HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-01-13, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2011.
With five of seven members of
Morris-Turnberry council never
having served on council before,
new councillors have been learning
a lot early in their new term.
“So much for cutting back on (the
number of) meetings,” said Deputy
Mayor Jason Breckenridge looking
wryly around at some of his new
colleagues after a session schedul-
ing upcoming meetings, during the
Jan. 6 meeting of council.
Councillors had been trying to
schedule additional meetings in
February and March for budget
deliberations as well as their regular
twice-monthly council meetings. As
well, there are two additional meet-
ings in January for councillor train-
ing.
Councillors also altered their
thinking after an earlier discussion
on attending conferences.
Nancy Michie, administrator
clerk-treasurer, explained that coun-
cil policy is that each councillor can
attend one conference a year with all
expenses paid. Given that, several
councillors expressed the view that
it would be best if only one or two
councillors attended each confer-
ence, then reported back.
That perception changed after
comments by Mayor Paul Gowing
and Councillor Neil Warwick, the
only two councillors with previous
experience.
Warwick said he felt that there
were so many sessions to take in at
the combined Ontario Good Road
Association (OGRA) and Rural
Ontario Municipal Association
(ROMA) conference coming up in
Toronto at the end of February, that
a lot of information would be
missed if only a couple of council-
lors went. He felt OGRA was the
most valuable conference council-
lors could attend.
“Don’t be afraid to go,” he told
councillors who might be worried
about the perception of too many
councillors attending the meeting.
“I’ll defend you.”
Gowing said it was a young coun-
cil that had a lot of information to
learn to be able to do its job well.
Michie noted that some munici-
palities pay for councillors to attend
both the OGRA/ROMA conference
and the Association of
Municipalities of Ontario (AMO)
conference which will be in London
in August, because they want their
councillors to be on top of issues.
She explained to councillors that the
ROMA conference is more rural
related while AMO includes cities
as well as rural municipalities.
After this discussion Councillor
David Baker, who had earlier passed
on a chance to attend the
OGRA/ROMA conference said he’d
like to attend “as long as we’re not
wasting taxpayers’ money.”
Gowing assured him otherwise,
saying that early in his term he’d
been too busy to attend but after he
went to a couple of the conferences,
“I wished I had attended earlier.”
Other councillors said they’d like
to think over the possibility of
attending and let Michie know at the
Jan. 11 training session if they
would attend.
New M-Tcouncilshownthe ropes
Employee Milestones
On Friday, December 3, 2010 MDL Doors
held their 26th Annual Christmas Party
at the Brussels Arena.
MDL values all of their employees and specifically recognizes those
who have reached years of service milestones
at 5, 10, 20 and 25 years of service.
The following employees were recognized at their banquet for their
dedicated service to MDL Doors:
5 Years of Service
Pictured left to right: Chris Sebastian, Trish Scott,
Mary Knechtel, Chris Cooper, Fred deBoer and
Elaine Campbell. Absent from the photo were:
John Gregory, Craig Carver, Peter Hallman and
Don Evans.
10 Years of Service
Pictured left to right: Amy Thomas and Leah
Jenkins. Absent from the photo were: Bev
Broughton, Janet Engel, Stu Holloway and Brad
Montgomery.
20 Years of Service
Doug McLellan (pictured above on left) was hon-
oured for his 20 years of dedicated service.
25 Years of Service
Carmen Bernard (pictured above on left) was hon-
oured for his 25 years of dedicated service.
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen