Thursday, October 11, 2012

Change in the Crowsnest Pass



I sat on council for six years during that time I learnt that this town has a lot of problems, declining and ageing population, lack of industry and development, duplication of services and facilities that most taxpayers can not afford to support.

Do we need change? Absolutely, change that involves attracting people here, bringing development and industry, looking at where our community could be ran more efficiently. Knowing all of these issues our local government needs to be ran as if it’s on a tight budget, because it should be.

Let’s talk about the change we can not and do not want, over spending the municipality will next year in the final year of this council’s term, take in $1.4 million more dollars out of  the taxpayers pockets than it did in 2010 that’s $400 per home.

They are building an empire that we can not afford, look at the number of staff in the municipal office do we really need more administration.

Municipal peace officers do we want two peace officers? Was that a good change? they wrote 2 bylaw tickets in the month of September, they are being looked at has a cash cow not a tool to clean up our community.

Once again we have consultants in our community talking about “branding” what was so wrong with “Mountain Freedom”? Thunder in the Valley brought this community way more attention than any new brand will. We all know there were problems go talk to the RCMP get the stats for the number of arrests over the last five years, we saw a tremendous decline the event was being ran better every year.

Fire Departments, we spent $300,000 in 2010 operating the Fire Departments how many full time Firemen are we going to get for that figure? Could Fire departments be ran better? Of course every branch of government could be run better, we have to find ways to operate our community on the present dollars not more.

It’s really hard to convince taxpayers of this when you see almost $300,000 spent on a piece of equipment that spends 98% of it’s time sitting in the back of the Blairmore Shop, all the new pickups running around and consultant after consultant.

The termination of a municipal employee should that have happened? We do not know all the details.
Personally, I have no problem terminating an employee with just cause, but there must be a fair process, if you believe you have grounds to terminate an employee you suspend them. You do a complete investigation then you let them go (it’s called due process) you don’t terminate them. Then seek the justification by releasing a press release every second day with a new revelation.

This situation with better communication and due process would have been handled so much better.
Back to the start do we need change? We all know the answer, of course, but I am having a tough time thinking of a good, positive change in the last two years. We need change that involves the people of the Crowsnest Pass.

And for those that disagree with me step up to the plate and point out the positive changes for us all to read.  

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I have no problem terminating an employee with just cause"

The cause should be something that happens while the employee is on PAID duty.

Anonymous said...

Do we need change? Heck YES!
Do we need change for the sake of change? Heck NO!!
What we need is for our seniors & (Yes, ourselves too) to be able to enjoy a quality of life without sacrificing that quality just to pay the taxes.
We need to have small, medium or any business to be able to thrive in the Pass without ever-increasing fees, taxes & what-ever other money gouging tactics the council comes up with.
We need anyone who takes pride in this community, who sacrifices their time, money & uses their skills to benefit the Pass to be able to continue to do so.
We need to have a council who does NOT have an irrational desire to drag us kicking & screaming into the 21st century regardless of the pain & suffering it causes.
Our beliefs may have been old-school, our training some-what out of date, our community infrastructure sadly in need of repair BUT we had a quality of life in an area second to none & we were happy in our little neck of the woods.
Modernistic do-gooder, interfering, holier-than-thou, sanctimonious jerks, leave us to heck alone!!!

Anonymous said...

9 57

Good point now we are back to the definition of volunteers versus paId employees. who opened this can of worms?

Sasha JaegerBaird said...

Here is the link to the meeting in full:

http://www.sasha-yourvoiceoncouncil.com/blog/2012/10/12/Report-on-CNP-RatePayers-Open-Public-Meeting-Hillcrest-Miners-Club-Thursday-October-11-2012-.aspx

Anonymous said...

So is the municipality taking over Sinister 7 and Full Moon Adventures as well? Wonder if they will be as eager to dismiss those volunteers and replace with paid staff? Seems fair to me.

Anonymous said...

Didn't they change a lot of policies and bylaws. Would that be a positive?

Jack

Anonymous said...

Jack, that would be a positive. However they are not enforcing these bylaws as the peace officers have only written 2 tickets in this area. There are over 280 complaints on file.
I think they are to busy writing speeding tickets than to do the job that was intended for them.But, they must pay for themselves.

Anonymous said...

55 Bylaw complaints in September....53 closed off and 2 tickets issued.

That means 53 people were educated and given the chance to comply, which they did, before a ticket was given. Actually seems quite reasonable.

No doubt, the speeding tickets are what make it a break even proposition....but most of them are handed out to rich Calgary fools. Haha.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:10 Sounds good. Where did you get these numbers from.
Have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

Well said Dean

Anonymous said...

Jack 12:27 said...
"Didn't they change a lot of policies and bylaws. Would that be a positive?"

If it was well done, but most of them are badly written with grammatical and logical errors ("and" where they should say "or", etc.) and other issues.

I noticed a particularly scary one (happy Halloween):

The MGA includes:
"Protection of councillors and municipal officers
535(2) Councillors, council committee members, municipal officers and volunteer workers are not liable for loss or damage caused by anything said or done or omitted to be done in good faith in the performance or intended performance of their functions, duties or powers under this Act or any other enactment."


but in the "DRAFT" Economic Development & Tourism Advisor Committee TofR (Linked from CNP main page) these geniuses have tossed in the words:

"9. Indemnification
The Committee hereby agrees that every member and officer of the Committee shall be deemed to have assumed office with the understanding that every member of the Committee their heirs, executors and administrators and estate and effects of every member or employees respectively shall from time to time and at all time, be indemnified and saved harmless out of the funds of the institution from and against:

All costs, charges, and expenses whatsoever sustained or incurred by every member and officer of the Committee and employee of the organization in or about any action, suit or proceeding which is brought commenced or prosecuted against such a member or employee for or in respect of any act, deed, matter or thing whatsoever, made, done or permitted by that member and officer of the Committee or officer and employee of the organization, in or about the execution of duties performed by that individual as a member or officer of the Committee or as an employee of the organization.

All other costs, charges and expenses sustained or incurred in or about or in relation to the affairs thereof: except such costs, charges or expense, as are occasioned by a member and officer of the Committee or employee of the organization by his or her own willful neglect or default."


They copied from somewhere - they forgot to change "institution" to "Municipality".

By inserting these words they are exposing the municipality to liability. Why take this risk? And why would an "Advisory Board" need this extra protection?

peter rosner said...

But a few days later Muriel,reading over the seven commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them that the animals remembered wrong. They had thought that fifth commandment was "No animal shall drink alcohol" but there were two words they had forgotten. Actually the commandment read "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess"---- Ah Napoleon at his best--- Page73 Animal Farm

Anonymous said...

Anon Oct 11, 10:25

I don't think it's that complicated.

Many non-profit organisations have people who do unpaid volunteer work, but also do some hours of paid work, where they are treated as employees.

Anonymous said...

"declining and ageing population"

Hey, I may be ageing but I ain't declining. And please don't replace "declining" with "shrinking".

:>)