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Huron Expositor, 2016-12-07, Page 18Wednesday, December 7, 2016 • Huron Expositor 19 The Mayor of Huron East sits down with the Expositor for Q and A Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor What made you go above and beyond to make a run at becom- ing the Mayor? I was on the municipal council representing Tuckersmith before the amalgamation happened. When the amalgamation hap- pened, I ran for the position of Deputy Mayor against two other Mayors of the wards. I was lucky enough to win the position, I was the deputy mayor for 10 years, at that point I felt it was time to move up. In fairness, one of the previous mayors had asked me in one of the early elections, when he was run- ning for mayor that I should run for the mayor position. But I chose not to because I really wanted the dep- uty mayor position at the time. The deputy mayor gets to speak a lot more than the mayor does during the meetings. What do you like most about being mayor? One, it gives me the ability to sit on county council and I consider county council to be a very efficient body. As far as the Huron East side of it, it's an honour. It's an honour to represent the ratepayers of Huron East. I do enjoy getting invited to things on behalf of the municipality. What do you like least? Politics in general doesn't move that fast and in fairness we are not here eight hours a day. The council isn't constantly working on things. We are not here enough to keep projects flowing. When you became mayor, was there anything you wanted to change? And are there still cer- tain things you would like to change? I'm not sure there were specific things I wanted to change when I became mayor, other than the fact that I'm always looking for efficien- cies. With my own business, it's ground into you. You don't survive in the world today unless you run an efficient operation. Certainly I've wanted to make some changes around here. But I cannot convince the majority of this council that change could be for a good thing. There are three things over the course of this year that I tried to bring forward; that I think would have been cost savings for the rate- payers. I'm just not getting any traction. It's really easy for people to criticize somebody else's sugges- tion, but the unfortunate part is that nobody else is coming up with anything else to try and do. It's frus- trating when you think everybody just wants to keep the status quo because there is no work, no head- aches if you do that. There may be some truth to that. But I think that the property tax level in this coun- try period, certainly in this province is getting to the point where it needs to be addressed because people are paying too much for what they are getting for services. It's now your second term, could we see you being the mayor for years to come? That's really a tough question. There have been some tough situa- tions on the course of the 20 -some years. Sometimes you really ques- tion, is it worth it? Should I run again? I've tossed that question around. And I'm sure other coun- cillors have done the same thing, but until I decide that I've got more important things to do, I may keep running for the position. I guess what it comes down to is if the pub- lic are happy with the effort I'm putting out for their best interest. It seems the pay for a mayor does not match up to the work that goes with it, I feel that coun- cillors and mayors do a lot more than what they are paid for, is that true? I guess it depends on what you are looking for out of the job. I certainly didn't take the job for the pay bya long shot. In fact in all honesty when I do stuff in the workweek, it probably costs me money to be here. I have a number of employees; my responsibility is to really be looking after them. But enjoy the job I do for the council. And I think it's a sacrifice well worth making. Although the actual annual fee may not seem appropriate for our fullyear's wage, but we do get paid for every meeting. I'm not ready to say we are not paid enough; on the otherhandwe are not over paid by any stretch of imagination. You are a father of four, you own your own business and you're the mayor, how do you bal- ance that all out? It's certainly easy because I'm self-employed, nice part about that is, if I don't get my work done dur- ing the day, I can get it done by night. That helps out. And I have some good employees that I can rely on. If I didn't have that I prob- ably couldn't do both jobs. Could we see you in the House of Parliament, can you see your- self doing something of that nature in the future? I have a problem with those posi- tions. Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with the people who run those positions. I have a problem with the facts that the leader basically gets to determine what people get to say. If the party's decision is this, that's what it's going to be, for the most part whether you disagree, you seem to have to support that position. I dis- agree with that. As much as cer- tainly the council members and I around here have had completely different opinions, I do not regret the fact that everybody is allowed to give their own opinion. That's what makes decision making bet- ter. I would say what makes deci- sion making a problem, is when someone else decides to go along with someone else's opinion. That's probably the main reason why I wouldn't have a desire to step up. Is it difficult being on Huron County council and your own as well? It's not difficult at all, you literally where two different hats when you are doing it. When you are at Huron East council you need to do what is best for Huron East. It's a different mentality at county council, it's a bigger picture, it's a broader picture and we don't do the same things. We don't have fire departments, we don't have policing, and we don't have recreational facilities. There are different things we are dealing with so it's a different job we are dealing with all together. We have recently heard that you have accepted a position ?Y*1iU111LDIV]IIa4I8 tor.co from AMO -Association of Munici- palities Ontario, can you tell us about that? I have raised some issues about that at county council about the amount of money ratepayers have to pay on their property taxes that has to go towards healthcare. And healthcare was never supposed to be subsidized through property taxes. Unfortunately we are some- times held over a barrel, if we don't do something we could lose some of those healthcare services. I wanted county council to address it. Then this opportunity came up where AMO was recognizing the same thing. They are starting a tack force. With this task force we have representatives from right across the province that have the same concerns. We are trying to figure a i Air 11.114 {11*.� k $ ti$ t *r r�*r�rig411,.11~rt. 41w l4tE etke.4, 0.4 ..ii •.r (1. non‘i4Aer Dake 1 t3ur Card fil.r. 4i ini.. N..' .r. ir,r -hilt Willi Maw iiinvillun Si, C.tlnnEkLCIi 5 AW 95 3 Shaun Gregory out, first of all, is there a better way? Are there other things that we can do? And we are trying to put a package together to give to the province and see if we can get some changes made. Is it frustrating hearing how hospices in the area need money? In actual fact it is. That should be a healthcare responsibility and if the province actually paid for the hospice service, it would cost them less having people actually stay in the hospital. But they want to take the savings that's made from the hospital, but they don't even want to cover the cost of the hospice and want the community to cover it themselves. There is a disconnec- tion with the province there about what their responsibility is and who should be paying the bill. Seaforth AgriculturaluSociety c Wednesday December 7 at 7pm Location: Seaforth AgriPlex Everyone Welcome