What should the next four years in the Municipality of Meaford look like? This is the pinnacle question we should be striving to answer before October 25th.
The issues are complex and the challenges great, but it is certain that the next four years must not and cannot look like any of the previous terms.
To ensure this we need a new energetic and creative Council dedicated not just to the inherited agenda placed before them, but to addressing the symptoms that have in the past blurred our vision and forced us to re-prioritize.
It is fool hardy to promise a magical next four years in Meaford; the road ahead is long, and the tasks are great. What we can strive for is a stellar four years, four years from now.
This is how we can do it, and if elected to Council I will attempt to build consensus regarding how to proceed.
Our finances are first and foremost the issue of greatest importance that need to be improved greatly to be able to open the doors of opportunity to future prosperity. It is hard to justify lowering our taxes immediately in our current state. Given that, the future Meaford Council has no excuses when it comes to insisting on and delivering a balanced budget that maintains or betters our current levels of service. Our services are important because they form a fabric that keeps our community functioning.
Once we have an accurate picture of finances and our house is in order future tax increases should be tied to inflation, and tax rates should be reflective of successful prior balanced budgets.
However, the tax and service philosophy is not the only answer. We need to creatively and pro-actively address how the Municipality functions right down to our foundations. Like I said, there is a lot of work to be done.
We need to improve the internal functioning of the Municipality so that we are no longer a re-active but pro-active organization. In order to do this staff and council need to gain an appreciation and understanding of the full scope of Municipal operations. Council needs accurate information on time.
What I have referred to in my campaign materials and in public meetings as “process mapping” revolves around creating operational diagrams and written procedures, segregation of duties lists and associated internal control points. The Municipality needs these documents for each municipal department function at a level that will open new doors. This activity goes one step further than the Operational Review, of which I support and desire to see implemented.
The Municipality and each department therein needs to have available its procedural processes and controls for reference and review. These documents need to be created and managed in house in order for staff to benefit from the full worth of their value. A public review committee should assist staff in developing these documents.
The value of doing this is that up to date and accurate procedural documents outline a clear segregation of duties between decision makers and implementers, and define where controls are in place and where they need to be improved if there are any deficiencies.
Responsibilities and accountability are outlined and should be maintained around a clearly defined list of internal control points directly attached to procedures. The end product of this process is just as valuable as the process of getting there itself.
The process allows us to critically examine how we do things, it will show us opportunities and deficiencies that we can address, and it will improve our ability to maintain and share pertinent information in a timely manner… It will improve the flow and accuracy of information from staff. Each department will gain a better understanding of the process as a whole that is carried out to achieve municipal functions and it provides a tool which can be used to improve how services are delivered. This is critical to determine where improvements and efficiencies can be made and where additional work can be applied. Organizational procedures are also valuable when determining areas where we can improve spending controls.
As 91% of our budget is derived from residential taxes there is much work to be done on things such as economic development in order to diversify our tax base. By following established procedures and segregation of duties will free up resources that can be dedicated to areas where the Municipality is currently lacking. This is a major necessity in finding time and resources to effectively enforce our by-laws and create and manage new creative revenue streams; these tasks will require effort from existing staff.
Economic development’s fate hinges on our ability to improve how the Municipality functions, what resources are available to enforce by-laws such as property standards, follow through with the Community Improvement Plan, and positively encourage investment. This culminates to support a vision where economic development occurs in the best interests of all of us.
So how is staff going to achieve this? Council needs to improve employee engagement and enrich annual performance reviews so that they include an agreed upon list of targets for each department and each staff member to achieve. These targets must be set with an agreement between staff, department heads and HR in line with the goals of Senior Management and Council to ensure we gain better value for our staff resources. Incentives should also be tied to the successful achievement of performance targets.
The next four years are going to be tough, but the success of the four years after that depends on what we embark upon now. In 4 years I see a Municipality that has achieved sound financial goals, with an engaged and hard working staff committed to providing the highest levels of service to residents and businesses alike, and a Municipality that has new and growing sources of revenue that are not derived from new unplanned tax rate hikes. Most of all I see this done by a community that did not abandon its core beliefs and dreams in order to achieve financial stability.
James McIntosh, Candidate for Meaford Council
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