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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-12-07, Page 1• Deb h ei felt wants utilit BY JEFF SEDDON Former Goderich mayor Deb Shewfelt wants town council to take a hard look at the Goderich Public Utilities to investigate what he terms "serious" breaching of the Public Utilities Act. In a letter to council Shewfelt said the commission failed to notify him, as an ex officio member of the commission, of a special meeting November 30 the commission called to discuss employee wages. Shewfelt said the utility failed to notify himzeff meetings of the PUC from November 17 fto November 30 in- clusive and withheld minutes of meetings from him during that period. Shewfelt complained that the special meeting, called to discuss PUC wages and the proceeds of funds from the sale of a PUC house, was held without his notification and that on November 30 PUC manager Al Lawson demanded that proceeds from the sale of the house be turned over to the commission con- trary to,a section of the Public Utilities Act. The house, which is located at the corner of Waterloo and St. Patrick Streets, abuts the PUC garage and -was owned by the utility and used as the manager's house. Former PUC manager Dave Rolston lived in the house prior to his retirement and his replacement, Lawson, does not. The utility had no need for the home and wanted to sell it. The house was bought to permit the utility to expand its garage making use of part of the lot the house sits on. The lot size was reduced by that expansion and is now too small to permit a home to be located on it. The utility would have had to get provincial relief from the town's zoning bylaw to sell the house and to avoid that conveyed title of the property to the town for the corporation to sell. The town is not subject to its own laws and was able to sell the land. When the town sold the property it passed a bylaw which put the $35,000 sale money in trust to be used against any debentures the utility had for capital costs. The PUC plans to build a hydro substation and will be asking the town to float a debenture to finance the project in 1979. When PUC manager Al Lawson learned of the town's plan to keep the money in trust rather than turn it over to the utility he com- plained bitterly to town clerk Larry McCabe. Lawson said he was unaware of the legalities for handling funds from the sale and had planned to put the money in the general account to offset about $60,000 in expenses the utility faced this year. He admitted he was angry with McCabe but said that when he discovered the intentions of town council he cooled down and astkually thanked McCabe for what he had done fhe utility. Under the Public Utilities Act any proceeds from the sale of utility owned property must be first used against debentures outstanding or planned. The act states that the town controls the funds and is not obligated to turn the funds over tocthe utility if no debentures exist. The bottom line is that the town was under no obligation to give the money to the PUC and was actually doing the utility a favor by putting it in trust for the substation expenditure. Lawson said-Shewfelt wasn't invited to the PUC meeting of November 30 but added that the meeting was not called to discuss proceeds of the sale of the house. He said the meeting was called to allow the commission to review a wage proposal received from utility employees and that the sale of the house was discussed in an unofficial manner by commissioners. He said he had prepared a brief for the commission outlining why .the ex officio member had not been invited and once the commission had dealt with it he would explain why. One commission member indicated that the fact that Shewfelt was leaving the commission because of his defeat in the recent election was �1 the main reason. He said the wage package presented td the commission by its employees was a matter for the 1979 commission and Shewfelt was not a member of that commission and was overlooked. Shewfelt does not buy that reasoning. He said he was "removed from the mailing list" and that somebody ,had better be prepared to say why. He said the wages were "money matters" that "affected the town of Goderich" and as a member of the commission he should have been • invited. He said if that .theory was one the commission felt was valid it could have in- formed him : of the meeting and asked with a motion that he not participate. "Some might think this is small potatoes but I don't," said the former mayor. "Someone issued that order." i -Ie said to his knowledge this type of thing has Ynever been done" in Goderich. He said he is not aware of any instance where an elected or appointed individual in Goderich had in- formation withheld. PUC chairman Harry Worsell said he had no comment on the matter. He said he understood that Shewfelt had taken the matter to lawyers. and because of that he refused to comment. Council will deal with the investigation request at its December 18 meeting. Drinkers can rid or free BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Drinking and driving don't mix , - even on special occasions like New Year's Eve. That is why some area business people have rallied round once again this year to sponsor FREE TAXI SERVICE on New Year's EVe from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. within the town's limits. Users can call the taxi companies directly on New Year's Eve (the earlier the better), to book vehicles. Bluewater Taxi's number is 524- 7305 and Goderich Taxi's number is 524-5694. Many people took advantage of the free taxi service offered last New Year's Eve and organizers hope the free service will become an annual undertaking. Organizers for the service this year are Bruce Betties of Bluewater Taxi and Heather Lyons. They may be contacted if further in- formation is needed. If you plan to drink on New Year's Eve, please plan to leave your vehicle home, if at all possible. It's better to be safe than sorry! thederich y SIGNAL -STAR YEAR 131-49 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7,1978 35 CENTS PER COPY County gives supervisory staff hefty raise BY JEFF SEDDON Catch up wage increases given Huron County supervisory staff at Thursday's county council Town expects best. . .nothii best...nothinx more BY SHIRLEY J. KELLER The inaugural meeting of the 1979-80 Goderich Town Council took place Monday evening in town hall with the Rev. Ralph King admonishing council to do its very best. "If you consider the needs, the finances, the alternatives and the best interests of all, you will have no reason to apologize for what you do," Mr. King told council "No one can do more than his best. And that's what the com- munity expects. No more. No less.". The minister of North Street United Church advised council to remember it does not hold the last word of wisdom, but that after all ramifications of each situation have been ex- plored, members must make a decision. "You must be your own man or your own woman," he said, "but know your limitations," In his inaugural address, Mayor Harry Worsell claimed the experienced members would be a help while the fresh approach and views of the newcomers "should make for an interesting year". Worsell said his major concern was to direct the completit. of programs already initiated by council - the widening of Bayfield Road, the Neighborhood Improvement Program (NIP), the beautification project on The Square and the senior citizens complex at the intersection of Waterloo and West Streets. The provincial treasurer has called for a balanced budget in Ontario by 1980, Worsell reminded council. "Maybe it is time to learn to live within our budget," commented the mayor. New programs, he said, would depend on money available and he pledged himself to "keep increases to a minimum without sacrificing the services citizens have been accustomed to." Since the planning board was meeting before the next meeting of council, the council representatives to that committee were named - Reeve Eileen Palmer and Deputy -Reeve Bob Allen. Citizens of Goderich were reminded that council is still accepting names of persons who wish to serve on the various boards and com- mittees in town. session resulted in pay increases for the 10 county department heads ranging from 1.5 percent to 15.2 percent. In a report to county council from the special committee given the task of negotiating wage packages for the county administrators council was givena salary schedule to be followed for the next three ye that is designed to,give senior administrati�oi ''"ages comparable to neighboring counties. Warden Gerry Ginn, chairman of the special committee, told courjcil that the committee "believed" the county must "keep up to date if it was interested in good young people" and to keep up to date it must "pay decently". He said Huron county supervisory staff had been victimized by Anti Inflation Board ,guidelines and had fallen behind in wages during the three year tenure of AIB. Ginn said, the committee _had checked into wages paid comparable staff in neighboring counties and had attempted to bring Huron county staff up to parity with those counties. He explained that in some cases the increases needed to bring some staff to parity were too great to be given at once and the committee had drawn up salary schedules designed to spread the increase over one, two or three years. The average increase was about seven percent but some staff were given more than twice the,average and some nowhere near the average. The county development officer, Spence Cummings, was awarded a 1.5 percent increase while C. A. Archibald, administrator of Huronview, was given a 15.2 percent hike. Ginn explained that Archibald's increase was given because the administrator is one year away from retirement and would not be working for the county long enough to have his increase spread over a number of years. He added that the committee decided not to award the development officer an increase because it was not certain the county needed the position and wanted to review the work of the development officer before deciding on a future wage. Ginn said he understood that the develop- ment officer had worked hard on the Inter- national Plowing Match held in Huron County this.•suremer but pointed out that such an event will not happen again here for another ten years. He said the committee wanted the development office looked at to "justify its existence". The warden told council that Huron County is one of three counties in the province with a development office pointing out that it was very difficult to find a comparison wage. He said the committee just wanted to find out if the county really wanted the office kept operating. n Morris township reeve Bill Elston did not buy the committee's reasoning and told Ginn that there may not be another International in Huron for ten years but there would be other things going on. Elston said he had worked with Cummings on the plowing match and felt that the development officer did a "tremendous amount" for Huron County. He said Cummings had "brought a lot of dollars" to Huron and that he felt the job was necessary. He added that what the county paid Cummings was another thing altogether. Bill Morley, reeve of Usborne township, did not like the reasoning used by the committee. He said that despite the need to review the job done by the development officer the committee had "jeopardized" the job by giving. Cummings only a one percent increase. He said the man still worked for Huron County and deserved the same as other employees. He said the com- mittee can't justify giving one employee 15 percent and another one percent suggesting that the increase could have been awarded comparable to other staff and then the job reviewed. "He's still a working man in this county and this treatment is very unfair as long as he is an employee of this county," said Morley. John Flannery, reeve of Seaforth, told council he felt the increases given supervisory staff were hypocritical. He said last May council began negotiating with unions and were telling people the idea was to stay around four to six percent increases. He said that this wage package given supervisory staff was "not telling people the price of beef was going down". Ginn explained to council that the AIB guidelines had been imposed between the time the county settled with union staff and super- visory staff. He said three years ago, just prior Turn to page 21 • Different Mitten iheited,tlifferent re'aetiotrsr, W. 5>tirlta, � is ern � , �" •�' hilt after the town's annual Christmas parade On Saturday. Some, like, ane - year -old ells*.* Han ` (tett)* Were apprehenslve id close to `tears. Tey didn't know quite what to think of the man with the fatty white beard and loud bbellyloigha Saints had to keep his distance with thesrfn. btherso like- three year .old- Aumdrea Robb :Middle were just plain. curieus about the Matt Who's coining to visit them on Christmas -Ev, . Aumdrea wanted to know, in par. ticular, it Sauta'`s nose was real. Those like three.year'oid David John Fir (right)0 were just so elated to see Santa that they Just wanted to give him a big kiss. Santa's court was held in the Park Theatre. (Photoby,Joanne Buchanasa).