Snow storm and volunteers

I was going to write a post today about some really good stuff and provide an update on the budget. I'm not going to do that because I want to separate the good from the bad.

The good news; we had a lot of snow on Friday (which obviously wasn't the good news) the good news was the way we reacted to it. The municipal staff did an outstanding job from the plowing of the roads, to handling the shut down of the highway, to the regular updates on the municipal web site everybody should be commended. Public Works, Administration, Protective services, big kudo's to everybody involved.

The other good news we are starting to see volunteers step forward for our various committee's, we are now seeing new people that have never sat on a committee previously taking an interest and a willingness to become involved. There are still some vacancies, if your interested contact the municipal office.

Election 2013 My Platform

Below are some of the issues and positions I will take over the next four years. If there is something I have not addressed that concerns you please contact me. 

Election 2013   Vote for Dean Ward  X

Heading into the final week of the election every candidate should provide the taxpayers the opportunity to see where they stand on the issues important to the community

Below is my platform for 2013-2017 if you have a concern that I have not addressed please contact me at 563-4128 or deanward4@msn.com.

Seniors: I fully understand that seniors are the backbone of this community, the people that worked hard for many years, paid their taxes, raised their families and made this community what it is today.

Recognizing this, a number of years back council passed a motion to put $100,000 a year aside for future upgrades of the York Creek Lodge, this year council choose not to do that, they took that money to balance their books. For the next four years, I will support this important commitment to our seniors. Suddenly the Mayor talks about doing “more” for our seniors at the Mayor’s forum.

Town Rounder: This is a very important service for our seniors, I will commit to supporting, maintaining and if the dollars can be found expanding this service.

Recreation: I understand the importance of recreation, for six years I strongly supported the ski hill, and the creation and implementation of the walking trail program that many of us now enjoy. We must look at enhancing the present recreation programs we have and where possible find and develop new initiatives.   

Taxes: We have been told that our taxes have increased very little over the last few years that sounds good until we find out that an additional $400,000 a year is being taken out of our pockets in the form of Franchise Fees. I will not vote for a tax, franchise fee, or any other municipal tax grab that exceeds the Canadian cost of living.

Franchise Fees

2010-$295,551

2011-$374,288

2012-$569,749

2013-S682,000

Volunteers:  We all know what as happened over the last three year’s, we must stop throwing volunteers out on the street. We must recognize the efforts of all volunteers who build so much of what we have in this community not just the present volunteers  but also the past and the future.   

Respect: We all need to respect each other more, that starts at the top, Mayor, Council and administration must lead by example. The days of calling taxpayer’s names in the municipal newsletter must come to an end.

Labor Relations: A recent study conducted jointly by the Municipality and our CUPE local indicates that morale is at an all time low we are now seeing the worse relationship ever between management and our employees. The new Council should direct the CAO to deal with this issue quickly and effectively, these are the people that provide us with essential services that we all enjoy and need.

Administration: The Crowsnest Pass now as the largest administration it as ever had, this is not sustainable without increasing taxes or cutting programs. The CAO is bringing to the next council an immediate request for an HR administrator this position as not been budgeted for in the 2014 budget. Next council must determine its priorities as far as administration to reduce the costs involved. Yes that means finding the dollars in the present administration budget for the much needed HR person, administration cost will not increase.

Development:  We must determine why developers are not building in the Crowsnest Pass; Council should sit down with developers and builders and get their input as to what the municipality can do to make the Crowsnest Pass a more attractive choice for new development.  

Change: The number one issue that as been raised with me during my election campaign is “Change” the Crowsnest Pass will change, there is no doubt. As long as the vast majority of people feel that they have had “change” rammed down their throat they will not embrace it and become a part of it. Moving forward the public needs to be informed of change, the consequences of change and most importantly are provided the opportunity to be a part of change.   

Choices: We all get to make a choice on Oct 21; I know people will think long and hard about the various candidates. Please remember one thing the provincial government made very clear during the Municipal Inspection that this community will have to live with the choices it makes for the next four years.

Annexation: As been handled terribly, all we have done is upset our neighbors; the Mayor stated at the forum that what upset Ranchlands was that one of the previous two councils from the Pass. Made a threat to dissolve the Pass and force Ranchlands to take us over. Well first of all I sat in several meeting with Ranchlands and I never heard that threat made, second of all that would be such a dumb threat nobody can dissolve the Crowsnest Pass except the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and like wise nobody but that same Minister can force a municipality to absorb another community. The reality is the Mayor and his actions upset our neighbors in typical desperate fashion he is looking for somebody to blame.    

My name is Dean Ward, I am committed to working hard to make the Crowsnest Pass successful and maintain a community that we can all afford to live in.

On Oct 21 Vote for Dean Ward 

Some items to think about before you vote.

• The new Image, we are in the process of spending in excess of $300,000 to put in place the new brand, logo, banners etc.

• The hidden “tax” Franchise Fees have increased from $295,000 in 2010 to almost $700,000 in 2013

• Crowsnest Centre the Mayor announces in his Mayor’s Corner Oct 17,2012 “The new Hotel, Restaurant truck stop complex is a go!”

• June 25,2013 Council is informed that Medican has backed out of the hotel deal

• July 23,2013 Council votes to pay $50,000 to purchase Best Western name for Group Vachon.

• Sept 2013, Workplace Assessment Report  “"While many express that this relationship has, historically, not been "perfect", the theme is that, currently, the relationship is the "worst it has ever been". “The majority of employees indicated they are experiencing significantly high levels of stress in this workplace. Longer term employees stated "morale is lower than they can remember".

• We now have the largest and most expensive administration in our history the Russell Farmer report recommends “The municipality continues to rationalize its operations looking for opportunities to create greater efficiencies and effectiveness not only in operations but in administration as well”

• Russell Farmer identifies crucial areas of concern “High rate of turn over in management particularly the CAO, and the impact of the high rate of turn over on the municipality’s ability to provide effective and efficient service” In the last three years we have had three CAO’s plus seven other changes in various administrative positions the most in any term of council since 1979.

• Russell Farmer crucial area of concern “Communication within the organization and with residents which has resulted in a lack of trust in the community and in the organization”.

• Russell Farmer High Tax Rate; “Crowsnest Pass’s mill rate has increased by 8.3 percent in the past two years which is a significant increase in the mill rate”

• March 6,2012 Thunder in the Valley is deferred for one year

• October 2012, Fire Chief terminated, large numbers of volunteers leave the Fire Department   

• Budget 2013 Council after a significant miscalculation on the assessment base eliminates the $100,000 commitment to the York Creek Lodge to balance the municipal budget. 

Politics resume, do not forget June 30

The emergency is over we fared well for the most part. Some common comments I heard during the flood: Our staff was under manned, thank goodness Pincher Creek send a dozen people down here Thursday night. The communications between the municipal staff and the Fire/Rescue departments at times was very lacking. When the glory gets dished out lets make sure the credit goes to the people on the front lines at 5am in the morning and still there 14 hours later.
I am sure mistakes were made, just as there is every time one of these emergencies takes place, that debate will go on for a while. But for the most part a lot of people worked hard long hours and we did far better than most community's in Southern Alberta.

Reminder: Sunday is June 30 the dateline for taxes (July 1 the office is closed) you will not get any sympathy if you go in July 2 and try to pay them what you will get is an extra 20% tacked on to your bill. For the average home owner in the Pass that could be around $400.


Note: Keep in mind one very important number $4325


    

Spoon fed the truth for Christmass….. Hallelujah

Available on Brian Gallant’s blog in response to Peter Rosners comments it looks like we are getting spoon fed the “truth” for Christmas. Available at the following address:

http://briangallant.ca/wordpress/2012/12/11/municipal-inspection/

I would like to address Councillor Gallants comments, first impression for anybody that did not know better would be that everything is good in our little community:

1. He addresses the volunteer boards issue, looking from the outside I would have the impression that everything with volunteer boards is good. Did it not take six months of advertising to fill all the boards and committee’s if they are indeed filled. Question for my readers does anybody think council would have backed down on the Pool authority prior to the petition, the authority had two letters from administration telling them they were done. Did council not know? Is this one of those cases of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?
2. He appears to place all the blame on the firemen because they walked out. What did he and the rest of council expect? What would happen at the mine if a Union President was fired on the spot. No suspension pending investigation, no external review by an independent agency.   
3. Peace Officers have given almost no tickets for bylaw infractions (10 in the past six months) despite hundreds of complaints. That would lead me to believe that the community has been cleaned up? Very good. They have given a number of tickets to non-residents, so are our Peace Officers treating residents different to non-residents? I can speed on 20^th avenue but not my friend from Sparwood can’t.. This will work well for community branding “Crowsnest Pass Alberta’s best kept secret home of a little piece of paradise and the non-resident speed trap”.   
4. He speaks to Peter’s comments on the Municipal Inspection, still does not get it 2500 taxpayers are not happy, with the exception of the hundreds upon hundreds that were bullied and intimidated to sign.
5. He addresses the “bureaucratic monster” has no substance. So it’s just a figment of everybody’s imagination at this point in time we really don’t have a CAO, Director of Finance and Corporate services, Director of Planning Engineering and Public Works, Director of Community Services and Protective Services, Manager of public works, Fire chief, Deputy Fire Chief, plus advertising for a Manager of Corporate Services. This is not a “bureaucratic monster” but then has councilor Mitchell very proudly stated a year ago, “The public should keep in mind that we now only have three Directors when we used to have four”.
6. Tax increases no increase in 2011 and only 2.5% in 2012, yes Councilor Gallant puts all the blame for tax increases on the Provincial government and the seniors. Check out the mill rate bylaws in 2010 the Municipality collected $6,432,821 from the municipal taxpayers in that year. 2011 with no increase the municipality collected $123,000 more in general taxation than the previous year (0% increase maybe it was all those new houses going up, or our increased home values). In 2012 with just a 2.5% increase the municipality collected another $265,000 in additional general taxation (2.5% increase once again maybe it was all those new houses going up, or our increased home values). Lots of new homes and greatly increased property values I’m sure most home owners that are deciding to sell are doing well. Then lets not forget the additional tax increase (more commonly known as the Franchise Fee). Some will even attempt to argue that this is not a tax, 2010 it sat at $295,000 increased to $570,000 in 2012 and would have gone to $907,000 in 2013 had it not been for the uproar from the public. Instead, it will only jump to $682,000 next year being Christmas I guess we should be thankful that this little tax only jumped 231% in three years instead of the proposed 308%.
7. Thinking about the Tax increases and the Franchise Fees I guess us Taxpayers should be thankful again, that the municipality as decided over the last two years to take less money out of our left pocket and more out of our right pocket.
8. And now I will present the opportunity for anybody to comment on my points or to list for us all the good things that have been achieved.
9. Being the Christmas season every time I drive by the Blairmore shop I get to say hoe, hoe hoe.       

A community divided, the real fix is eleven months away.

My fellow blogger Mr Prince is calling for a town hall meeting, the people that signed the petition are waiting for municipal affairs.

I think this municipality at this point in its short history is deeply divided, unfortunately it is not going to be repaired in the next eleven months. Any one of us can wish for a different out come but realistically it is not coming in the short term. The petition and municipal affairs will run its cause and hopefully something will come of that, if not then people need to be preparing for October 21^st 2013 that will be the communities next real opportunity for “change”.

Why do I feel it’s too late for real change with this council, the issues that have been put in front of the taxpayers over the last two years have been too numerous and two divisive.

Can a town hall meeting fix these issues? I don’t think so, most of the people I speak to could care less about a town hall meeting they have seen them become a platform for our leader to pump his chest, berate anybody that disagrees with him. I was so shocked when I watched a highly educated seventy year old man walk across a room to the sound of a few boos, waving his arms and telling the people to bring it on. (Leadership?)

I sat down last Friday and listened to a veteran administrator tell a reporter the way it is. (Yes it was as bad has it sounds). Communications has not been this council’s downfall in all honesty they have probably done a better job of communicating than any previous council, the problem is not so much communications it is what they have said and done. 

This Council believes in building a Bureaucracy by the time they have restructured they will have gone through more administrators in eighteen months than any other council in our history and have more upper management in place then we have ever seen before. Mean while we have a demoralized workforce that is scared and bullied to the point where a large percentage of them are in fear of their jobs.

This community has no commercial tax base, if we only did what we could pay for three quarters of what happens in this community would not happen. The key for this community is volunteers I came to learn this lesson over the last ten years, are there any volunteers left? Sure there are but not many, with what happened with Thunder in the Valley/Rum Runner Days and the Firemen situation who’s going to step forward. Want more proof of that look at municipal boards despite three months of advertising nine boards are short of members. Why do you think council backpedaled on getting rid of the Swimming Pool Authority two weeks ago? They desperately need to reverse the perception in the public forum as to how volunteers are being treated. What we did not  need is a member of council slamming the public because they didn’t support their way of doing things on the Rum Runner days weekend maybe just maybe the silent majority did not want it to change.  

The public has spoken about how they feel, despite the fact that 2500 people signed a petition in less than three weeks (more than double what is legally required). This council and its members can only focus on the “silent majority still supports us”, “or people were bullied and intimidated into signing”. Tell those people to contact municipal affairs I am sure the powers to be would love an excuse not to deal with this petition. Does it not say that the public has a problem with where you are going?

Look at our tax situation we hear great fanfare about a three year budget that only had annual increases of 2.5%, I didn’t hear anybody from council or administration tell us that Franchise Fees were going to increase more than 300% in three years.

Will the books balance at the end of the year? Of course they will I could spend hours writing about how numbers are shuffled. For example  take a look at Manager of Corporate Services, that position was only filled for three months this year. The other nine months of monies set aside for that position will be used to make the numbers work. My concern is the million dollars a year of administration moving forward how do we pay for that in future years when all the positions are filled year round?

Financial credibility is there any out there, after waiting for three and a half months look at the numbers that were presented for Rum Runner Days, remember the talk about $150-$200,000 not even close.   

Community Peace Officers all those that think these positions are going to pay for themselves raise your hand now. That’s a fallacy that will be proven over time, I can remember the consultant telling council at a G+P meeting that there were 290+ locations in violation of the unsightly premises bylaw how many of them have been cleaned up? Is there a date that they will be cleaned up by? So what happens with the bylaw officers once they are cleaned up?

Promises even though they were followed with a “you can take this with a grain of salt”

CLC gone before first snowfall, sharing Ranchlands tax base, Quebec manufacturer, deal with the hotel developer done in two weeks, two more, thirty days, heavy industry with up to 700 jobs. Politically you can sell hope all you want but sooner than later it has to be realized or you lose creditability.    

I think we have reached the point where the majority (be they loud or silent) do not pay a whole lot of attention anymore to what this council has to say or do. Most people are counting down the time until Oct 21,2013. Will a town hall meeting change that?   

Calling all Volunteers In the Crowsnest Pass

Interesting Notice in the Pass Herald today from the Municipality.

I quote the following:

“Numerous Boards and Committees did not have sufficient applicants and therefore the Municipality is requesting those individuals that were not able to meet previous application deadlines or were unaware of the opportunity to be a part of these Boards and Committees to consider participating”.

They are advertising vacancies on the following boards:

Crowsnest Pass Senior Housing

Family and Community Support Services

Municipal Library Board

Municipal Heritage Board

Subdivision and Development Appeal Board

Culture and Heritage Committee

Sport and Recreation Committee

Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Board

Keep in mind that most of these positions have been advertised for at least the last three months.

Municipal Spending-Ratepayers Petition-Ignoring the Numbers

Well a whole smorgasbord of comments I am hearing this week in the Crowsnest Pass on my blog, around town regarding the ongoing issues in our community. First of all how many people were impressed with the Municipal advertising, I was flabbergasted,  the costs between both papers and the radio I suspect they were in the range of $8-10,000 of our taxpayers money spent on this blitz of information. I was surprised the initial reaction I have gotten from the people that I have spoken to was one of either, did not read it and do not care what it said, or couldn’t understand it.  

What amazed me more than the fact that we had $10,000 of spare money available was the response time of the municipality?

The ratepayer’s flyer hit the paper on Tuesday; I believe the papers go to press by the weekend. So in three days that package was put together approved by Council, (my impression was that it came from council and administration so I’m sure all of that team had their input and at least a majority supported this document).

That timing is incredible when you look at the context of other requests for information personally I requested information on the amount of dollars spent on Consultants it took me three months to get that information. The ratepayers requested a lot of the information that was released this week back on August 2, did not receive it until October 9. The one the public is waiting for the Rum Runner Days financial report, the event took place on the weekend of July 19, now everybody understands that it takes a few weeks for the bills to roll in and sort everything out. So I do not think anybody would have been bothered having to wait until the end of August. But folks it’s now not being released until Nov 6, and what’s made it look even worse is, its been on the Council agenda three times and three times its been deferred. Everybody understands the sensitivity of this issue so why would you do that?

The Petition last night it was announced at the Ratepayers meeting that they have close to 2100 signatures on the petition, with 30 plus people out in the community still signing names. It is not unrealistic to think that the final number could be in the range of 2500. Now keep in mind tonight Oct 25 will be two weeks since the petition started, we have a population of 5565 (2011 census) of which 855 are under the age of 18. So that means out of a potential 4710 voters 45% have signed a petition in “two weeks”, municipal, provincial even federal, elections are lucky if they get that kind of turnout after a two-month election campaign, with polling stations in place.

The message here should be not “that people are getting led down the garden path with mis-information” that argument could be made about every candidate that has run in every election campaign in the history of politics. The message that should be coming out of this process unless you have totally lost touch with the public is that something is seriously wrong here, unless of course the leadership here just chooses to totally ignore the numbers.

Yes, we all understand that the public voted for change in 2010, and change does need to and will happen. Look at what as transpired over the last little while, not just the petition, volunteers do we have any left, in yesterday’s paper there was at least eight boards listed that are short of members despite being advertised for months. The issue with the Firemen is there one person out there that felt that was handled well. The swimming pool society, the Bellevue Library.  Obviously, the public is not buying into what has been happening in our community.

    

Don't blame the volunteers Cherish them.

Over the last few years we have all read numerous articles or heard comments about the decline in the number of people willing to step forward and volunteer their time for community events and organizations.
The reasons why are numerous and could be debated all day long.
One thing I don't like is some of the comments made about volunteers with the Rum Runner Days weekend event coming up.
Which ever side of the debate you sit on regarding the cancellation of the Thunder in the Valley don't blame the volunteers, blame the politicians, blame the administrators. Those are all people that stand for office and know that pissing people off comes with the territory, the administrators get paid big dollars to handle the crap that comes with their job.
But volunteers they don't get to make the decisions, they don't get paid to handle the crap. Maybe if we all cherished our volunteers a little more we would have more people willing to help this community.

So save your anger, your displeasure for the decision makers not the volunteers.

Where have all the Volunteers Gone?

Further to the discussion on the issue of volunteers check out the following:

http://www.sasha-yourvoiceoncouncil.com/blog/2012/04/10/Feeling-Pushed-Out.aspx

Where have all the Volunteers Gone?

I think the editorial in this weeks Crowsnest Pass Promoter says it all.

http://www.crowsnestpasspromoter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3506785

Very well written.

Crowsnest Museum

Sad day in the Crowsnest Pass today, just read the Crowsnest Promoter headline article the Crowsnest Museum is closing due to financial difficulties.
This is a reflection of the difficulties faced in the Crowsnest Pass not just by this group but many  groups.
I had the pleasure of sitting on the board that ran the Museum for three years, its a great place and it is indeed an important piece of the history and culture of this community.
If memory serves me right it cost about a $120,000 a year to run the museum with roughly 20% of its revenue coming from the Municipality, 40% from various grants, 10% from admissions and sales of goods then the rest from fund raising. The problem in my mind, volunteer fatigue the group of volunteers in this community is getting smaller and older. The volunteers that came  back year after year worked hard made  some money here and there and gave so much of their time deserve a great thanks from this community.
When I hear of the group that is attempting to raise money to build and operate a Indoor facility I wish them well the museum required basically $50,000 a year of fundraising to keep it alive. Its tough people, will come together when you have a major disaster, they will step up to the plate for a few years when something is new and everybody is full of enthusiasm. I strongly believe the only way in the long run you will keep any facility like the museum going is if you can find a benefactor (Big company) or get a greater willingness of the taxpayers to foot a larger portion of the bill. (If you really want it be willing to pay for it)  
I personally will always congratulate and applaud volunteers because without them communities would not have a lot of the stuff we have. I tip my hat to anybody that ever did anything to support the Crowsnest Museum, it is indeed a sad day. 

Fire Departments create much debate in the Crowsnest Pass

Since the announcement in late September there as been a tremendous amount of debate about the changes within the fire departments in the Crowsnest pass.

First of all I feel not enough as been shared with the community, for years here there has been much discussion over the need for four fire departments. Were they all necessary could we get by with three, two, one who knows.

The arguments in favour of four departments given to me were due to the size of the community, and the fact that a lot of volunteers work shift work at the mines it was necessary to have the coverage we do.

The arguments against four departments were the cost of both operating them and the capital costs four fire trucks etc etc.

The two issues that I have heard come up again and again in the last three weeks are the issues of costs and volunteer coverage.

First of all costs, even from the people who felt that we did not need four fire halls, the question as been asked over and over again how does this plan save money. In my time on council the cost of running four fire departments was around $350,000 a year with each department costing anywhere from $75-100,000.
So the question being asked of me is where will the municipality save any money even if you close one, two fire halls. By hiring a full time fire chief, an assistant fire chief, increasing the honorariums and paying an higher rate of pay, this change will increase costs.

The second issue that keeps getting raised is the issue of coverage the new plan calls for ten people to be on call in the community night and day 365 days per year. Is that possible  using only volunteers most of whom work a shift schedule. With eighty firemen maybe, how long is that number going to stay at eighty? Acting CAO Robins stated in the Promoter a couple of issues back that they fully expect that number to drop over time, he also stated that this community has about three times the number of firemen for a community of our size. 

We have not heard the last of this issue, time will tell both how the new structure works and how cost effective it is. I truly hope the community doesn't receive a lessor service by creating a larger bureaucracy.

This is truly a decisive issue look at the polls on this blog 39% of the voters approve the restructuring 60% don't. The Promoter is at an even higher number opposed 67% and the Herald is pretty well spilt at 50/50.