by Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — Whitewater Region Township Chief Administrative Officer Christine FitzSimons gave an overview of how council works and interacts with staff at the last council meeting in 2014.
This overview followed a three hour special meeting of updating the procedural bylaw, which governs how council acts in various situations. The biggest item change for the procedural bylaw was taking out any reference to the deputy-mayor, since that position was eliminated prior to last year’s October municipal election.
Other changes in the bylaw included creating new committees and the time of council meetings. Council meetings are now only once a month — the third Wednesday at 6 p.m. The first Wednesday of the month will be committee meetings, which are also at 6 p.m.
During the orientation on Dec. 17, Ms. FitzSimons said there could be more special council meetings held now that there is only one council meeting a month.
Ms. FitzSimons reviewed the office of the CAO/Clerk, meeting details including council and committees, agendas, what is pecuniary interest noting it is up to each council member to determine if they have a pecuniary interest during a discussion, what is quorum which guarantees there has to be a majority of council at a meeting for decisions to be made, voting on a motion, the monthly remuneration each will receive — which is $1,406.25 for the mayor and $986.50 for reeve and councillors, an introduction to management and office staff, communications policy, and various policies and procedures.
Ms. FitzSimons stressed council must be quite clear in what discussions they have with each other when out and about in the community.
As an example, she said, “If there are four of you at a table at a wedding, and you discuss municipal business, that’s a meeting. It is illegally held since there was no public notice.
“You are now in the fish bowl of municipal politics. You have to be transparent. If there are four of you together you have to think, is this a meeting.”
She also noted that the mayor has a vote. Many people believe he only votes if there’s a tie, which is not true.
Councillor Chris Olmstead questioned if a vote can be by proxy.
“No,” she answered.
Adding, she said there have been discussions about e-meetings, but there have been no provisions for these types of meetings yet.
Ms. FitzSimons said it’s also important council members attend various functions, conferences and conventions to keep up-to-date with legislation and what other municipalities are doing.
In summing it up, Ms. FitzSimons said policy is what we do, procedure is how it’s done.
“It’s a new team,” she said. “Forming a new team is always challenging, but our goal, and I’m sure that you’re looking at this the same way, is that we want to form a cohesive, professional unit with the staff supporting council in every way possible.”
Mayor Hal Johnson said staff and department managers have been good to work with so far.
“I look forward to working with everybody here,” he said. “I hope that we can follow proper procedure.”
Mayor Johnson said there could be times when council members will have to talk to staff themselves, instead of going through Ms. FitzSimons — and she agreed.
“The only time it will get complex and I’m sure we’ve all had experiences in organizations, where managers are being given conflicting direction and it simply doesn’t work. It’s too the detriment of the corporation if people aren’t clear on what they are supposed to be doing and under what authority.”
Councillor Charlene Jackson agreed, noting staff take direction from council as a whole, not from individual council members.
Councillor Daryl McLaughlin said one time he asked a staff member for something, and was advised it couldn’t be done. It had to be direction from the CAO, not the council member.
“After I thought about it, I agreed that’s the proper way to do it,” he said. “It starts with the CAO. Ask the CAO your question and she will do the direction. I got what I wanted. It’s just like Christine says, you have to go through the right procedure. It works great.”
Following the staff introduction, Councillor Cathy Regier said she has been working with this team for the past four years.
“CAO Christine and all of her team and her managers and everyone downstairs do a remarkable job,” she said. “They are very dedicated, very approachable individuals and I think you will find very quickly they will be a joy to work with.”
Staff Introduction
Marsha Hawthorne advised she is the treasurer/deputy-CAO and has been employed with the township since October 2007. She was promoted on June 28 to her current position and before that she was deputy-treasurer. Her duties consist of many things — overseeing all the financials of the township, making sure taxes go out on time, that water and receivables are billed and collected, monitors the budget, works closely with auditors, oversees payroll functions, payables, is the health and safety secretary, arranges workshops and sits on various municipal teams.
Ms. Hawthorne has taken many municipal-related workshops and recently completed municipal law.
“I couldn’t do all these duties without the team work from all the staff at the township and departments working very hard together,” she said.
Ms. Hawthorne also introduced the front-line staff, who weren’t at the meeting. The front-office staff are Talie Moore, Sandra Moss and Danielle Howatson.
Ms. Moore is the accounting technician and ensures tax and water bills get out and are collected. Ms. Moss is public works administrator and collects all receivables and deals with road issues. Ms. Howatson is the administrative assistant and helps staff when required.
“On behalf of the finance department, we welcome you and look forward to working with you all,” Ms. Hawthorne said.
Hope Dillabough has been the deputy-clerk since 2012. She started with the township in 2005 as the secretary/receptionist and has been promoted to accounts receivable clerk and then deputy-clerk.
“My main duties are accounts receivables, invoicing, many duties within the building, including bylaw and planning department, as well as providing administrative support to the CAO, environment services and the fire department.”
Erica Rice was promoted to treasurer/deputy-clerk on June 28, 2014 and has been employed with the township since Dec. 6, 2010. Ms. Rice deals with payables, recording secretary for all committee and council meetings and is the community emergency management co-ordinator. She is taking various courses with hopes of attaining her chief municipal officer title.
Public works manager Bill Misener said, “I’m the guy you are all going to get the calls about for pot holes and snow plows busting down mailboxes.”
There is a large area to look after and the equipment is middle-of-the-road, he said. There are some tough budget numbers coming up this year, he said. There is also fleet maintenance of all fire trucks and environmental services in-house, he added.
“Basically, anything else that anybody doesn’t want to do in the township falls on us,” Mr. Misener added. “The other day I got a call there was a skunk on Main Street in somebody’s vestibule and asked if I could get rid of it. I put that onto Doug (Doug Schultz, animal control).”
Bylaw enforcement officer, animal control officer and other duties as assigned, Doug Schultz.
“If there are any problems, it comes to me,” he said. “I’m the chief building official and look after all the buildings, between Steve (Steve Hodson, environmental services manager) and I we look after all the township buildings and township properties.”
His office also deals with bylaw enforcement, planning, zoning, severances, road agreements, road assumptions and development agreements.
Ms. FitzSimons said an animal control officer is still being sought, and until that position is filled, Mr. Schultz deals with those calls.
Steve Hodson is the environmental services manager. He has been employed with the township for 10.5 years beginning as landfill operations manager. He deals with ministry of environment. Most of his job is reporting, correspondence, report writing, documentation. He also does operational duties at the landfill site and manages the contracts for the collection of waste and recyclables, deals with and manages the contract for the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA), which operates the water plants. Mr. Hodson stressed OCWA operates the facilities, but it’s the township that owns the facilities.
“There’s still much, much much involvement there,” he said.
He co-chairs the health and safety committee and sits on the accessibility and pay equity committees.
He manages the budgets for the industrial park, parks and recreation and works closely with Mr. Schultz on all municipal properties.
Fire services manager is Wayne Heubner. He works with deputy-chief Mike Moore and together they oversee the implementation of fire service in the township.
“We work out of five fire halls,” he said. “We have 11 apparatus, 70 staff and June 2015 will be my 40th year since joining the fire services. It’s been rewarding. I’ve lived in this village for 35 years, although raised in Alice Township. This is a wonderful spot and I think we have a good department. There are quite a few things we have to do.”
Mr. Heubner sits on various levels at the county level regarding fire services.
