The Citizen, 2012-04-26, Page 24PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012.
Former reserves
return to account
Huron County Council could reduce size againHuron County Council is
preparing to pull one more chair
away from the council table.
Thanks to a resolution passed at a
Huron County Council-led strategic
planning session on April 20, county
councillors will soon find
themselves debating whether it is
time to change county council’s
composition from the current
configuration of 16 made possible
by what proved to be a controversial
bylaw, 28-1999, to a total of 15.
The proposed change, which is not
anticipated to roll through easily,
came at the heels of a resolution put
forth by Councillor Art Versteeg of
Howick following nearly two hours
of discussion about maintaining the
status quo, which appeared to be the
way councillors were heading as
Fred Dean, a veteran municipal
solicitor, took the role as mediator.
“The one great advantage I bring
today is I don’t know anything about
this,” said Dean. “What is wrong
with what you’ve got and what’s
good with what you’ve got?”
Warden Bernie MacLellan was
among those who are not quite
convinced there is anything wrong
with council’s current composition,
though he agrees there is a common
perception the Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC)
electoral population figures are
inaccurate, which is a problem since
they are used to set the councillor
allotment per municipality.
While Councillor Tyler Hessel of
Bluewater argued it is up to
councillors to get voters out at
election time, Councillor Bill
Dowson of Bluewater agreed there
has been a lot of unnecessary finger
pointing.
“MPAC can’t chase everyone
around … It’s up to us at voting time
to make sure that the numbers are
right,” says Dowson. “We can’t keep
on blaming MPAC over and over.”
Councillor Ben Van Diepenbeek
of Ashfield Colborne Wawanosh
argued the problem was never with
the bylaw, but with a lack of
adherence to it.
“Bylaw 28 was working fine,” he
says of the bylaw that was protested
by Central Huron and Huron East
when each of those municipalities
lost a councillor apiece following the
electoral results of the 2010 election.
“It was pretty clear what the
numbers were.”
Van Diepenbeek added the
common perception was that
following the November 2010
election there would be 16councillors at the table.“All of a sudden the numberschanged … we heard it on the news,”
says Van Diepenbeek, who adds the
bylaw worked on three previous
occasions. “The voters’ list is what it
is.”
Several councillors suggested
alternatives to the current
configuration, including Councillor
George Robertson of South Huron,
who recommended that council
should consist of one representative
from each of the nine member
municipalities and an extra
representative for those
municipalities that pay in excess of
10 per cent of the county’s
assessment.
Councilor Paul Gowing of Morris-
Turnberry said the threshold needs
to be changed to 6,000 electors from
the current 4,000.
The county warden notes that any
change will require triple majority
(from each of the nine municipalities
and county council) approval as well
as approval every council term
because of recent changes to
provincial legislation. MacLellan
also suggested the possibility of
dividing the county jurisdiction into
six regions with all representatives,
including the warden, elected at
large.
Meanwhile, Councillor Jim Ginn
of Central Huron said he’d prefer to
hear more voices at the council table
and that a larger group allows the
workload to be better distributed.
Ginn also suggested the possibility
of tying composition to assessment,
but the mediator notes that idea
wouldn’t eliminate the problem
because those figures are also set by
MPAC.
Councillor Dave Jewitt of Central
Huron suggested the possibility of
tying composition by taking the
county’s population and dividing it
by nine.
“It’s not great logic, but it’s a
number,” he said.
Councillor Paul Klopp of
Bluewater argued a system that
works best is one tied to
representation by population.
As to the mediator’s question of
“does size matter?” Versteeg, who
recommended the approved
resolution, states it does.
“I am not sure what the magic
number is,” he says. “I see it
becoming a little smaller rather than
larger.”
While Klopp expressed concern
about Versteeg’s proposal given
neither of the Town of Goderich’s
representatives (Deb Shewfelt and
John Grace) were on hand for thediscussion as they had othercommitments, Van Diepenbeeknoted that by approving the motion,
councillors are simply offering up
another option for council to
debate.“
At some point you are going to
have to make a decision,” he says. “I
don’t see this as new, we’ve been
talking about this for three years
now.”
In a recorded vote that passed by amargin of eight to five, councillorsagreed looking into a system thatwill see ACW, Goderich, Central
Huron, Bluewater, South Huron, and
Huron East have two representatives
apiece while the smaller
municipalities of North Huron,
Morris Turnberry and Howick would
each have one. That change, if
passed, would impact only
Bluewater’s current representation
of three by bringing it down to two.Those supporting the motion wereVersteeg, Rintoul, Steffler, Van
Diepenbeek, Robertson, Ginn,
MacLellan and Jewitt. Those
opposed were Gowing, Vincent,
Dowson, Klopp and Hessel.
The resolution’s approval means
the suggestion will be further
debated in an upcoming county
council session.
A motion to utilize pre-
amalgamation reserves for Huron
East’s town hall in Seaforth from
late last month has been rescinded
due to a number of complications.
A motion to utilize over $37,000
from pre-amalgamation reserves
from the five wards, based on their
contribution to the municipality at
the time of amalgamation, was
passed late last month. The money
would go towards renovations at the
municipality’s town hall in Seaforth.
The motion to utilize the reserves,
however, did not pass unanimously,
which broke the original
“gentlemen’s agreement” that came
along with those reserves.
At the time of amalgamation, it
was agreed that in order to use the
reserves, both councillors from the
ward in question would have to
agree on the project, it would have
to benefit the ward and it would not
be a capital project.
Given those “unofficial” rules
surrounding the reserves, some
viewed the original vote to utilize
the reserves, which was not passed
unanimously, as breaching the
original, undocumented agreement.
At a meeting earlier this month, a
second, confirmatory motion was
proposed in an effort to gain an
unanimous vote, and that vote too
was passed, but not unanimously.
Clerk-Administrator Brad Knight
suggested that the motion be
rescinded to avoid the muddy nature
of the motion and that staff
investigate several projects
throughout the five wards where the
reserves could be utilized. The
motion passed.
By Cheryl HeathClinton News-Record
Basketball stars
The members of the Blyth Public School Girls Basketball Team succeeded in winning their
local basketball championship earlier this year at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton
and participated in a regional competition in Wingham earlier this month. The team consists
of, clockwise from the top-left: Coach Clark, Phaedra Scott, Jenna McDonald, Ally Henry,
Krista Fraser, Samantha Kerr, Morgan Howson, Tiffany Conrad, Jamie-Lee Eckert and Dawn
Conrad. (Denny Scott photo)