milton town hall report

Well That Was Interesting

Mike Cluett

Last nights council meeting had it all.  Expectations were running high by some members of council that it could either be a very short meeting or a very long meeting.

I had reported before that council salaries would be discussed at this meeting but apparently it went through on consent items and didn’t even make a blip on the radar.

Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau had a notice of motion to include a quick presentation by Halton Healthcare Services to Milton Town Council to give them an update on Milton District Hospital and its possible expansion.

John Oliver from Halton Healthcare made a presentation outlining the fact that expansion of the Milton DH is essential and must happen.  The provincial government has put a freeze on capital projects and will be reviewing them for the 2011 budget.  He made it very clear that Milton needs to be on the radar and get approval fast.  Even if they were given the green light today, it would be at least 2-5 years before anything will happen.

Regional Councillor Colin Best was frustrated with the process, as all councillors are, and with the fact the provincial government KNOWS Milton is growing but is doing nothing to help out.  We are being mandated to grow our population and size but yet have a hospital that is well under the required size for our community.  Mayor Krantz also shared in that frustration as well.

Mr. Oliver also outlined his pleasure with the community as a whole that came out as a result of the Friends of Milton Hospital campaign when over 35,000 people signed a petition to raise awareness with the provincial government that we need something done and soon.

He said that more work is needed and the community and council need to get behind this full force.

Councillor Lunau also put forward a notice of motion for staff to review possible ways for Milton Town Council to fund expansion, as if it were to happen, the local level of government would be required to put money forward.  Council’s idea is to start saving soon for that eventuality.

The problem council faces is where do you start?  And how much do we save for?  John Oliver couldn’t give us a number, although pressed by Councillor Paul Scherer a few times, as legally he could not give a number.  Council was advised to review other area municipalities and what their costs were as a starting point.

These possible funding options include, but are not limited to:

Increase of Development Charges; Special Tax Levy on Milton taxpayers to go to a dedicated hospital expansion fund only to be used for that purpose; Combination of the two.  Another possibility is using the GTA funding poll that has been collected from Milton taxpayers to support Toronto (don’t get us started on that) and now is no longer needed as another source of funding.

Needless to say, this will be something that will require community support like we havent seen before.  Last year, 35,000 people came to the table and to go forward we will need more!

There were some other discussions last night about parking on Queen Street, which is not allowed.  Councillor Greg Nelson failed in his attempt to put forward a motion to reopen the discussion to allow parking on either one side or both.  But after a very convincing presentation by the Milton Fire Chief, which included pictures of the street with one emergency vehicle and how it would impede traffic and cause a safety issue, it was voted down and parking on Queen Street will not be allowed.

And of course, the highly anticipated motion from Ward One Councillor Rick Day was ruled out of order.  Im not going to get into it here, but if you wanted to read what he was going to talk about, here is a link to his proposed notice of motion.

I also experimented with live Tweets from the council meeting last night.  Judging from some of your emails and comments to those posts, it was pretty successful.  I will try for future meetings to post updates via Twitter, which of course you can keep track by going to www.twitter.com/mike_cluettor follow here on the home of the Mike Cluett.

As always I welcome your emails and comments so keep them coming.  Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Council Salaries To Be Discussed At Monday’s Meeting

Mike Cluett

From the Milton Canadian Champion

Kim Arnott, SPECIAL TO THE CHAMPION  

Councillors to consider pay raise

A pay hike for local politicians is likely to be a hot topic of discussion at next week’s council meeting.

On Monday night, the Town’s administration and planning committee voted to recommend a 2 per cent pay raise for non-unionized staff employed by the Town.

However, the committee recommended that councillors not receive the same raise.  Salaries for Milton’s non-unionized staff are reviewed annually, and compared to those paid in seven nearby municipalities.  According to a staff report, non-unionized employees working for area municipalities have seen an average 2.39 per cent wage increase this year.  The report recommended a 2 per cent increase for Milton staff, effective July 1. It also recommended that councillors receive the same raise.

Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson moved to eliminate the council increase, saying he was uncomfortable with voting himself a third pay raise for this term of council.  Councillors and non-unionized staff received raises of 3 per cent in 2008 and 2.5 per cent in 2009.  However, Town of Milton CAO Mario Belvedere said the aim of reviewing the salaries annually is to ensure they don’t fall behind as inflation and growth occur.  “What you see before you is the policy we’ve been following for years,” he told the committee, noting that staff and council raises have been linked for about seven years.

Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau isn’t a member of the administration and planning committee, so she didn’t have a vote.  However, she said she favours providing the pay raise to both staff and councillors.  “I wouldn’t want a good candidate for council to be discouraged by an inadequate remuneration,” she said.

Local resident Mike Grimwood, the only delegation speaking to the matter, argued that Town staff should receive raises based on individual excellence and initiative, not simply as an across-the-board bonus “just for showing up.”  Noting that 2 per cent is above the rate of inflation for the year, he said, “Milton taxpayers’ pocketbooks seem to be depleted on a regular basis for the sole reason that others are doing it. This is ludicrous.”

The provincial government recently imposed a two-year freeze on the salaries and benefits of all non-unionized employees in the Ontario public service, including school board, hospital and provincial government workers. That included extending the current salary freeze for MPPs from one year to three years. Regional politicians also voted to freeze their salaries for the year, at a meeting in December.

The pay increase would only be applied to employees not represented by bargaining groups. Raises of 2.5 to 3 per cent have already been approved for the Town’s unionized employees, including Milton firefighters.  The cost of a 2 per cent increase for non-unionized staff was included in the approved 2010 budget.

The issue will be considered by the full council at a meeting Monday.

Enumeration Forms Have Been Mailed

Mike Cluett

Just as a reminder to everyone, if you havent already received them, the MPAC Enumeration Forms have been sent out to homes in Milton.  Some may not receive this form as they are sending it out to people who’s information might be outdated or incomplete from the last time.

This is the form thats used to help update the voters list for the upcoming municipal election on October 25, 2010. 

When you receive the form, you are supposed to verify that all the information is correct such as address, occupancy status and what school board you will be voting for (english / french – public or seperate).  If everything is correct, sign the form and return it to MPAC by June 1, 2010.  If there is any incorrect information, make the changes and send it back to them as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, or if you havent received this form, call MPAC at 1-866-296-MPAC (6722)

Dont miss out on your chance to vote on October 25, 2010!  Have your say!

I’ll see you at the doors.

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.

A Step in the Right Direction

Mike Cluett

The rain came down last night but that didnt damper the spirits of over 10 people who attended a town hall-style meeting at the Milton Sports Centre put on by Regional Councilor Colin Best on the upcoming budgets for Halton and Milton.

There were lots of questions given to Colin regarding different items on the budget including the increased investment in transit for new buses, plans for new routes and improvements to service.  The Arts and Entertainment centre / Public Library was also discussed with the added investments from both the provincial and federal levels of government…stimulus funding.

In order to get these projects funded, they have to be shovel ready and be completed by March 2011.  Plans are also underway with that extra funding for enhancements to Tonelli area as well as the Nassagawaya Tennis Club.

Other items on the docket were the Region of Halton’s proposal for a 0% increase to the 2010 budgets and how they can do it.  It seems great that 0% is being discussed but when you look at the economy the way it is now, and how slow our recovery might be in the coming years does that mean 0% in 2010 and a higher increase in 2011?

This was the first time Colin held a meeting like this so we really didnt know what to expect but it was great to see new faces of people who are genuinely interested in the direction the town and the region is going with funding of certain projects.

I’ve always said that these types of meetings are vital to ensuring a higher level of communication between the tax payer and government.  Now you might say only 10 people showed up but thats a start.  Its been said that some councillors have tried to have these meetings and it hasnt worked out.  This isnt something that you “try” to do, its something that you MUST do.

The days of quarterly newsletters to the public are over.  If in fact they ever existed here in Milton (I’ve never received anything other than the Town of Milton newsletter) that way of doing things isnt being as effective as it once was.

You would have to be living under a rock the last few years to see the impact of “social networking” on our lives as there are not many people I know that arent participating at some level with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter just to name a few.  As you can see by the right hand column, I am one of those and you can contact me here, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter as well.  This is something that public officials need to get a grasp on in order to communicate with voters.

Some councillors have/had websites during their campaigns but most havent updated it since then, or its for information purposes only.  Colin Best has a site with his contact information and some links to current issues we’re facing.  Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray has a pretty active site that is updated with current information on whats going on in the area, town council and local events.  A quick search on Google shows there is only a few councillors who have websites.  Ward 3 Councillor Cindy Lunau has one…but it hasnt been updated since Oct 2006 as well as regional councillor Barry Lee, Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau among others.  Some councillors did have sites but are now gone. 

These tools are not just election tools and have to be used all the time.

Dont get me wrong…thats not the only solution though.  Call me old school, but I still feel elected officials need to get out there and continue to knock on doors in between elections.  It makes a difference as it shows you are accessible and not just waiting until the next time a vote comes along to meet with people one on one.

Ive spoken with other councillors past and present and some have come to the same conclusion as town halls…”I tried and it didnt work.”  Again, it’s not something that you think about doing or try a couple of times.  It has to become a habit.  I know of many federal and provincial elected officials, despite having high-profile ministries to run, still took the time to hit the doors and meet with people to get feedback and it was met with positive results.

Thinking back to the last municipal campaign, the common theme of many of my conversations with people was that they didnt know who their councillor was or the fact they’ve never heard from them after the election.  With dwindling voter turnout over the last several years…at all levels…something has to change in order to get people more motivated and into local politics.

The by-election in Ward 2 in 2007 garnered only 20% voter turnout.  The results were similar here in Ward one in 2006 with roughly 26% of people coming out to vote.  It’s this level of government that impacts us the most directly and we dont take advantage of that ability.  You can pick up the phone and call your councillor and reach them directly (seeing how they dont have any staff) and ask a question, yet many people dont take advantage of it.

Communication is a two-way street.  There has to be an effort on both sides of the equation in order to get the flow of information and have people involved.  It is imperative that our councillors, both at the region and the town, do a better job of getting in front of voters.  Conversely it’s also just as important for voters…you and I… to want to get involved and find out whats going on.  Too many times we find out about tax increases or new fees by reading the local paper or hearing it from a neighbour. 

So while only 10 people showed up at this meeting, I would call it a success and a definite step in the right direction.  I hope that other councillors would start doing the same thing and stick with it.  Thanks again to Colin for taking the time and the effort in helping educate voters on these complicated budget matters and hopefully we are going to see a trend starting…not just during the next year (election year) but beyond.

There IS an election coming next year and its a great question to ask anyone who comes to your door asking for your support and vote…how are you going to communicate with me?  Another question to ask is how can I help you communicate better with me?

A familiar story about Milton Taxes

Mike Cluett

Who says going on vacation reduces stress?  My family just came back from a wonderful trip to Newfoundland.  The weather was amazing with the sun shining down on us more often than the clouds with a cool breeze coming in off the Atlantic Ocean.  It was Anthony’s fourth trip out to the island and Miranda’s first.  Like a trooper, she handled the flight to and from perfectly and both Pat and I were amazed.  The vacation was well overdue and included an encounter with a Minke whale…up close while fishing.  It’s something that Anthony and I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

I’ve posted a few pictures of our trip on Facebook so click on, and request an add if you’re not already a friend.

While on vacation, I did take some time to go online to the Milton Canadian Champion and read up what was going on in our beloved town.  Unfortunately some stories didn’t surprise me.  And it has to do with taxes.

As I’ve discussed many times on this blog, council had decided to go the route of spending and taxing like no other municipality in the last few years.  Sure we are under the pressures of growth and we need funds to pay for things like infrastructure to keep us moving.  Ever since this new council has been elected, we as taxpayers have been subjected to year after year of tax increases.

2010 and 2011 are looking to be the same.

In this article published in the Champion July 31st, they discuss the proposed tax increase for Milton taxpayers in the range of 7.5% to 9.5%.  This means another increase of roughly $40 per household over $300,000.  It’s the same old story played out again and again and again with the same result.  Silence.

The argument you end up getting from council is that “its only $30 or $40”   My response is that if it’s only $30 or $40, then work at finding the savings somewhere.

The last council was elected in 2006 and from that point on taxes have gone up at an alarming rate.  2007 budget increased by 3.0%…2008 budget increase was 2.5%…2009 budget increase was 4.5%.  And now the town staff is recommending a 7.5% increase?

Many of you know that council has received 3 pay increases since taking office in 2007.  Salary for the local council position was approximately $21.000 in 2006 and they are now $28,000.  Benefits have increased and the costs of paying our local officials have increased as well.

As outlined in the article, the main reason for the increase is…salaries and benefits.

“Part of the forecasted increase for the next two years is due to the estimated $1.5 million in extra salary and benefits for existing employees, along with an estimated half million dollars for new employees, according to the 2009 budget documents.

The Town recently bargained three three-year agreements with unionized staff. The 29 unionized staff of the Town’s fire department will receive annual 3 per cent pay hikes this year and the next two years.”

The main reason for the increase is salaries and benefits.  There’s another city out there that is having severe financial issues due to problems with salaries and benefits…the City of Toronto.

I’m not sounding the alarm bells yet with Milton, don’t get me wrong.  We are not at that stage yet…far from it.  But if we don’t get a handle on the town purse soon, there will be issues.

Town Council has spent a lot of money in the last few years which includes a wasted investment of over $3 million dollars in Milton Transit.  Just imagine if they had been smarter and not spent that money.  If $ 1.5 million in increased salaries and benefits represents a majority of this tax increase, what could have $3 million dollars done?  We wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Council’s priorities are off.  They are not looking at the future impact of their decisions and if this lack of focus continues, we are going to be having more conversations like this in the future. 

Tax increases can be justified and most people grin and bear it.  Most people don’t have a problem with it if that increase makes sense.  The last 4 years of increases can’t be justified.  They simply haven’t been smart with their spending and don’t show any signs of improvement.

It’s just another $30 or $40.  Justify it then.