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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1976-05-05, Page 23Page 24 -Citizens News, May 5/76 Decision i'n June? Reduction ofcounty councildebated Members of Huron County Council are considering the possibility of reducing its mem- bers from 45 to 29, but it isn't likely they will come to a decision until June at the earliest. A report of the local government study was tabled until the May session but council probably won't be ready to vote on the matter until the following meet- ing at the end of June. It was agreed at the April session, Thursday, April 29, to send a letter to all municipal councils in Huron asking for opinions concerning the feasibil- ity of adopting Section 27 (a) of The Municipal Act which pro- vides for a reeve for up to 2,000 electors; a reeve and a deputy - reeve over 2,500 electors; the reeve with a second vote over 7,500 electors. What's more, Jim Mair of Morris Township, hopes that there will be time for the Huron County people to express their opinion on the matter - either by delegations to councils or by speaking directly to elected officials in tjieir municipalities. In the report of the committee chaired by Warden Jack Mc- Cutcheon, it was noted that in 1975, the population in Huron was 54,671. . Based on that figure, council has at the present time a member of council for each 1,437 people. If Section 27 (a) was adopted, there would be one member of council for each 1,885 people. Presently, there are 56 votes in council, an average of one vote for each 976 people, or 2.15 votes per municipality, or 1.24 votes per member. Under the system proposed, there would be 30 votes in council, an average of one vote for each 1,822 people, or 1.15 votes per municipality, or 1.03 votes per member. "Many believe in the principle of one person, one vote," Warden McCutcheon said in his report. "Under our present representa- tion there are 11 members with two votes each. At the present time if Section 27(a) were, adopt- ed, there would be only one member of council with two votes." The most interesting aspect of the proposal as far as the majority of council member was con- cerned, was the suggestion that between $25,000 and $30,000 could be saved in one year if the number of representatives on council was decreased. The report noted that based on the present rates being paid to council for a full day session, the present cost of $2,402.18 per session, or an average of $53.38 per member per session. Using this average cost per member, for 29 members the cost per session would be $1,548- .02 - or a saving of $854.16 per session. For ten regular sessions per year, that would be about $8500 saved if per diem rates etc. remained as they are at present. For committee meetings, the cost is $3,001.70 for the nine standing committees to meet once each month. That's an average of $333.52 per commit- tee. It has been proposed that instead of nine committees, six committees would be sufficient under the new system if adopted. For discussion purposes, it was suggested that health and social services be amalgamated into one committee, library and property into one committee, and planning and development into one committee. At an average cost of $333.52 per committee, the total cost for six committees to meet once monthly would be $2,001.12 - a saving of $1,000 per month. Another $10,000 could be saved over a 10 -month period - if costs remained the same and if commit- tees met only once monthly. It is expected that another $5,000 could be saved in meals and convention expenses for the smaller council. In total, that's $23,500 in actual savings per annum - a bare minimum. "Concern has been expressed that with fewer committees the workload may become such that more meetings would be necessary or alternately more authority and responsibility turned over to non -elected staff," Warden McCutcheon said in the report. Reeve Jack Tinney of Hay Township, a member of the local government study committee said he thought it was significant that the report noted that a heavier workload might prevent members from becoming directly involved with the administration of the various departments as at present, and that more meeting could mean that certain members might not be interested in run- ning for elected office, or because of being unable to take time off work, could not attend meetings. He added that as the study committee toured some of the county councils in the province, they saw nothing better than the system used in Huron, although he admitted that some ideas from other counties could be utilized in Huron to advantage. Although Warden McCutcheon urged council not to think in terms of "getting rid of the deputy -reeves", much discussion centred around just that. Anson McKinley, a former warden of Huron, brought forth the sugges- tion that perhaps deputy -reeves should still sit on council, but not on committees. "I like 45 members on coun- cil," Reeve McKinley said. "We get alot of input that way." He went on to say, however, that committee work should be consolidated. He said he was disturbed that the administrator and the warden had to sit in on every committee meeting. He said it was during his terns as warden that secretaries took down committee minutes instead of either the clerk or the deputy - clerk. McKinley saw the deputy - reeves as a body of critics whose duty it would be to question every committee about their recommendations. He said that under the present system, with every member of council a member of some committee, each member had a "vested interest to see that every commit- tee report goes through county council with as little hassle as possible". He argued that if the deputy -reeves didn't sit on any committees, they would be in an ideal position to question and prod. This view was shared by Reeve John Jewett of Hullett. He suggested that deputy -reeves should serve an apprenticeship on council, and then when they became reeves they could step right into committee positions with experience and know-how. Bill Morley, deputy -reeve of Usborne Township, raised a round of applause from other deputy -reeves when he told council he wasn't interested in serving on county council if deputy -reeves couldn't parti- cipate in committee work. "If we don't have the challenge of the committee you might as well forget it," Morley said. "I won't come up here and fill the chair and eat your meals as a critic. It just won't work." Reeve Elgin Thompson of Tuckersmith agreed. He said he wouldn't like council to discrim- inate against the deputy -reeves. Reeve Thompson went on to say that if council wanted to save money, it could dispense with the $5 per plate smorgasbord served on county council days to council members and their guests. He said nobody needed such a heavy meal at lunch time, and suggested that the "old way" when councillors went their own way and bought their own lunches at the noon break was best. "A group of us need to go to one of the restaurants and sit around the • table and have a good discussion," said Reeve Thompson. "Just as good a discussion as we have today when we're all in a large group in one place." Warden Jack McCutcheon disagreed with Reeve Thompson. He insisted that by keeping council together, a great deal of information was passed around and much public relations work was accomplished. He said that in the smaller groups, councillors didn't get the exchange of ideas and didn't get to know the various department heads as well. Warden McCutcheon added that he could support a suggest- ion to incorporate the cost of the noon meals into the per diem paid to councillors, but said he would not be iii favor of dispens- ing with the large gathering of council and guests. Anson McKinley concurred with the warden. He said that in his opinion, the noon recess with dinner eaten together was the best thing that had happened in years. There was some discussion on whether or not savings would actually be realized by cutting back on the number of county representatives. Reeve Bill Elston said that smaller groups tended to look for higher pay. He said the 16 -member Board of Education costs almost as much as the 45 county council members, and pointed out as well that a councillor in the Hamilton -Wentworth Region was paid 86500 per annum. "Where's the saving?" asked Elston. • Reeve Gerry Ginn of Goderich Township said that even when he was a deputy -reeve he be- lieved there were too many members on county council. But he was concerned that if the number of elected represent- atives was fewer, more decision making would fall to hired or appointed personnel. "County elected representa- Tourist group plan program A meeting of the Huron County Travel Association was held last week at Hully Gully in Varna. The meeting was chaired by President Randy Collins. With members present from around the county taking part in the various discussions on tourism the meeting proved to be timely and enlightening. A committee was formed to draw up and cost an advertising program for the '76 tourist season; a program in which all tourist and related establish- ments will be asked to partici- pate. Present at the meeting was Bill Morgan, general manager for the South Western Ontario Travel Association, who brought the membership up to date on its activities and how the Huron Association can fit in to the over- all tourist promotion program; taking advantage of local and provincial funds. Mr. Morgan stated that all business people and politicians alike should realize how import- ant the tourist dollar is to Huron County. Although direct statis- tics for Huron are not available it is estimated that tourism in Ontario is a 82.6 billion Business. He also cited some of the advantages of the local travel ass'n. ie. co-operative advertis- ing, updated information, effect- ive distribution and solving of mutual problems. All, of these will not only help us to bring the tourist here but keep them here and bring them back again. tives must keep the power to make the decisions," Reeve Ginn said. Reeve Ginn acknowledged that a saving of $25-830,000 per annum was "alot of money in anybody's pocket," but he wond- ered if additional savings couldn't be realized. He said if commit- tees could be amalgamated, perhaps it was conceivable then that instead of two department heads and their salaries, one department • head would be sufficient. "If we can amalgamate the committees and the department heads to look after both services, that's where the real savings will come in to the county," said Reeve Ginn. Reeve Ginn spoke about a decision reached earlier in the session to have both the devel- opment officer and the county planning board director at public meetings about secondary plans. He saw this as a "dupli- cation" of expenses. Instead of two at one meeting, Reeve Ginn wondered if development and planning couldn't be amalgamat- ed under one department head. Warden McCutcheon com- mended council fo'r its open and rational discussion of the local government study commit- tee's report. He reminded council this was an election year and since all members would be seeking re-election or retiring from the office in the fall, it was easier to be objective about the future structure of government in Huron. Sinton Hallahan, reeve of .East Wawanosh summed up the feeling of the group. "I think we have the best system of any in the Dominion of Canada," said Reeve Halla- han. "I hope we can keep the decision making at the grass roots." ROBERT WESTLAKE INSURANCE Specializing in GENERAL INSURANCE 236-4391 ZURICH GUARANTEED TRUST CES``', TIFIC „f,, TES 1 &2YR 3 & 4 YR 5 YR int Paid 5 YR 9 1/2% 9 3/4% 10 1/4% semi-annually 10112% Int Paid Annually J.W. Haberer ZURICH 236-4346 • J.E. 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