the past year for what the money should be spent on. During these budget debates on council, there were very few delegations to speak out on it. We all complain about taxes but never really take part in the process that leads up to these decisions.

I personally am NOT against tax increases. I am however in favour of keeping any tax increase in line with the rate of inflation. We have to continue to live within our means With the town growing as it is, it will be hard for this and future councils to make those decisions to keep taxes and spending down. I am also upset at the amount of the increase which is a full 4 per cent over the annual rate of inflation.

At that meeting Councillor Wendy Schau from Ward 4 wanted to add another full 2 per cent onto the budget to put $400,000 towards the town reserves, making the tax increase 8.8%.

Other councillors such as Jan Mowbray and Cindy Lunau, both from Ward 3 supported the increase. Wendy Schau called the full 2% increase “good sense” while Cindy Lunau called it a “wise investment”

Since when does a huge increase in taxes make “good sense?”

Mayor Gord Krantz ran a very efficient meeting of council on the 17th and suggested to councillors that if they feel that these increases are justified or if they wanted further changes to be made, that he would propose to open up budget talks again and silence was his answer. Lots of talk.

This years budget debate brought out the usual “grandstanding” that’s become a norm at this time of year while each councillor stands up and tries to justify why we should pay more money. While some of these major projects are needed to help the town grow, these decisions could have been made at other times saving us untold amounts of money.

Bad decisions in the past breed bad decisions in the future. My only worry is that now we’ve had such a large increase in taxes this year, it will only justify council next year to raise them even higher.

There wont be an election in Milton until 2010 so we should brace ourselves for further increases to come until that time.